Ziaur Rahman
Ziaur Rahman was a Bangladeshi military officer and politician who served as the sixth president of Bangladesh from 1977 until his assassination in 1981. One of the leading figures of the country's independence war, Zia broadcast the Bangladeshi declaration of independence in March 1971 from Chittagong. In the aftermath of the Sipahi-Janata revolution in 1975, he consolidated power to lead Bangladesh with pragmatic policies through economic liberalization and civic nationalism that significantly contributed to the economic recovery of the country. He is often referred to as the ‘‘Shaheed President’’ in Bangladesh. He also founded the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
Ziaur, sometimes known as Zia, was born in Gabtali and trained at the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad. He served as a commander in the Pakistan Army in the Second Kashmir War against the Indian Army, for which he was awarded the Hilal-e-Jurrat from the Pakistani government. Ziaur was a prominent Bangladesh Forces commander during the country's war in 1971. He broadcast the declaration of independence on 27 March from the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra radio station in Kalurghat, Chittagong, and was since known as the "Announcer of the Liberation". During the war in 1971, Ziaur was a Bangladesh Forces Commander of BDF Sector 1 initially and BDF Commander of BDF Sector 11 of the Bangladesh Forces from June and the Brigade Commander of Z Force from mid-July. After the war, Ziaur became a brigade commander in the Bangladesh Army and later the Deputy Chief of Staff and then Chief of Staff of the Bangladesh Army. After the removal of Maj. Gen. K. M. Shafiullah following 15 August 1975 military coup, he was elevated to the position of Chief of Staff of the Army. He was removed from the position and house arrested following the 3 November coup. Following his direction, Lt. Col. Abu Taher staged the 7 November coup, after which, Ziaur Rahman gained the de facto power as head of the government under martial law imposed by the Justice Sayem government. He took over the presidency in 1977, and retired from the army in 1978 with the rank of Lt. General.
As president in 1978, Ziaur Rahman founded the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. He reinstated multi-party politics, freedom of the press, free speech, free markets, and accountability. He initiated mass irrigation and food production programmes, including social programmes to uplift the lives of the people. His government initiated efforts to create a regional group in South Asia, which later became SAARC in 1985. He improved Bangladesh's relations with the West and China and departed from Sheikh Mujib's close alignment with India. Domestically, Ziaur faced as many as 21 coup attempts for which military tribunals were set up, resulting in at least 200 soldiers of the army and air force being executed, earning him a reputation of being "strict" and "ruthless" amongst international observers. He was finally assassinated in an attempted coup in Chittagong on 30 May 1981.
Ziaur Rahman left a divided opinion on his legacy in Bangladeshi politics. He is credited with ending the disorder of the final years of Sheikh Mujib's rule and establishing democracy by abolishing BAKSAL, one-party rule established by Mujib. On the other hand, Ziaur Rahman is assailed by his critics for suppressing opposition. However, Zia's economic reforms are credited with rebuilding the economy, and his move towards Islamisation brought him the support of ordinary Bangladeshi people. His political party, the BNP, remains a major force in Bangladeshi politics, with his widow, Khaleda Zia, leading the party and serving three terms as prime minister.
Early life
Ziaur Rahman was born on 19 January 1936 to a Bengali Muslim family of Mandals in the village of Bagbari in Gabtali, Bogra District. His father, Mansur Rahman, was a chemist and graduated from University of Calcutta with a degree in Chemistry. He was specialised in paper and ink chemistry and worked for a government department at Writers' Building in Kolkata. His grandfather, Moulvi Kamaluddin Mandal, migrated from Mahishaban to Nashipur-Bagbari after marrying his grandmother, Meherunnisa. His mother's name was Jahanara Khatun. Ziaur Rahman was raised in his home village of Bagbari and studied in Bogra Zilla School. He had two younger brothers, Ahmed Kamal and Khalilur Rahman.In 1946, Mansur Rahman enrolled Ziaur Rahman for a short stint in a boys school of Calcutta, Hare School, where he studied until the dissolution of the British Empire in India and the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Mansur Rahman exercised his option to become a citizen of a Muslim-majority Pakistan and, in August 1947, moved to Karachi, the first capital of Pakistan located in Sindh, West Pakistan. Zia, at the age of 11, began attending class six at the Academy School in Karachi in 1947. Ziaur Rahman spent his adolescent years in Karachi and, by age 16, completed his secondary education from that school in 1952.
In 1953, Ziaur Rahman was admitted into the D. J. Sindh Government Science College. The same year, he joined the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul as a cadet.
In August 1960, his marriage was arranged to Khaleda Khanam Putul, the 15-year-old daughter of Iskandar and Taiyaba Majumder from the Feni District. The girl, later known as Khaleda Zia, went on to serve as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh three times. At the time, Ziaur Rahman was a captain in the Pakistan Army who was posted as an Officer of the Defence Forces. His father, Mansur Rahman, could not attend the marriage ceremony, as he was in Karachi. Zia's mother had died earlier.
Military service in Pakistan
Graduating from the Pakistan Military Academy at the 12th PMA long course on 18 September 1955 in the top 10% of his class, Ziaur Rahman was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Pakistan Army. In the army, he received commando training, became a paratrooper and received training in a special intelligence course.Ziaur Rahman went to East Pakistan on a short visit and was struck by the negative attitude of the Bengali middle class towards the military, which consumed a large chunk of the country's resources. The low representation of the Bengalis in the military was largely due to discrimination, but Ziaur Rahman felt that the Bengali attitude towards the military perhaps prevented promising young Bengalis from seeking military careers. As a Bengali army officer, he advocated military careers for Bengali youth. Initially he served in the Punjab Regiment for two years before being transferred to the East Bengal Regiment in 1957. He attended military training schools of the British Army. He also worked in the military intelligence department from 1959 to 1964.
Ayub Khan's military rule from 1958 to 1968 convinced Ziaur Rahman of the need for a fundamental change in the Bengali attitude towards the military. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Ziaur Rahman saw combat in the Khemkaran sector in Punjab as the commander of a company of 100–150 soldiers. Ziaur Rahman was awarded the Hilal-i-Jur'at medal for gallantry by the Pakistan government, Pakistan's second highest military award, and the first Battalion of the East Bengal Regiment, under which he fought, won three Sitara-e-Jurat medals and eight Tamgha-i-Jurat medals, for their role in the 1965 War with India. In 1966, Ziaur Rahman was appointed military instructor at the Pakistan Military Academy, later going on to attend the Command and Staff College in Quetta, Pakistan; he completed a course in command and tactical warfare. Ziaur Rahman helped raise two Bengali battalions called the 8th and 9th Bengals during his stint as instructor. Around the same time, his wife Khaleda Zia, now 24, gave birth to their first child, Tarique Rahman, on 20 November 1966. Ziaur Rahman joined the 2nd East Bengal regiment as its second-in-command at Joydebpur in Gazipur district, near Dhaka, in February 1969, and travelled to West Germany to receive advanced military and command training from the British Army of the Rhine and later spent a few months with the British Army.
Pre-Independence
Ziaur Rahman returned to Pakistan the same year. He was posted in Chittagong, East Pakistan, in June 1969, to be second-in-command of the 8th East Bengal Regiment. East Pakistan had been devastated by the 1970 Bhola cyclone, and the population had been embittered by the slow response of the central government and the political conflict between Pakistan's two major parties, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party. In the 1970 Pakistani general election, the Awami League had won a majority, and its leader, Sheikh Mujib, laid claim to form a government, but Pakistan's president Yahya Khan postponed the convening of the legislature under pressure from Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's PPP party.Bangladesh Liberation War
Following the failure of last-ditch talks, Yahya Khan declared martial law and ordered the army to crack down on Bengali political activities. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested before midnight on 26 March 1971, taken to Tejgaon Airport and flown to West Pakistan. He was a Bangladesh Forces Commander of BDF Sector 1 initially and, from June, BDF Commander of BDF Sector 11 of the Bangladesh Forces and the Brigade Commander of Z Force from mid-July.Zia, who by then was already geared to revolt against the government of Pakistan revolted and later arrested and executed his commanding officer, Lt. Col. Abdul Rashid Janjua. He was requested by the local Awami League supporters and leaders to announce the Declaration of Independence that was earlier proclaimed by the undisputed Bengali leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman before his arrest on 27 March 1971 from Kalurghat, Chittagong, as an Army officer's words would carry weight restoring people's trust in the 'Declaration of Independence', which read:
This is Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra. I, Major Ziaur Rahman, on behalf of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, hereby declare that the independent People's Republic of Bangladesh has been established. I call upon all Bengalis to rise against the attack by the West Pakistani Army. We shall fight to the last to free our motherland. By the grace of Allah, victory is ours.
Later on the same day, a second broadcast was read as the declaration of independence of Bangladesh:
I, Major Ziaur Rahman, do hereby declare the Independence of Bangladesh.
Later in an interview with German Radio, Ziaur Rahman talked about his 27 March announcement.
Ziaur Rahman organised an infantry unit gathering all Bengali soldiers from military and EPR units in Chittagong. He designated it Sector No. 1 with its HQ in Sabroom. A few weeks later, he was transferred to Teldhala, where he organised and created Sector 11. All sectors were restructured officially under Bangladesh Forces, such as the sector in the Chittagong and Hill Tracts area, under Colonel M. A. G. Osmani, the Supreme Commander of Bangladesh Forces, of the Provisional Government of Bangladesh, which had its headquarters on Theatre Road, Calcutta, in India. On 30 July 1971, Ziaur Rahman was appointed the commander of the first conventional brigade of the Bangladesh Forces, which was named "Z Force", after the first initial of his name. His brigade consisted of the 1st, 3rd and 8th East Bengali regiments, enabling Ziaur Rahman to launch major attacks on Pakistani forces. With the Z Force, Ziaur Rahman "acquired a reputation for icy bravery", according to The New York Times, and was awarded the Bir Uttom, the second-highest military honour by the government of Bangladesh.