437 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিল : চতুর্থ খন্ড All these showed that Yahya Khan Was not acting, either honestly or according to the principles of democracy, but according to a well-laid conspiratorial plan to continue the military rule. New Upsurge of the People The sudden postponement of the National Assembly session came as a rude shoke to all sections of the people. The convening of the RTC while postponing National Assembly session was nothing but an insult to the injury. So it was at once rejected by the Awami League, National Awami Party and other democratic forces. Even Nurul Amin, the leader of the Rightist Pakistan Democratic Party, refused to attend it. On the other hand, no sooner the people heard about the postponement of the National Assembly session over the radio, they came out in thousands on the streets in all the cities and towns of East Pakistan spontaneously chanting "We Want Independent East Bengal " It may be noted here that continuous national oppression and suppression of democracy, together with the peculiar geographical position of East Pakistan, had already created a sentiment for "Independent East Bengal" in a section of the people, especially after their experience of the struggle for six-point and 11-point programmes (1966 and 1969). But still they hoped that their aspiration for democracy and autonomy might be realized and the unity of Pakistan might be maintained. At last they had pinned their hopes on the election and hoped that if the Awami League came to power, they might see better days. But sow they saw that even the elected National Assembly session was being sabotaged and verdict of the people in the election was sought, to be nullified. So they thought that they had no chance of having democracy and autonomy by remaining within Pakistan. Consequently the slogan of an "Independent East Bengal" came out spontaneously which expressed their urge for self-determination. This spontaneous upsurge had, turned into an organized and wide mass struggle when the Awami League had called for a peaceful general strike for five days from 2nd to 6" March as a protest against the postponement of the National Assembly session. The Communists, National Awami Party and other democratic forces supported the strike call. It was also made known that the Awami League Chief Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would announce the programme of action on 7th March at a mass rally. The ruling military junta had, on the other hand, tried to suppress the spontaneous popular upsurge with machineguns and bullets. They had clamped down curfew in Dacca for 12 hours from evening of 2nd March. When the people defied the curfew and brought out peaceful processions, they were machine-gunned, resulting in innumerable deaths. Killings of innocent and unarmed people had thus begun on 2nd March. Besides such killings, the military junta was also trying to provoke Bengali versus non-Bengali riots and some such riots were actually connived at in Chittagong and Rangpur. It was due to
