470 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিল : চতুর্থ খন্ড শিরোনাম সূত্র তারিখ পশ্চিমবঙ্গে বাংলাদেশের প্রবাসী বুদ্ধিজীবিগণ | পশ্চিমবঙ্গে প্রবাসী বুদ্ধিজীবি ২৯ জুন, কর্তৃক যুক্তরাজ্যের পার্লামেন্টার প্রতিনিধিদলের Տի, Գծ কাছে প্রদত্ত স্মারকলিপি MEMORANDUM BEFORE THE BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY DELEGATION ON BEHALF OF BANGLADESH REFUGEE INTELLECTUALS NOW IN WEST BENGAL Sirs, In the face of desperate attempts by the Govt. of Pakistan to justify before the world community its forcible military occupation of Bangladesh and to cover up their acts of genocide there, we take this opportunity to appraise you. Honorable Members of the British Parliament, of the circumstances under which the democratic and peaceloving people of Bangladesh were driven to the path of armed struggle for securing the independence of their country. On the midnight of March 25, 1971 the Pakistan military Junta, i.e. the so-called government of Pakistan cracked down on Bangladesh to crush the democratic will of the people expressed in the general elections of December 1970. In these elections the people gave a clear mandate to the Awami League to redefine East Bengal's political and economic relationship with West Pakistan through the League's six-point Programme. The Awami League won 167 of the 169 seats from Bangladesh in a House of 313 which meant a clear majority for it in the National Assembly. The successful candidates of the Awami League received 80% of the popular vote cast in Bangladesh. Yahya Khan started negotiations with the Awami League Leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for a political settlement in mid-March but actually only used this as a cover for military preparations and dispatch of troops from West Pakistan to Bangladesh. When in the course of these negotiations hopes were raised for a settlement within the framework of a united Pakistan for which the Sheikh tried till the last moment the Pakistan Army struck, in an act of treachery unparalleled in contemporary history. Guns, tanks and planes were used against unarmed civilians to carry out a programme of mass slaughter of Bengalis. While hundreds and thousands of people were being killed, the police, the Bengali members of the East Pakistan Rifles and men and officers of the East Bengal Regiment rose in a heroic resistance, which was later joined by thousands of the sons and daughters of Bangladesh. It is in this background of spontaneous resistance of the people against the army of West Pakistan that the Democratic Republic of Bangladesh was born on April 10, 1971. It derives its sanction from a people's inalienable right to live in security, which was threatened by the bad faith and genocidal attack of the Military Junta on the unsuspecting Bengalis on the night of March 25.
