724 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড Outside the Awami League, Maulana Bhasani's National Awami Party had long been clamouring for the same line of action. The NAP General Secretary, Mr. Masiur Rahman, told me early in April that his party was insisting on complete independence. At a Dacca rally in the third week of March he did not roll out any "six-ponit or hundred-point demands" nor even "autonomy". He was emphatic on independence and nothing sort of it so that the people would have a valid brief to call the West Pakistan troops aggressors on Bangladesh soil. Finally, Mujibur Rahman too sensed the inevitable. At his last Dacca public meeting of the Ramna Race Course he gave a call for complete independence even at the cost of blood and tears. But the very idea of struggle was never rehearsed by the Awami League machinery. And for all practical purposes, a party which has never worked out a plan for an armed movement cannot expect to retain its leadership over a people fighting a trained army as their enemy. Nevertheless, it is Mujib and none else but Mujib who has released the "flush" in Bangladesh. Different as he is in political beliefs and actions, the NAP leader. Mr. Masiur Rahman said Mujib might have skipped his set programme, but the struggle which finally flared up was unlikely to assume such massive proportions if he had not leapt into it. It was, as Mr. Masiur Rahman explained, a sort of "negative contribution" to the liberation struggle. Mr. Masiur Rahman was very emphatic in the use of the term liberation. The present upsurge has a clear-cut objective of throwing away once for all the shackles of western dictatorship. A few setbacks or even heavy loss of lives, he said, could not stifle the uprising of the Bangladesh people. Those who think that the struggle in Bangladesh has failed to inspire mass participation and refer to the refugee influx in support of their view, should note that the number of evacuees, however large, is very small in ratio to a population of 75 million. Besides, the evacuees are mostly children, women and old men while the youths are staying on in their land to take part in the movement for liberation. About mass participation one incident is worth describing. On April 2 an army column came out of the Rajshahi cantonment to attack Nababganj from the border outposts, facing attacks on the way. The situation was hopeless. But what happened was unique. As the news spread that the army was advancing with a tank, about 5,000 civilians grouped together for resistance with whatever they had-sticks, bows and arrows, spears and guns. It was not just a show of courage. They pounced upon the firing tank and captured it, though at a heavy price. Whatever the wisdom of the tactic it showed that the people acted on their own without any directive from the Awami League or NAP leaders to give vent to pent-up anger. Once the moment came the question of parasitic dependence on leadership just vanished. Resistance Groups During my short tour I found no village where there was no resistance group. Armed with crude weapons like sticks and bows they were a perfect picture of resolve and
