Mujibur was arrested just two months after the announcement of the six-point programme. The false Agaratala Conspiracy Case was started in January 1968 purporting to show that a number of east Pakistani officers of high rank in civil and military establishments had entered into a conspiracy with the India diplomatic staff to bring was also implicated in this trial.
Anti-Ayub mass agitations broke out at the end of 1968 and its real leadership in East Pakistan was provided by the students’ Joint Action committee in which the student wings of all political parties were represented. The eleven point demand of the students incorporated the salient features of the six-point programme. The ant-Ayub agitations forced the government to withdraw the Agartal Conspiracy Case and in the beginning of 1969 Mujibur was released. Eventually he was invite by ayub Khan to join the Round Table Conference in Rawalpindi. At the conference Mujibur Rahman Pointe out that the national question was the key question in Pakistan but it had been sought to be by-passed by those in power ever since the inception of the new State. He said that East Pakistan has a separate entity given by unalterable facts of geography, economics, language, and culture. These facts had to be recognized in the organization of State and government. He pressed for the recognition of the six-points.
The ‘Basic Democracy’ of Ayub Khan collapsed within a few days. There was a second military take-over. Ayub Khan was replaced by Yahya Khan on March 25, 1969.
The aims of the new regime were enunciated in the three declaration issued by Yahya Khan in 1969 and 1970 and through the Legal Framework Order passed on March 30, 190. Yahya avoided any direct commitment on the question of autonomy for East Pakistan. All he would say was that he wanted to grant the maximum autonomy to the provinces, subject to the limits set by the needs of an efficient working of the central government.
Under the Legal Framework Order elections would be held and the National Assembly of Pakistan would have to draw up a Constitution within 120 days from the day of its first sitting. Elections to the National Assembly and the Provincial Legislatures were indeed held in December, 1970. The Awami League led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman won 167 out of 169 seats allotted to East Pakistan in the National Assembly and thus secured an absolute majority in a House of 131. In the elections to the Provincial Legislature the electorate recorded its preference for the same party in almost equally emphatic terms. In January, 1971 Yahya Khan came to Dhaka for talks with Mujibur Rahman And other Awami League leaders. At the end of his visit, on January 14, Yahya referred to Mujibur Rahman as the future Prime Minister of Pakistan and said that power was going to be transferred to him soon. But he refused at that time to fix a date for the session of the National Assembly. After considerable delay, the Assembly was convened to meet at Dacca on March 3. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who’s People’s Party, had won 85 seats in the National assembly. threatened to boycott the Assembly unless the Awami League modified its six-point programme. He wanted a strong centre with wide powers especially in the field of taxation and foreign trade. Mujibur Rahman declared that the people of East Bengal had given a clear verdict in favor of the six-point programme,
