Bangla Desh declares independence – Street fighting in Dacca and Chittagong

 

The Statesman (Calcutta), India, March 27, 1971

New Delhi, March 26

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman tonight proclaimed East Pakistan a "Soverign Independent People’s Republic of Bangla Desh". The declaration, broadcast over a clandestine radio station, was made shortly before President Yahya Khan went on the air in the west wing to announce that he had ordered the Army to reassert its authority in the Eastern wing, says UNI and PTI.

In his clarion call in tune with the defiant mood of the people, who, aided by the East Pakistan Rifles and police, were fighting the west wing tropps in different parts of Bangla Desh, said: "We shall not die like cats and dogs, but shall die as worthy children of Bangla Ma".

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Mr. Rahman, in a message to the world broadcast by an unidentified wireless station monitored in Calcutta this morning declared that the enemy had struck and that the people were fighting gallantly.

In a subsequent broadcast over a radio station, describing itself as "Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra" (free Bengal wireless station) monitored in Shillong, Mr. Rahman proclaimed Bangla Desh an independent republic.