Mujib proclaims free Bangla Desh

 

The Times of India (Bombay), India, March 27, 1971

New Delhi, March 26

A "sovereign, independent People’s Republic of Bangla Desh" was proclaimed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman today even as President Yahya Khan ordered the army to "fully restore the authority" of his Government in the turbulent eastern wing.

The declaration, broadcast over "Voice of Independent Bangla Desh", said: "The sheikh has declared the 75 million people of East Pakistan citizens of independent Bangla Desh".

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Shortly after, there were reports of heavy casualties in the civil war in boiling Bangla Desh. "The Voice of Independent Bangla Desh" announced in a broadcast that the reinforced West Pakistani troops which had fanned out all over the province had been surrounded in at least six cantonments.

It said the personnel of the East Bengal Regiment, the East Pakistan Rifles and the entire police had the troops surrounded in Chittagong, Comilla, Sylhet, Jessore, Barisal and Khulna.

The broadcast said heavy fighting was continuing.

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Bangla Desh tonight appealed to the United Nations and to Asian-African countries to render it all assistance in its fight for freedom.

In a late night broadcast, Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra said: "The liberation war now going on in Bangla Desh is part of the Afro-Asian countries’ movement for liberation from colonial domination."

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Monitors, speculating on the location of the radio which was first heard this evening with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s unilateral declaration of independence, broadcast live, averred it might be the former Chittagong station of Radio Pakistan.

Radio Australia, however, said it was located in the north-east part of Bangla Desh.