Author: Editor
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War Documents: Zia’s War
It was during the fateful night of March 25 of 1971, when political leaders were on run or went into hiding to save themselves from Pakistani military force, Ziaur Rahman, the second-in-command of the 8 East Bengal Regiment of Chittagong, declared “We revolt” and shoot their way through the cantonment to build resistance against the…
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President Zia’s address at UN General Assembly
President Ziaur Rahman Bir Uttam delivered a historic address on August 26, 1980, at the General Assembly of the United Nations where he particularly emphasized the adoption of the suggestions by the Brandt Commission during the Second Oil Crisis. The text of the speech is available for the readers here.
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Dacca: A Lingering Illness
Lewis M. Simons, Washington Post (November 19, 1975) `Terminally sick nations, unlike sick people, don’t die,” a Bengali newspaper editor said mournfully one recent evening. “But they linger and linger and linger. That’s what’s happening to our Bangladesh.” Bangladesh most certainly is very sick. Its leaders have been murdered, its political parties ground into extinction,…
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Foreign policy under Ziaur Rahman
Mohammad Amjad Hossain Yesterday May 30 was President Ziaur Rahman’s 27th anniversary of death. On the occasion, one feels it worth to recall his foreign policy among other achievements. When Ziaur Rahman took over on April 21, 1977, he not only consolidated his power base but also made foreign policy dynamic. Initially, he had made…
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OIC Resolution calls Zia a ‘Martyr’
The Twelfth Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers was held in Baghdad of Iraq from June 1-5, 1981. President Zia’s news of death came right before the inauguration of the conference and within days the foreign ministers of Islamic countries passed a special resolution on the death of Ziaur Rahman to commemorate his achievements and efforts…
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Bangladesh Chiefs Split on Ideology
Lewis M. Simons, Washington Post (May 4, 1976) Senior military commanders in Bangladesh are deeply split over ideology and the threat of renewed violence there is growing rapidly, according to an officer who has -just returned to exile from Dacca. The officer, Lt. Col. Khandakar Abdur Rashid, a leader of the Aug. 15 coup that…
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Bangladesh President Appreciates U.S. Help And Hopes for More
Lee Lescaze, Washington Post (August 28, 1980) Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman met with President Carter yesterday to thank the United States for past assistance and explain Bangladesh’s need for even more aid in the future. Zia told a press conference that the White House meeting “was extremely useful to us.” Bangladesh, one of the world’s…
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President Zia Has Reputation as ‘Bangladesh’s No. 1 Motivator’
Stuart Auerbach, Washington Post (March 28, 1981) Ten years ago today an obscure Army major named Ziaur Rahman proclaimed to the world over a captured radio station Bangladesh’s independence. Now Zia, a retired general, is Bangladesh’s president. Zia is described by correspondents who cover him regularly as “Bangladesh’s number one motivator.” His agriculture secretary, A.…
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Bangladeshi Villagers Despair at Loss of President
William Branigin, Washington Post (June 3, 1981) Iman Ali Sarder paused by the side of the road outside this village northeast of Dacca, holding up an old black umbrella with a carved, wooden handle to shade himself from the blazing sun. The 67-year-old farmer listened stoically to a visitor’s question, but as he answered a…
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Vast Crowds Mourn at Burial of Zia
William Branigin, Washington Post (June 3, 1981) Hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis poured through the streets of this crowded, dirt-poor capital today in a funeral procession for slain President Ziaur Rahman and the government announced the deaths of three leaders of the rebellion that took his life. At least one person was reported killed as…
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