Tag: Ziaur Rahman


  • Post-1975 policies of Zia shaped Bangladesh’s development: Stefan Dercon

    Post-1975 policies of Zia shaped Bangladesh’s development: Stefan Dercon

    Professor Stefan Dercon of Oxford University explained Bangladesh’s social and economic development.

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  • Vast Crowds Mourn at Burial of Zia

    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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  • UK Foreign Office’s confidential letter on Zia

    UK Foreign Office’s confidential letter on Zia

    President Ziaur Rahman paid an official visit to the United Kingdom in June 1980 that made headlines in The Times and The Guardian. A letter was sent to the Prime Minister’s office when he expressed his willingness to visit the United Kingdom and have a discussion with Prime Minister Margaret Hilda Thatcher from the Foreign…

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  • U.N. to Start Talks on How to Assist Third World

    U.N. to Start Talks on How to Assist Third World

    Bernard D. Nossiter, The New York Times (August 22, 1980) Secretary of State Edmund S. Muskie and President Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh are among the officials due here next week when rich and poor nations begin a new effort to aid economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America that have been depressed by the high…

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  • Bangladesh’s Soft‐Spoken but Strict President

    Bangladesh’s Soft‐Spoken but Strict President

    One hot, sultry evening two years ago, shortly after he had taken over as the military ruler of Bangladesh, Maj. Gen. Ziaur Rahman was sitting in the living room of his white‐stone bungalow here explaining the country’s international relations. When a reporter raised the possibility of a regional alliance in southern Asia, General Zia paused…

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  • Memoir: Zia’s wristwatch

    Memoir: Zia’s wristwatch

    AKM Maidul Islam One day I was in a helicopter with President Zia. It was around half-past nine that day. But the wristwatch of our President was showing half-past seven. So I told him, sir, your wristwatch is not working. He laughed and told me, ‘I had a good watch actually but I lost it…

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  • President leads from the front

    President leads from the front

    The Guardian (December 31, 1979) PRESIDENT ZIA faces the task of introducing reforms of land tenure, education, and law in a country that has been busy over the last eighteen months restoring democracy. Over a little canal-digging, he tells Peter Niesewand: “This is our own revolution.” THE WEATHER pattern seemed to be changing in Bangladesh,…

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  • Ziaur Rahman 101

    Ziaur Rahman 101

    What is Ziaur Rahman’s biggest contribution to Bangladesh? Ziaur Rahman gave our nation a clear identity. After independence, our national identity was declared as ‘Bangali’ and expectedly this created a lot of confusion. This identity ignored the non-Bangali citizens including the indigenous people of different part of Bangladesh as well as the Urdu speaking citizens.…

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  • What is Bangladeshi Nationalism?

    What is Bangladeshi Nationalism?

    A great debate is going on in Unheard Voices about Bengali and Bangladeshi nationalism. Two high court judges led by Justice Khairul Haque ruled to strike down Bangladeshi nationalism from our constitution. The appellate division changed that ruling in a manner, that, rather than clarifying the issue, made the issue more contentious. In continuation of…

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  • About the verdict on Colonel Taher trial

    While giving the verdict on the legality of the punishment of Colonel Taher, the high-court bench of Justices Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Zakir Hossain declared that the whole trial process was illegal and it was in fact a cold blooded murder of Taher by Late president Ziaur Rahman. What high-court did to come to this…

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