1972–1975 Bangladesh insurgency refers to the period after the

independence of Bangladesh Independence of Bangladesh was declared on 26 March 1971, celebrated as Independence Day, from Pakistan. The Independence Day of Bangladesh is celebrated on 26 March when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared the Independence of Bangladesh. The Bangladesh ...

when left-wing Communist

insurgents An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irreg ...

, particularly the

Gonobahini Gonobahini ( bn, গণবাহিনী "''People's Army''") was the armed wing of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal. The group was mainly composed of former Mukti Bahini members from the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. History In 1972, a section ...

fought against the government of the Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The government responded by forming the Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini, which began a crackdown on the general populace. The force became involved in the numerous charges of human rights abuse including political killings, shooting by death squads, and large number of rapes on womans.

Background

In 1972,

Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal The Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal ( bn, জাতীয় সমাজতান্ত্রিক দল, 'National Socialist Party of Bangladesh', JSD or 'জাসদ', JASAD) is a political party in Bangladesh. The party was founded by Serajul A ...

was formed when it split from Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the Bangladesh Awami League, under the leadership of

Serajul Alam Khan Serajul Alam Khan (also known as "Dada" and "Dadabhai"; born January 6, 1941) is a Bangladeshi political analyst, philosopher and writer. He is one of the founders of Swadhin Bangla Biplobi Parishad (English: Independent Bengal Revolutionary Counc ...

M. A. Jalil Mohammad Abdul Jalil was a freedom fighter and Mukti Bahini Sector Commander of Sector 9 of during the Bangladesh liberation war in 1971. He was also one of the founding members of political party Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal. Early years Mohammad ...

, ASM Abdur Rab and Shahjahan Siraj. Its armed wing,

, led by Colonel

Abu Taher Abu Taher ( bn, আবু তাহের) (14 November 1938 – 21 July 1976) was a Bengali military serviceman, who served in the Pakistan Army, and later in BDF. He crossed into India around early August and reported to the Indian autho ...

and Hasanul Haq Inu, began an armed campaign against the government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in order to establish scientific socialism and a Marxist state.

Political killings

Anthony Mascarenhas Neville Anthony Mascarenhas (10 July 1928 – 3 December 1986) was a Pakistani journalist and author. His works include exposés on the brutality of Pakistan's military during the 1971 independence movement of Bangladesh, ''The Rape of Bangla D ...

states that by the end of 1973, the number of politically motivated murders in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

after independence was over 2000. The victims included some members of

parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

and many of the murders were resulted of intra-party conflicts within the

Awami League In Urdu language, Awami is the adjectival form for '' Awam'', the Urdu language word for common people. The adjective appears in the following proper names: *Awami Colony, a neighbourhood of Landhi Town in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan *Awami Front, wa ...

. The Gonobahini also killed numerous Bangladesh Chhatra League and Awami League members. On the other hand,

Maoists Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Chi ...

such as

Siraj Sikder Siraj Sikder (27 October 1944 – 2 January 1975) was a Bangladeshi revolutionary politician. Early life Sikder was born on 27 October 1944 in Bhedarganj, Shariatpur District, East Bengal. His father was Abdur Razzaq Sikder, and belonged to a ...

of the

Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party ( bn, পূর্ব বাংলার সর্বহারা পার্টি, Proletarian Party of East Bengal) is a communist party in Bangladesh. The party played a role in the independence struggle of the c ...

and

Abdul Haq ʻAbd al-Ḥaqq (ALA-LC romanization of ar, عبد الحقّ) is an Arabic male given name, and in modern usage, surname. It is built from the Arabic words '' ʻabd'' and ''al-Ḥaqq'', one of the names of God in the Qur'an, which give rise to the ...

began attacking the government and people whom they considered "

class enemies The term enemy of the people or enemy of the nation, is a designation for the political or class opponents of the subgroup in power within a larger group. The term implies that by opposing the ruling subgroup, the "enemies" in question are ac ...

". The government responded by forming the Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini. Anthony Mascarenhas claimed that within three years, deaths of mostly Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal members reached 30,000, all of which were killed by the Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini.

End of insurgency

After being de facto ruler of the nation,

Ziaur Rahman Lt. General Ziaur Rahman (19 January 1936 – 30 May 1981), was a Bangladeshi military officer and politician who served as the President of Bangladesh from 1977 to 1981. He was assassinated on 30 May 1981 in Chittagong in an army coup d' ...

realized that the disorder set off by the soldiers' mutiny had to be suppressed firmly if discipline was to be restored in the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

. Ziaur Rahman declared

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

, cracked down on the Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal, Abu Taher was sentenced to death and other party figures had various terms of imprisonment slapped on them.

Legacy

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

states that institutionalized violence committed by the Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini during the insurgency, established the culture of impunity and widespread prevalence of abuses by security forces in independent Bangladesh.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:1972-1975 Bangladesh insurgency 20th-century conflicts Communism in Bangladesh Rebellions in Asia Cold War rebellions 1970s in Bangladesh Conflicts in 1972 Conflicts in 1973 Conflicts in 1974 Conflicts in 1975 1972 in Bangladesh 1973 in Bangladesh 1974 in Bangladesh 1975 in Bangladesh Communism-based civil wars Communist rebellions