on the spot. Then they ordered the Army in the Cantonment to clear the ship. Brig. Mazumdar asked for advice as to what he should do. I could not take a decision as refusal to obey would amount to mutiny and open confrontation with Pak Army. I straightway drove to Dhaka on 23rd march for consultation with Bangabandhu and for his instruction. I met him in his house. He said he was hoping there will be a satisfactory conclusion of the dialogue and he does not think there will be a war as Yahya was there as president. I told him that war has started in Chittagong and I see all preparation for a full scale attack. He asked me to hurry back to Chittagong to mobilize all forces there and defend Chittagong. In case of an attack he will escape to Chittagong and join us in the fight. I enquired when to give the green signal to Army, LPR, police and civil administration. He was not sure. Col. Osmani was called in for consultation and he suggested that when the Radio stops broadcasting we should take that as the zero hour. But I said that could happen due to power failure. Then he said when they try to disarm Bengalees we should take that the war has started and resist. However I rushed back to Chittagong but too late. Brig. Mazumdar and Capt. Amin by that time was lifted by helicopter and brought to Dhaka. Chittagong Cantonment was placed in command to a non-Bengalee Officer. The Army unloaded the arms from ‘Swat’ and tried to take them to the Cantonment but people blocked their way every inch by road blocks. Firing took place but the Army was forced to store the arms in the Halishahar transit camp.
Twenty fifth situations was very tense in Chittagong. We did not know what was happening in Dhaka. At around 7-00 p.m. I managed to contact Sheikh Shaheb through his neighbor Mr. Mosharaff Hossain and Mr. Naeem Gouhar. He asked them to tell me that talks had failed. Ask Army, EPR and police not to surrender arms and give a call to people to give resistance. After this all communication with Dhaka was cut off.
The Sangram Parishad discussed the situation and decided to go into hiding and go into action, On 26th morning at about 6-30 a. m. my wife Latifa received a phone call from Mr. Moinul Alam (Ittefaq Correspondent in Chittagong) who gave her a message from Bangbandhu received through wireless operators of Chittagong. The message read “message to the people of Bangladesh and to the people of the world. Rajarbagh police camp and Peelkhana EPR suddenly attacked by Pak Army at 24-00 hours. Thousands of people killed. Fierce fighting going on. Appeal to the world for help in our freedom struggle. Resist by all your means. May Allah be with you. Joy Bangla. Message from Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.” This message was passed on to me immediately. The Sangram Parishad immediately discussed the message and decided to announce the appeal over the radio. By this time the radio station at Agrabad was already inaccessible because of the presence of Pak Army. We Collected Mr. Belal Chowdhury Mr. Sultan Ali and other staff of Radio Pakistan Chittagong who suggested broadcasting the message from the Kalurghat relay station. A draft of the announcement was made in Bengali by Dr. Abu Jafar and others and it was decided that Mr. M. A. Hannan, General Secretary of District Awami League would read out the announcement. Accordingly on 26th March at 2-30 p.m. Mr. Hannan read out the historical announcement in the name of Sheikh which is known as the Declaration of Independence. Based on this later Bangladesh Government decided to observe 26th as the National Day. Major Zia and his troops were placed to
