পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (পঞ্চদশ খণ্ড).pdf/১৮৯

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ পঞ্চদশ খণ্ড

Prepare a statement for the press-the key points were to be rejection of the award. Withdrawal from DAC and for the movement to go on. The atmosphere was tense. while on the one hand, messages were being sent, one conveyed by Manzoor Quader to me that efforts wire still being made to see if negotiations could be resumed, the air was filled with rumours that the military was getting ready to take over.


 At the press conference, Sheikh Mujib announced the withdrawal of the Awami League from DAC, and declared that the mass movement would go on. The democratic Action Committee was declared dissolved the same evening.

 Sheikh Mujib called Dacca on the telephone as he was anxious to gauge the popular reaction, which he had correctly assessed would support his decision to reject Ayub’s award to carryon the movement. The public reaction of the Bengalis was electric: spontaneous demonstrations in Dacca denounced Ayub, the Punjabi leaders and those Bengali who had acquiesced in Ayub’s award, and pledge their support to the six-point movement. Sheikh Mujib's positions as the authentic spokesman for the Bengali people was confirmed by these demonstrations.

 Ayub realized that the other Bengali leaders had little hold over the people or the situation in the Eastern win and therefore of the futility of doing business with them. He met Sheikh Mujib immediately after the breakdown of the conference and pleaded his inability to accept the six-point demands on the grounds that constitutional amendments to give effect of it would not muster enough support in National Assembly, Sheikh Mujib countered that, given the mood of the Bengalis could be expected to support them. Ayub then shifted ground and said that such amendments would take a great deal of time to work out. Sheikh Mujib assured him that draft amendments could be delivered within three weeks.

 Sheikh Mujib, immediately on returning from that meeting, called his team of advisers and instructed them to produce these amendments as quickly as possible. On returning to Dacca, the working group labored night and day, to put together within three weeks, a set of amendments to the 1962 Constitution, which would give effect to the six point formula and dismember one-unit. It was decided that a Constitution amendment bill embodying these would be introduced in the National Assembly by toe Awami League members. Kamruzzaman carried copies with him to Rawalpindi, and an advance copy was delivered to Ayub on 22 March. Before these amendments could be considered by the National Assembly, Ayub’s response was to abdicate, giving as his reason his unwillingness to preside over the disintegration of the country. Yahya Khan, who had been preparing in the wings to relieve Ayub, stepped in the 1962 Constitution was abrogated, the National Assembly dissolved and Martial law was proclaimed.

 Yahya had inherited the task of protecting the power structure which had been threatened by the mass upsurge. By the imposition of Martial Law, he had bought time. In his first speech he committed himself to transfer power to the elected representatives of the people. Shortly thereafter he began a round of bilateral consultations with political leaders. Sheikh Mujib proposed a constituent assembly consisting of elected representatives of the people, in which representation should be on the basis of