The troops were to be in their target arcas before I a.m. but some of them, anticipating delay on the way, had started moving from the cantonment at about 11.30 p.m. Those who were already in the city to guard the radio and television stations, telephone exchange, power house and State Bank etc., had also taken their posts much before the II-hour.
The first column from the cantonment met resistance at l'arm Gate, about one kilometer from the cantonment. The column was halted by a huge tree trunk freshly felled across the road. The side gaps were covered with the hulks of old cars and a disabled steam-roller. On the city side of the barricade stood several hundred Awami Leaguers shouting Joi Bangla slogans. I heard their spirited shouts while standing on the verandah of General Tikka's headquarters. Soon some rifle shots mingled with the Joi Bangla slogans. A little latter, a burst of fire from an automatic weapon shrilled through the air. Thereafter, it was mixed affair of firing and fiery slogans, punctuated with the occasional chatter of a light machine gun. Fifteen minutes later the noise began to subside and the slogans started dying down. Apparently, the weapons had triumphed. The army column moved on to the city.
Thus the action had started before schedule. There was no point now in sticking to the prescribed II-hour. The gates of hell had been cast open. When the first shot had been fired, the Voice of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman came faintly through on a wavelength close to that of the official Pakistan Radio. In what must have been, and sounded like, a pre-recorded message, the Sheikh proclaimed East Pakistan to be the People's Republic of Bangladesh. The full text of the proclamation is published in Bangladesh Documents released by the Indian Foreign Ministry. It said, ‘This may be my last message. From today Bangladesh is independent. I call upon the people of Bangladesh. wherever you are and with whatever you have, to resist the army of occupation to the last. Your fight must go on until the last soldier of the occupation army is expelled from the soil of Bangladesh and final victory is achieved.
I didn't hear this broadcast. I only heard the big bang of the rocket launcher fired by the commandos to remove a barrier blocking their why to Mujib's house, Lieutenant-Colonel 7.A. Khan, the commanding officer, and Major Bilal, the company commander, themselves had accompanied the raiding platoon.
As the commandos approached Mujib's house, they drew fire from the armed guard posted at his gate. The guards were quickly neutralized. They up raced the fifty tough soldiers climb the four feet high compound wall. They announced their arrival in the courtyard by firing a stengun burst and shouted for Mujib to come out. But there was no response. Scrambling across the verandah and up the stairs, they finally discovered the door to Mujib's bedroom. It was locked from outside. A bullet pierced the hanging metal, and it dangled down. Whereupon Mujib readily emerged offering himself for arrest. He seemed to be waiting for it. The raiding party rounded up everybody in the house and brought them to the Second Capital in army jeeps. Minutes later, Major Jaffar, Brigade Major of 57 Brigade, was on the wireless. I could hear his crisp voice saying 'BIG BIRD IN THE CAGE...OTHERS NOT IN THEIR NESTS...OVER.’
