Prime Minister and Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina today said the history of proclamation of independence in 1971 by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was distorted after his assassination in 1975.

“Bangabandhu’s independence proclamation was spread through wireless and his party men reached it elsewhere of the country. But after his assassination, the history was distorted,” she said.

The premier made this remark while chairing a discussion at AL office in city’s Tejgaon area, organised by her party on the occasion of the Great Independence Day-2024.

“In the distorted history, it was said one Major standing on a drum blew the whistle and Bangladesh got independence. But, any country can’t attain independence this way. If it happened, then Bangladesh’s history would have been written differently,” she added.

Sheikh Hasina, however, questioned about Ziaur Rahman’s loyalty on Bangladesh during the War of Liberation in 1971.
She said: “There is a question that if his loyalty was for Bangladesh or for Pakistan as Pakistani army officer Mirza Aslam Beg wrote a letter to Zia for his satisfactory activities”.

She also said, “(Mirza) Aslam Beg (who was an army officer at that time in Bangladesh) wrote a letter to Ziaur Rahman during the Liberation War expressing satisfaction of his activities.” In that letter, the premier mentioned that Mirza Beg also said that the wife and sons of Ziaur Rahman were fine in Dhaka Cantonment.

“The question is that why the Pakistanis took care of the wife and sons of that person who proclaimed the independence in cantonment, and wrote a letter stating satisfaction over his job,” she added.

General Mirza Aslam Beg served as the Pakistan Army Chief from 1988 until his retirement in 1991. His appointment came when his predecessor, President General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, died in an air crash on August 17, 1988.