:Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

{{Main|Tungipara Sheikh family}}

{{See also|Birthday of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman}}

File:Residence of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman front view.jpg]]

File:Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Dhaka Wanderers jersey in 1940.jpg after winning a football tournament captaining Dhaka Wanderers in 1940]]

Mujib was born on 17 March 1920 into the Bengali Muslim aristocratic Sheikh family of the village of Tungipara in Gopalganj sub-division of Faridpur district in the province of Bengal in British India.{{Cite book |last=Harun-or- Rashid |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bangladesh |year=2012 |editor-last=Sirajul Islam |editor-link=Sirajul Islam |edition=Second |chapter=Rahman, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur |access-date=24 July 2015 |editor-last2=Jamal |editor-first2=Ahmed A. |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Rahman,_Bangabandhu_Sheikh_Mujibur |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213024229/http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Rahman,_Bangabandhu_Sheikh_Mujibur |archive-date=13 December 2017 |url-status=live}}{{Cite news |title=Oshomapto Atmojiboni by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman |url=https://www.daily-sun.com/post/541917/Oshomapto-Atmojiboni-by-Sheikh-Mujibur-Rahman |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230504045635/https://www.daily-sun.com/post/541917/Oshomapto-Atmojiboni-by-Sheikh-Mujibur-Rahman |archive-date=4 May 2023 |access-date=2023-05-04 |work=Daily Sun |language=en}} His father Sheikh Lutfur Rahman was a sheristadar (law clerk) in the courthouse of Gopalganj; Mujib's mother Sheikh Sayera Khatun was a housewife. Mujib's father Sheikh Lutfur Rahman was a Taluqdar in Tungipara, owning landed property, around 100 Bighas of cultivable land.{{Cite book |last=Hasina |first=Sheikh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LmjIDwAAQBAJ&q=secret+documents+of+intelligence+branch+on+father+of+the+nation+landed+property+taluqdar&pg=PA169 |title=Secret Documents of Intelligence Branch on Father of The Nation, Bangladesh: Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Volume I (1948–1950) |date=2020 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-03311-3 |language=en |access-date=16 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010064712/https://books.google.com/books?id=LmjIDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA169&dq=%22secret+documents+of+intelligence+branch+on+father+of+the+nation+landed+property+taluqdar%22&q=secret+documents+of+intelligence+branch+on+father+of+the+nation+landed+property+taluqdar#v=snippet&q=secret%20documents%20of%20intelligence%20branch%20on%20father%20of%20the%20nation%20landed%20property%20taluqdar&f=false |archive-date=10 October 2024 |url-status=live}} His clan's ancestors were Zamindars of Faridpur Mahakumar, however due to successive turns in the family fortune over generations had turned them middle class.{{Cite web |title=Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh |url=https://www.barristersheikhtaposh.info/fazlulmoni.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230504045632/https://www.barristersheikhtaposh.info/fazlulmoni.php |archive-date=4 May 2023 |access-date=2023-05-04 |website=barristersheikhtaposh.info}}{{sfn|Mujibur Rahman|2012|p=}} The Sheikh clan of Tungipara were of Iraqi Arab descent, being descended from Sheikh Abdul Awal Darwish of Baghdad, who had come to preach Islam in the Mughal era.{{Cite book |last=Kalam |first=Abul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BvCaEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22sheikh+mujib+family+iraqi+descent%22&pg=PA84 |title=Diplomacy and The Independence of Bangladesh: Portrayal of Mujib's Statesmanship |date=2022 |publisher=World Scientific |isbn=978-981-12-5554-0 |language=en |access-date=16 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010064712/https://books.google.com/books?id=BvCaEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA84&dq=%22sheikh+mujib+family+iraqi+descent%22#v=onepage&q=%22sheikh%20mujib%20family%20iraqi%20descent%22&f=false |archive-date=10 October 2024 |url-status=live}} His lineage is; Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, son of Sheikh Lutfar Rahman, son of Sheikh Abdul Hamid, son of Sheikh Mohammad Zakir, son of Sheikh Ekramullah, son of Sheikh Borhanuddin, son of Sheikh Jan Mahmud, son of Sheikh Zahiruddin, son of Sheikh Abdul Awal Darwish.{{Cite web |title=Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh |url=https://www.barristersheikhtaposh.info/familytree.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230504011350/https://barristersheikhtaposh.info/familytree.php |archive-date=4 May 2023 |access-date=2023-05-04 |website=barristersheikhtaposh.info}} Mujib was the eldest son and third child in the family of four daughters (Fatima, Achia, Helen, Laili) and two sons (Mujib, Naser). His parents nicknamed him "Khoka".{{Cite web |title=Mujib Timeline |url=https://mujib100.gov.bd/pages/mujib/timeline.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201114105858/https://mujib100.gov.bd/pages/mujib/timeline.html |archive-date=14 November 2020 |access-date=18 December 2020}}

As a child, Mujib was described as "compassionate and very energetic". Either playing or roaming around. Feeding birds, monkeys and dogs. In his autobiography, Mujib mentions, "I used to play football, volleyball and field hockey. Although I was not a very good player but still had a good position in the school team. At this time I was not interested in politics." Once the farmers in his village lost their crops and faced a near-famine situation, which had a great impact on Mujib. During these days, he usually used to distribute rice among the poor farmers and students from his own or collecting from others.{{Cite news |date=17 March 2020 |script-title=bn:বঙ্গবন্ধুর ছেলেবেলা |url=https://www.bhorerkagoj.com/2020/03/17/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%99%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A7%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%9B%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112060818/https://www.bhorerkagoj.com/2020/03/17/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%99%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A7%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%9B%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BE/ |archive-date=12 January 2021 |access-date=19 September 2020 |work=Bhorer Kagoj}}

Mujib was enrolled in Gimadanga Primary School in 1927.{{sfn|Mujibur Rahman|2012|p=xv}} In 1929, he entered the third grade of Gopalganj Public School. His parents transferred him to Madaripur Islamia High School after two years.{{sfn|Kādira|2004|p=440}} Mujib withdrew from school in 1934 to undergo eye surgery. He returned to formal education after four years owing to the severity of the surgery and slow recovery.{{sfn|Mujibur Rahman|2012|p=9}} Mujib was 18 years old when he was married to eight years old Fazilatunnesa, widely known in Bangladesh as Begum Mujib, in an arranged marriage, according to the custom of the region at that time. They are second cousins.{{Cite web |title=Fazlur Rahman (F. R.) Khan |url=http://www.londoni.co/index.php/who-s-who?id=68 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180803104448/http://www.londoni.co/index.php/who-s-who?id=68 |archive-date=3 August 2018 |access-date=24 January 2017 |website=londoni.co}}{{sfn|Mujibur Rahman|2012|p=7}}{{Cite news |date=8 August 2022 |title=Begum Fazilatunnessa Mujib . . . woman of moral power |url=https://www.tbsnews.net/thoughts/begum-fazilatunnessa-mujib-woman-moral-power-473730 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230816213629/https://www.tbsnews.net/thoughts/begum-fazilatunnessa-mujib-woman-moral-power-473730 |archive-date=16 August 2023 |access-date=16 August 2023 |work=The Business Standard}}{{Cite news |date=9 August 2023 |title=BUP observes birth anniv of Begum Mujib |url=https://www.newagebd.net/article/208935/bup-observes-birth-anniv-of-begum-mujib |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230816213622/https://www.newagebd.net/article/208935/bup-observes-birth-anniv-of-begum-mujib |archive-date=16 August 2023 |access-date=16 August 2023 |work=New Age}}

Mujib began showing signs of political leadership around this time. At the Gopalganj Missionary School, Mujib's political passion was noticed by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, who was visiting the area along with A. K. Fazlul Huq. Mujib passed out from the Gopalganj Missionary School in 1942.

Mujib moved to Calcutta for higher education. At the time, Calcutta was the capital of British Bengal and the largest city in undivided India. He studied liberal arts, including political science, at the erstwhile Islamia College of Calcutta and lived in Baker Hostel.{{Cite news |date=26 March 2021 |title=Baker Hostel, Room No 24: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's days in Calcutta |url=https://indianexpress.com/photos/india-news/sheikh-mujibur-rehman-baker-hostel-room-7244807/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928071823/https://indianexpress.com/photos/india-news/sheikh-mujibur-rehman-baker-hostel-room-7244807/ |archive-date=28 September 2022 |access-date=4 November 2022 |work=The Indian Express}}{{Cite news |date=28 January 1999 |title=Hasina visits Baker Hostel |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/news/hasina-visits-baker-hostel |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115011427/https://www.thedailystar.net/news/hasina-visits-baker-hostel |archive-date=15 January 2023 |access-date=4 November 2022 |work=The Daily Star}} Islamia College was one of the leading educational institutions for the Muslims of Bengal. He obtained his bachelor's degree from the college in 1947.

{{See also|Partition of India}}

File:Sheikh Mujibur Rahman1949.jpg

File:Gandhi Suhrawardy and Mujib.jpg (seated center) and H. S. Suhrawardy (seated left) in Noakhali, 1946]]

During his time in Calcutta, Sheikh Mujib became involved in the politics of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League, the All India Muslim Students Federation, the Indian independence movement and the Pakistan movement. In 1943, he was elected as a councillor of the Muslim League. In 1944, he was elected as secretary of the Faridpur District Association, a Calcutta-based association of residents from Faridpur. In 1946, at the height of the Pakistan movement, Mujib was elected as General Secretary of the Islamia College Students Union in Calcutta.{{sfn|Mujibur Rahman|2012|p=xvi}} His political mentor Suhrawardy led the center-left faction of the Muslim League. Suhrawardy was responsible for creating 36 trade unions in Bengal, including unions for sailors, railway workers, jute and cotton mills workers, rickshaw pullers, cart drivers and other working class groups.{{Cite web |title=Suhrawardy, Huseyn Shaheed |url=https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Suhrawardy,_Huseyn_Shaheed |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406200806/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Suhrawardy,_Huseyn_Shaheed |archive-date=6 April 2023 |access-date=4 November 2022 |website=Banglapedia}} Mujib assisted Suhrawardy in these efforts and also worked to ensure protection for Muslim families during the violent days in the run up to partition.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

{{See also|United Bengal|Partition of Bengal (1947)}}

In 1947, Sheikh Mujib also joined the "United Bengal Movement" which was organized under the leadership of Suhrawardy, Abul Hashim, Sarat Chandra Bose and others to form an undivided independent Bengal outside the jurisdiction of India and Pakistan.{{Cite book |last=মামুন |first=মুনতাসীর |date=February 2013 |publisher=মাওলা ব্রাদার্স |script-title=bn:বঙ্গবন্ধু কীভাবে আমাদের স্বাধীনতা এনেছিলেন}} Later, when the creation of the states of India and Pakistan was confirmed, a referendum was held to decide the fate of the Bengali Muslim-dominated Sylhet District of Assam Province. Sheikh Mujib worked as an organizer and campaigner for inclusion in Pakistan in the Sylhet referendum. He went to Sylhet from Calcutta with about 500 workers. In his autobiography, he expressed his displeasure about the non-adherence of Karimganj to Pakistan despite winning the referendum and the various geographical inadequacies of East Pakistan during the demarcation of the partition.{{Cite news |date=17 August 2020 |script-title=bn:সাতচল্লিশে সিলেট কীভাবে পাকিস্তানের অংশ হল? |url=https://www.bbc.com/bengali/news-40963034.amp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112073108/https://www.bbc.com/bengali/news-40963034.amp |archive-date=12 January 2021 |access-date=22 September 2020 |publisher=BBC Bangla}}

File:Sheikh Mujib and Begum Mujib circa 1955.jpg

After the partition of India, Mujib was admitted into the Law Department of the University of Dhaka. The university was created in 1921 as a residential university modelled on Oxford and Cambridge where students would be affiliated with colleges; but its residential character was dramatically changed after partition and students became affiliated with departments.{{Cite news |last=Hashmi |first=Taj |date=28 December 2014 |title=Was Dhaka University ever the 'Oxford of the East'? |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/was-dhaka-university-ever-the-oxford-of-the-east-57343 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220929125941/https://www.thedailystar.net/was-dhaka-university-ever-the-oxford-of-the-east-57343 |archive-date=29 September 2022 |access-date=4 November 2022 |work=The Daily Star}}{{Cite news |title='Oxford of the East' or the 'Mecca University'? |url=https://www.newagebd.net/article/156210/oxford-of-the-east-or-the-mecca-university |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220929125943/https://www.newagebd.net/article/156210/oxford-of-the-east-or-the-mecca-university |archive-date=29 September 2022 |access-date=4 November 2022 |work=New Age}} Mujib suffered repeated bouts of police detention due to his ability to instigate opposition protests against the Pakistani government. His political activities were targeted by the government and police. In 1949, Mujib was expelled from Dhaka University on charges of inciting employees against the university. After 61 years, in 2010, the university withdrew its famously politically motivated expulsion order.{{Cite news |last=Ahammed |first=Rakib |title=DU rights historic wrong |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-150811 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171230230040/http://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-150811 |archive-date=30 December 2017 |access-date=30 December 2017 |work=The Daily Star}}{{Cite news |title=Mujib's DU expulsion order withdrawn |url=https://m.bdnews24.com/en/detail/bangladesh/248617 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171230172107/https://m.bdnews24.com/en/detail/bangladesh/248617 |archive-date=30 December 2017 |access-date=30 December 2017 |work=bdnews24.com}}

{{See also|Bengali nationalism}}

Mujib emerged as a major opposition figure in Pakistani politics between 1948 and 1971. He represented the Bengali grassroots. He had an uncanny ability to remember people by their first name regardless of whether they were political leaders, workers, or ordinary citizens. Mujib founded the Muslim Students League on 4 January 1948 as the student wing of the Muslim League in East Bengal. This organisation later transformed into the Bangladesh Chhatra League. During the visit of Governor General Muhammad Ali Jinnah to Dhaka, it was declared that Urdu will be the sole national language of Pakistan. This sparked the Bengali Language Movement. Mujib became embroiled in the language movement, as well as left-wing trade unionism among Bengali factions of the Muslim League. Bengali factions eventually split away and formed the Awami Muslim League in 1949.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

Mujib was arrested many times. His movements were tracked by spies of the Pakistani government. He was accused of being a secessionist and an agent of India. East Pakistan's Intelligence Branch compiled many secret reports on his movements and political activities. The secret documents have been declassified by the Bangladeshi government. The formerly classified reports have also been published.{{Cite web |title=Secret Documents of Intelligence Branch on Father of The Nation, Bangladesh: Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Volume IV (1954–1957) |url=https://www.routledge.com/Secret-Documents-of-Intelligence-Branch-on-Father-of-The-Nation-Bangladesh/Hasina/p/book/9780367467937 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221104195038/https://www.routledge.com/Secret-Documents-of-Intelligence-Branch-on-Father-of-The-Nation-Bangladesh/Hasina/p/book/9780367467937 |archive-date=4 November 2022 |access-date=4 November 2022 |website=Routledge & CRC Press}}

File:Front View of Rose Garden Place.jpg

The All Pakistan Awami Muslim League was founded on 23 June 1949 at the Rose Garden mansion on K. M. Das Lane in Old Dhaka, which was organized by Yar Mohammad Khan and Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani.{{Cite web |title=Bangladesh Awami League |url=https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Bangladesh_Awami_League |website=Banglapedia}} Sheikh Mujib was elected as one of its joint secretaries. The term "Muslim" was later dropped from the party's nomenclature. The Awami League sought to represent both Muslims and Pakistan's religious minorities, including Bengali Hindus and Pakistani Christians. Hence, it dropped "Muslim" from its name to appeal to the minority votebanks. Suhrawardy joined the party within a few years and became its main leader. He relied on Sheikh Mujib to organise his political activities in East Bengal. Mujib became Suhrawardy's political protégé. Prior to partition, Suhrawardy mooted the idea of an independent United Bengal. But in Pakistan, Suhrawardy reportedly preferred to preserve the unity of Pakistan in a federal framework; while Mujib supported autonomy and was open to the idea of East Bengali independence. Mujib reportedly remarked that "[t]he Bengalis had initially failed to appreciate a leader of Mr. Suhrawardy's stature. By the time they learned to value him, they had run out of time".{{Cite news |date=6 December 2019 |title=An unlikely partnership: Bangabandhu and Suhrawardy |url=https://archive.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2019/12/06/an-unlikely-partnership-bangabandhu-and-suhrawardy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221104235111/https://archive.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2019/12/06/an-unlikely-partnership-bangabandhu-and-suhrawardy |archive-date=4 November 2022 |access-date=4 November 2022 |work=Dhaka Tribune}} At the federal level, the Awami League was led by Suhrawardy. At the provincial level, the League was led by Sheikh Mujib who was given a free rein over the party's activities by Suhrawardy. Mujib consolidated his control of the party. The Awami League veered away from the left-wing extremism of its founding president Maulana Bhashani. Under Suhrawardy and Mujib, the Awami League emerged as a centre-left party.

{{Main|Bengali language movement}}

File:Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1952.jpg

File:Rally on 21Feb1954 Abdul Hamid and Bangabandhu.jpg and Sheikh Mujib marching barefoot to pay tribute at Shaheed Minar on 21 February 1954]]

The Awami League strongly backed the Bengali Language Movement. Bengalis argued that the Bengali language deserved to be a federal language on par with Urdu because Bengalis formed the largest ethnic group in Pakistan. The movement appealed to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan to declare both Urdu and Bengali as national languages, in addition to English. During a conference in Fazlul Huq Muslim Hall, Sheikh Mujib was instrumental in establishing the All-Party State Language Action Committee.{{sfn|Mujibur Rahman|2012|p=xvii }} He was repeatedly arrested during the movement. When he was released from jail in 1948, he was greeted by a rally of the State Language Struggle Committee.{{Cite journal |last=Oldenburg |first=Philip |date=August 1985 |title='A Place Insufficiently Imagined': Language, Belief, and the Pakistan Crisis of 1971 |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |publisher=Association for Asian Studies |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=711–733 |doi=10.2307/2056443 |issn=0021-9118 |jstor=2056443 |s2cid=145152852 |doi-access=free}} Mujib announced a nationwide student strike on 17 March 1948.{{Cite book |last=Al Helal |first=Bashir |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bangladesh |year=2012 |editor-last=Sirajul Islam |editor-link=Sirajul Islam |edition=Second |chapter=Language Movement |access-date=6 February 2018 |editor-last2=Jamal |editor-first2=Ahmed A. |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Language_Movement |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225042957/http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Language_Movement |archive-date=25 December 2018 |url-status=live}}{{Cite news |last=Hossain |first=Zahid |date=21 February 2007 |title=Bangabandhu and Language Movement |url=https://archive.thedailystar.net/suppliments/2007/21stfeb/bangabandhu.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180211235104/http://archive.thedailystar.net/suppliments/2007/21stfeb/bangabandhu.htm |archive-date=11 February 2018 |access-date=6 February 2018 |work=The Daily Star}}

In early January 1950, the Awami League held an anti-famine rally in Dhaka during the visit of Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan. Mujib was arrested for instigating the protests. On 26 January 1952, Pakistan's then Bengali Prime Minister Khawaja Nazimuddin reiterated that Urdu will be the only state language. Despite his imprisonment, Mujib played a key role in organising protests by issuing instructions from jail to students and protestors. He played a key role in declaring 21 February 1952 as a strike day. Mujib went on hunger strike from 14 February 1952 in the prelude to the strike day. His own hunger strike lasted 13 days. On 26 February, he was released from jail amid the public outrage over police killings of protestors on 21 February, including Salam, Rafiq, Barkat, and Jabbar.{{Cite news |date=22 February 1952 |title=Dhaka Medical College Hostel Prangone Chatro Shomabesher Upor Policer Guliborshon. Bishwabidyalayer Tinjon Chatroshoho Char Bekti Nihoto O Shotero Bekti Ahoto |work=The Azad |language=bn}}{{Cite book |last=Bishwas |first=Sukumar |url={{GBurl|id=U-1tAAAAMAAJ}} |title=Bangladesh Liberation War, Mujibnagar Government Documents, 1971 |date=2005 |publisher=Mawla Brothers |isbn=978-9844104341 |location=Dhaka |page=167}}{{Cite news |last=Dr. Atiur Rahman |date=21 February 2016 |title=The lighthouse of Bengali mentality |url=http://dailyasianage.com/news/11509 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803010321/http://dailyasianage.com/news/11509 |archive-date=3 August 2017 |access-date=3 August 2017 |work=The Asian Age}}{{Cite web |title=Political Profile of Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman |url=http://www.albd.org/bangabandhu/bangabandhu.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060426174108/http://www.albd.org/bangabandhu/bangabandhu.htm |archive-date=26 April 2006 |access-date=6 July 2006 |website=Bangladesh Awami League}}

{{Main|United Front (East Pakistan)}}

File:Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 19954.jpg

File:Mujib taking oath.jpg in 1954]]

File:1954 east bengal cabinet.jpg

File:Sheikh Mujib in China.jpg in Peking, 1956]]

File:Sheikh Mujib at Fletcher School with others.jpg in 1958 as part of the International Visitor Leadership Program]]

File:Mujib in Harvard.jpg with Munier Chowdhury (middle) and Md. Matiul Islam (right)]]

The League teamed up with other parties like the Krishak Praja Party of A. K. Fazlul Huq to form the United Front coalition. During the East Bengali legislative election, 1954, Mujib was elected to public office for the first time. He became a member of the East Bengal Legislative Assembly. This was the first election in East Bengal since the partition of India in 1947. The Awami League-led United Front secured a landslide victory of 223 seats in the 237 seats of the provincial assembly. Mujib himself won by a margin of 13,000 votes against his Muslim League rival Wahiduzzaman in Gopalganj.{{sfn|Mujibur Rahman|2012|p=xviii }} A. K. Fazlul Huq became Chief Minister and inducted Mujib into his cabinet. Mujib's initial portfolios were agriculture and forestry.{{sfn|Mujibur Rahman|2012|p=xviii}} After taking oath on 15 May 1954, Chief Minister Huq travelled with ministers to India and West Pakistan. The coalition government was dismissed on 30 May 1954. Mujib was arrested upon his return to Dhaka from Karachi. He was released on 23 December 1954. Governor's rule was imposed in East Bengal.{{Cite journal |last1=Park |first1=Richard L. |last2=Wheeler |first2=Richard S. |year=1954 |title=East Bengal under Governor's Rule |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3023816 |url-status=live |journal=Far Eastern Survey |volume=23 |issue=9 |pages=129–134 |doi=10.2307/3023816 |jstor=3023816 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221104201422/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3023816 |archive-date=4 November 2022 |access-date=4 November 2022}} The elected government was eventually restored in 1955.

On 5 June 1955, Mujib was elected to a newly reconstituted second Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. The Awami League organised a huge public meeting at Paltan Maidan in Dhaka on 17 June 1955 which outlined 21 points demanding autonomy for Pakistan's provinces. Mujib was a forceful orator at the assembly in Karachi. He opposed the government's plan to rename East Bengal as East Pakistan as part of the One Unit scheme. On 25 August 1955, he delivered the following speech.

Sir [President of the Constituent Assembly], you will see that they want to use the phrase 'East Pakistan' instead of 'East Bengal'. We have demanded many times that you should use Bengal instead of Pakistan. The word Bengal has a history and tradition of its own. You can change it only after the people have been consulted. If you want to change, we have to go back to Bengal and ask them whether they are ready to accept it. So far as the question of one unit is concerned it can be incorporated in the constitution. Why do you want it to be taken up right now? What about the state language, Bengali? We are prepared to consider one unit with all these things. So, I appeal to my friends on the other side to allow the people to give their verdict in any way, in the form of referendum or in the form of plebiscite.Debates of Pakistan Constituent Assembly and National Assembly (1947–1969)

Mujib was often a vocal defender of human rights. Speaking on freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, he told Pakistan's parliament the following on 29 November 1955:-

For whom are you going to frame the Constitution? Are you going to give freedom of speech, freedom of action to the people of Pakistan? When you do not have any other law under which you can arrest a person, you haul him under this so-called Public Safety Act. This is the blackest Act on the statute book of Pakistan. I do not know how long such an Act will continue. I want to warn you. Sir, that you must do justice to all people without fear or favour. If justice fails, equity fails, fair-play fails, then we will see how the matter is decided.{{Cite news |date=15 August 2023 |title=Bangabandhu's Voice in Parliament: Moments of Inspiration |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/national-mourning-day-2023/news/bangabandhus-voice-parliament-moments-inspiration-3394736 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817190251/https://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/national-mourning-day-2023/news/bangabandhus-voice-parliament-moments-inspiration-3394736 |archive-date=17 August 2023 |access-date=17 August 2023 |work=The Daily Star}}

Mujib often called for increased recruitment and affirmative action in East Pakistan. Bengalis were under-represented in the civil and military services despite making up the largest ethnic group in the federation.{{Cite journal |last=Väyrynen |first=Raimo |date=20 August 1971 |title=Bangla Desh – an Outcome of Inequality and Imperialism |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40724611 |url-status=live |journal=Instant Research on Peace and Violence |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=100–109 |jstor=40724611 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817190311/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40724611 |archive-date=17 August 2023 |access-date=17 August 2023}} Mujib felt that Bengalis were being relegated to provincial jobs instead of federal jobs because most Bengalis could not afford to travel outside the province in spite of holding master's degrees and bachelor's degrees. A similar situation also prevailed under British rule when Bengali degree holders were employed mostly in the Bengal Civil Service instead of the pan-Indian civil service. In parliament, Mujib spoke about parity between East and West Pakistan on 4 February 1956 and said the following.

It was stated that at the time of partition there was only one I.C.S. officer in East Bengal and there were no Engineers. I say that Bengal with 16 per cent literacy has only such a meagre representation in the service. Sir, this fact must be realised that it costs an individual Rs. 200 to come from East Bengal to this place. If you recruit in East Bengal and give a job you will find a large number of people from East Bengal coming forward. There are such a large number of M.As. and B. As....... (Interruptions)....... Sir, my time has been spoiled.

Mujib later became provincial minister of commerce and industries in the cabinet of Ataur Rahman Khan. These portfolios allowed Mujib to consolidate his popularity among the working class. The Awami League's demand for Bengali as a federal language was successfully implemented in the 1956 constitution, which declared Urdu, Bengali and English as national languages. East Bengal, however, was renamed East Pakistan. In 1957, Mujib visited the People's Republic of China. In 1958, he toured the United States as part of the State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program.{{Cite news |date=2 November 2022 |title=Fulbright providing grants to Bangladeshi scholars |url=https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2022/11/02/fulbright-providing-grants-to-bangladeshi-scholars |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221104193543/https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2022/11/02/fulbright-providing-grants-to-bangladeshi-scholars |archive-date=4 November 2022 |access-date=4 November 2022 |work=Dhaka Tribune}}{{Cite news |date=17 March 2022 |title=US: Salute to Bangabandhu's legacy |url=https://www.dhakatribune.com/foreign-affairs/2022/03/17/us-salute-to-bangabandhus-legacy |work=Dhaka Tribune}} Mujib resigned from the provincial cabinet to work full time for the Awami League as a party organiser.{{Cite news |last=Aftabuddin Ahmed |first=Mir |date=26 March 2017 |title=From Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to our Bangabandhu |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/independence-day-special-2017/sheikh-mujibur-rahman-our-bangabandhu-1381261 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010064714/https://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/independence-day-special-2017/sheikh-mujibur-rahman-our-bangabandhu-1381261 |archive-date=10 October 2024 |access-date=3 August 2017 |work=The Daily Star}}

File:Mujib with Shaheed Shabeb.jpg

File:Mujib Suhrawardy Zhou Enlai.jpg, with Prime Minister Suhrawardy and Premier Zhou Enlai at Dhaka Stadium in 1957]]

Between 1956 and 1957, Mujib's mentor Suhrawardy served as the 5th Prime Minister of Pakistan. Suhrawardy strengthened Pakistan's relations with the United States and China. Suhrawardy was a strong supporter of Pakistan's membership in SEATO and CENTO.{{Cite journal |last=Ispahani |first=M. A. H. |year=1964 |title=The Foreign Policy of Pakistan 1947–1964 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41392808 |url-status=live |journal=Pakistan Horizon |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=231–252 |jstor=41392808 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221104235915/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41392808 |archive-date=4 November 2022 |access-date=4 November 2022}} Suhrawardy's pro-Western foreign policy caused Maulana Bhashani to break away from the Awami League to form the National Awami Party, though Mujib remained loyal to Suhrawardy.

Mujib joined the Alpha Insurance Company in 1960.{{Cite book |last=Hasina |first=S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lyVGEAAAQBAJ&pg=PR32 |title=Secret Documents of Intelligence Branch on Father of The Nation, Bangladesh: Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Volume VI (1960–1961) |publisher=Hakkani |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-000-19617-7 |page=32 |access-date=2024-08-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010064834/https://books.google.com/books?id=lyVGEAAAQBAJ&pg=PR32#v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=10 October 2024 |url-status=live}} He continued to work in the insurance industry for many years.{{Cite news |title=Bangabandhu and insurance sector development |url=https://today.thefinancialexpress.com.bd/special-issues/national-insurance-day-2020/bangabandhu-and-insurance-sector-development-1582983971 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221104200719/https://today.thefinancialexpress.com.bd/special-issues/national-insurance-day-2020/bangabandhu-and-insurance-sector-development-1582983971 |archive-date=4 November 2022 |access-date=4 November 2022 |work=The Financial Express}}{{Cite news |last=Unb |first=Dhaka |date=2 March 2021 |title=Make people aware of benefits of insurance |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/news/make-people-aware-benefits-insurance-2053261 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010064714/https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/news/make-people-aware-benefits-insurance-2053261 |archive-date=10 October 2024 |access-date=4 November 2022 |work=The Daily Star}}{{Cite news |title=Bangabandhu and 'Bima' |url=https://www.observerbd.com/news.php?id=294807 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221104200719/https://www.observerbd.com/news.php?id=294807 |archive-date=4 November 2022 |access-date=4 November 2022 |work=The Daily Observer |type=Op-Ed}}

The 1958 Pakistani military coup ended Pakistan's first era of parliamentary democracy as Muhammad Ayub Khan, the commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army, overthrew the Bengali president Iskandar Ali Mirza and abolished the 1956 constitution. Many politicians were imprisoned and disqualified from holding public office, including Mujib's mentor Suhrawardy.{{Cite news |date=21 July 2015 |title=The political victimisation of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1195290 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221104201848/https://www.dawn.com/news/1195290 |archive-date=4 November 2022 |access-date=4 November 2022 |work=Dawn}} A new constitution was introduced by Ayub Khan which curtailed universal suffrage and empowered electoral colleges to elect the country's parliament.{{Cite journal |last=Sayeed |first=Khalid B. |year=1961 |title=Pakistan's Basic Democracy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4323370 |url-status=live |journal=Middle East Journal |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=249–263 |jstor=4323370 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221104235917/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4323370 |archive-date=4 November 2022 |access-date=4 November 2022}}{{Cite journal |last=Mukherjee |first=Kunal |year=2016 |title=Ayub Khan's Basic Democracy and Political Continuity in Contemporary Pakistan |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/48505506 |url-status=live |journal=India Quarterly |volume=72 |issue=3 |pages=268–277 |doi=10.1177/0974928416656498 |jstor=48505506 |s2cid=157810936 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221104235923/https://www.jstor.org/stable/48505506 |archive-date=4 November 2022 |access-date=4 November 2022}}

{{Main|Six point movement}}

File:Mujib in Jessore with Mosharraf and kadir (1966).jpg during the 6-point movement in 1966]]

File:Sheikh Mujibur Rahman 1970 election result.jpg and others. By the late 1960s, the Mujib coat became his signature style.]]

File:Awami League leaders after the 1970 Pakistani General Election.webp and Syed Nazrul Islam]]

Following Suhrawardy's death in 1963, Mujib became General Secretary of the All Pakistan Awami League with Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan as its titular president.{{Cite news |date=27 September 2020 |title=Nawabzada Nasrullah remembered on death anniversary |url=https://dailytimes.com.pk/671334/nawabzada-nasrullah-remembered-on-death-anniversary/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221104194545/https://dailytimes.com.pk/671334/nawabzada-nasrullah-remembered-on-death-anniversary/ |archive-date=4 November 2022 |access-date=4 November 2022 |work=Daily Times}}{{Cite web |date=6 January 2011 |title=Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan |url=https://storyofpakistan.com/nawabzada-nasrullah-khan/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221104194556/https://storyofpakistan.com/nawabzada-nasrullah-khan/ |archive-date=4 November 2022 |access-date=4 November 2022}} The 1962 constitution introduced a presidential republic.{{Cite news |title=Special report: The Changing of the Guard 1958-1969 |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1355171 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205233009/https://www.dawn.com/news/1355171 |archive-date=5 December 2022 |access-date=7 November 2022 |work=Dawn |quote=Ayub sought some form of public legitimacy as all military dictators have been forced to, lifting martial law in 1962 following the implementation of a presidential-form constitution.}} Mujib was one of the key leaders to rally opposition to president Ayub Khan who enacted a system of electoral colleges to elect the country's parliament and president under a system known as "Basic Democracy".{{Cite book |last=Sobhan |first=Rehman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iv49AAAAYAAJ |title=Basic Democracies Works Programme and Rural Development in East Pakistan |year=1968 |publisher=Bureau of Economic Research, University of Dacca |access-date=16 August 2023}}{{Cite journal |last=Rashiduzzaman |first=M. |date=July 2006 |title=The Awami League in the Political Development of Pakistan |journal=Asian Survey |volume=10 |issue=7 |pages=574–587 |doi=10.2307/2642956 |jstor=2642956}} Universal suffrage was curtailed as part of the Basic Democracy scheme.

Mujib supported opposition candidate Fatima Jinnah against Ayub Khan in the 1965 presidential election.{{Cite book |title=Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Struggle for Independence: UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, De-classified Documents, 1962–1971 |publisher=Hakkani Publishers |year=2013 |isbn=978-7021400675 |editor-last=Enayetur Rahim and Joyce L. Rahim |pages=173–174}} Fatima Jinnah, the sister of Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, drew huge crowds in East Pakistan during her presidential campaign which was supported by the Combined Opposition Party, including the Awami League.{{Cite news |date=18 October 1964 |title=East Pakistanis Hail Miss Jinnah; Campaign Train of Ayub Foe is Thronged on Tour |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/18/archives/east-pakistanis-hail-miss-jinnah-campaign-train-of-ayub-foe-is.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107182444/https://www.nytimes.com/1964/10/18/archives/east-pakistanis-hail-miss-jinnah-campaign-train-of-ayub-foe-is.html |archive-date=7 November 2022 |access-date=7 November 2022 |work=The New York Times}} East Pakistan was the hotbed of opposition to the presidency of Ayub Khan.{{Cite journal |last=Choudhury |first=G. W. |author-link=G. W. Choudhury |date=April 1972 |title=Bangladesh: Why It Happened |journal=International Affairs |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=242–249 |doi=10.2307/2613440 |jstor=2613440}} Mujib became popular for voicing the grievances of the Bengali population, including under-representation in the military and central bureaucracy.{{Cite book |last=Jahan |first=Rounaq |author-link=Rounaq Jahan |title=Pakistan: Failure in National Integration |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1972 |isbn=978-0231036252 |pages=166–167}} Despite generating most of Pakistan's export earnings and customs tax revenue, East Pakistan received a smaller budget allocation than West Pakistan.{{Cite web |title=Demons of December – Road from East Pakistan to Bangladesh |url=http://www.defencejournal.com/2002/dec/demons.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609122558/http://www.defencejournal.com/2002/dec/demons.htm |archive-date=9 June 2011 |access-date=23 June 2011 |publisher=Defencejournal.com}}

The 1965 war between India and Pakistan ended in stalemate. The Tashkent Declaration was domestically seen as giving away Pakistan's gains to India. Ayub Khan's foreign minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto resigned from the government,{{Cite news |date=18 June 1966 |title=Bhutto Leaving Cabinet in Pakistan, He Confirms |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1966/06/18/archives/bhutto-leaving-cabinet-in-pakistan-he-confirms.html |work=The New York Times}} formed the Pakistan Peoples Party, and exploited public discontent against the regime.

In 1965, Pakistan banned the works of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in state media.{{Cite news |title=ICCR's misadventure with Urdu |url=https://www.dailypioneer.com/2018/columnists/iccrs-misadventure-with-urdu.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107182451/https://www.dailypioneer.com/2018/columnists/iccrs-misadventure-with-urdu.html |archive-date=7 November 2022 |access-date=7 November 2022 |work=The Pioneer}}{{Cite news |title=I used to sing Rabindra Sangeet |url=https://www.newagebd.net/article/11351/i-used-to-sing-rabindra-sangeet |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107182451/https://www.newagebd.net/article/11351/i-used-to-sing-rabindra-sangeet |archive-date=7 November 2022 |access-date=7 November 2022 |work=New Age}}{{Cite news |date=18 July 2021 |title=Exploring the history of Bangladesh through a different lens |url=https://www.tbsnews.net/thoughts/exploring-history-bangladesh-through-different-lens-276319 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107182458/https://www.tbsnews.net/thoughts/exploring-history-bangladesh-through-different-lens-276319 |archive-date=7 November 2022 |access-date=7 November 2022 |work=Business Standard}} Censorship in state media spurred Bengali civil society groups like Chhayanaut to preserve Bengali culture. When Ayub Khan compared Bengalis to beasts, the poet Sufia Kamal retorted that "If the people are beasts then as the President of the Republic, you are the king of the beasts".{{Cite news |title=Forum |url=https://archive.thedailystar.net/forum/2012/July/sufia.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107182451/https://archive.thedailystar.net/forum/2012/July/sufia.htm |archive-date=7 November 2022 |access-date=7 November 2022 |work=The Daily Star}} The Daily Ittefaq led by Tofazzal Hossain voiced growing aspirations for democracy, autonomy, and nationalism. Economists in Dhaka University pointed to the massive reallocation of revenue to West Pakistan despite East Pakistan's role in generating most of Pakistan's export income. Rehman Sobhan paraphrased the two-nation theory into the two economies theory.{{Cite news |last=Nurul Islam |date=22 June 2014 |title=The Two Economies thesis: Road to the Six Points Programme |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/the-two-economies-thesis-road-to-the-six-points-programme-29679 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107182453/https://www.thedailystar.net/the-two-economies-thesis-road-to-the-six-points-programme-29679 |archive-date=7 November 2022 |access-date=7 November 2022 |work=The Daily Star}}{{Cite web |date=30 August 2015 |title=Two Economies to Two Nations: Rehman Sobhan's Journey to Bangladesh |url=https://cpd.org.bd/from-two-economies-to-two-nations-my-journey-to-bangladesh/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107182457/https://cpd.org.bd/from-two-economies-to-two-nations-my-journey-to-bangladesh/ |archive-date=7 November 2022 |access-date=7 November 2022 |website=CPD}}{{Cite news |date=21 January 2021 |title=From Two Economies to Two Nations: Revisiting Bangladesh's Economic Transformation |url=https://www.tbsnews.net/first-anniversary/two-economies-two-nations-revisiting-bangladeshs-economic-transformation-189289 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107185453/https://www.tbsnews.net/first-anniversary/two-economies-two-nations-revisiting-bangladeshs-economic-transformation-189289 |archive-date=7 November 2022 |access-date=7 November 2022 |work=The Daily Star}}{{Cite web |title=From Two Economies To Two Nations |url=https://www.goodreads.com/work/best_book/48150285-from-two-economies-to-two-nations-my-journey-to-bangladesh |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010065215/https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28139259-from-two-economies-to-two-nations |archive-date=10 October 2024 |access-date=8 January 2023 |website=goodreads.com}} He argued that East and West Pakistan had two fundamentally distinct economies within one country.

In 1966, Mujib put forward a 6-point plan at a national conference of opposition parties in Lahore. The city of Lahore was chosen because of its symbolism as the place where the Lahore Resolution was adopted by the Muslim League in 1940. The six points called for abolishing the Basic Democracy scheme, restoring universal suffrage, devolving federal power to the provinces of East and West Pakistan, separate fiscal, monetary and trade policies for East and West Pakistan, and increased security spending for East Pakistan.{{Cite web |date=16 June 2021 |title=All you need to know about the Six-Point Movement in East Pakistan |url=https://cri.org.bd/2021/06/16/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-six-point-movement-in-east-pakistan/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107182446/https://cri.org.bd/2021/06/16/all-you-need-to-know-about-the-six-point-movement-in-east-pakistan/ |archive-date=7 November 2022 |access-date=7 November 2022}}

1. The constitution should provide for a Federation of Pakistan in its true sense based on the Lahore Resolution and the parliamentary form of government with supremacy of a legislature directly elected on the basis of universal adult franchise.
2. The federal government should deal with only two subjects: defence and foreign affairs, and all other residuary subjects shall be vested in the federating states.
3. Two separate, but freely convertible currencies for two wings should be introduced; or if this is not feasible, there should be one currency for the whole country, but effective constitutional provisions should be introduced to stop the flight of capital from East to West Pakistan. Furthermore, a separate banking reserve should be established and a separate fiscal and monetary policy be adopted for East Pakistan.
4. The power of taxation and revenue collection shall be vested in the federating units and the federal center will have no such power. The Federation will be entitled to a share in the state taxes to meet its expenditures.
5. There should be two separate accounts for the foreign exchange earnings of the two wings; the foreign exchange requirements of the federal government should be met by the two wings equally or in a ratio to be fixed; indigenous products should move free of duty between the two wings, and the constitution should empower the units to establish trade links with foreign countries.
6. East Pakistan should have its own security force.

Mujib's points catalysed public support across East Pakistan, launching what historians have termed the six point movement – recognised as the turning point towards East and West Pakistan becoming two nations.{{Cite news |last=Manik |first=M. Waheeduzzaman |date=7 June 2008 |title=The historic six-point movement and its impact on the struggle for independence |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-40021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180108070230/http://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-40021 |archive-date=8 January 2018 |access-date=3 August 2017 |work=The Daily Star}}{{Cite book |title=Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Struggle for Independence: UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, De-classified Documents, 1962–1971 |publisher=Hakkani Publishers |year=2013 |isbn=978-7021400675 |editor-last=Enayetur Rahim and Joyce L. Rahim |page=28}} Mujib insisted on a federal democracy and obtained broad support from the Bengali population.{{sfn|Karim|2005|pp=136–138}}{{Cite book |last=Sakhawatullah |first=Kazi M. |title=Redemption of the baffled hero: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman |publisher=Gonoprokashani |year=2002 |pages=82–97}} In 1966, Mujib was elected as President of the Awami League. Tajuddin Ahmad succeeded him as General Secretary.

{{Main|Agartala Conspiracy Case}}

File:Release of Sheikh Mujib from Prison.jpg

Mujib was arrested by the Pakistan Army and after two years in jail, an official sedition trial in a military court opened. During his imprisonment between 1967 and 1969, Mujib began to write his autobiography.{{Cite web |title='The Unfinished Memoirs' by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman released in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan |url=http://www.uplbooks.com/news/%E2%80%9C-unfinished-memoirs%E2%80%9D-bangabandhu-sheikh-mujibur-rahman-released-bangladesh-india-and-pakistan |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190828064611/http://www.uplbooks.com/news/%25E2%2580%259C-unfinished-memoirs%25E2%2580%259D-bangabandhu-sheikh-mujibur-rahman-released-bangladesh-india-and-pakistan |archive-date=28 August 2019 |access-date=17 November 2022 |website=uplbooks.com |publisher=The University Press Limited}} In what is widely known as the Agartala Conspiracy Case, Mujib and 34 Bengali military officers were accused by the government of colluding with Indian government agents in a scheme to divide Pakistan and threaten its unity, order and national security. The plot was alleged to have been planned in the city of Agartala in the bordering Indian state of Tripura. The outcry and unrest over Mujib's arrest and the charge of sedition against him destabilised East Pakistan amidst large protests and strikes. Various Bengali political and student groups added demands to address the issues of students, workers and the poor, forming a larger "11-point plan". The government caved to the mounting pressure, dropped the charges on 22 February 1969 and unconditionally released Mujib the following day. He returned to East Pakistan as a public hero.{{Cite news |last=Ahsan |first=Syed Badrul |date=18 June 2008 |title=Agartala Conspiracy Case forty years on |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-41580 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803130552/http://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-41580 |archive-date=3 August 2017 |access-date=3 August 2017 |work=The Daily Star}} He was given a mass reception on 23 February, at the Ramna Race Course and conferred with the popular honorary title of Bangabandhu by Tofail Ahmed.{{Cite news |date=22 March 2021 |title=When Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became Bangabandhu |url=https://archive.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2021/03/22/when-sheikh-mujibur-rahman-became-bangabandhu |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107200434/https://archive.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2021/03/22/when-sheikh-mujibur-rahman-became-bangabandhu |archive-date=7 November 2022 |access-date=7 November 2022 |work=Dhaka Tribune}} The term Bangabandhu means Friend of the Bengal in the Bengali language. Several of Bengal's historic leaders were given similar honorary titles, including Sher-e-Bangla (Lion of Bengal) for A. K. Fazlul Huq, Deshbandhu (Friend of the Nation) for Chittaranjan Das, and Netaji (The Leader) for Subhash Chandra Bose.

{{Main|1969 East Pakistan uprising}}

File:Mass uprising 1969 Dhaka University.jpg

File:Sheikh Mujib and Ayub Khan.jpg and Sheikh Mujib shaking hands at the Round Table Conference in West Pakistan, 1969]]

File:Round Table Conference in Pakistan in 1969.jpg

In 1969, President Ayub Khan convened a Round Table Conference with opposition parties to find a way out of the prevailing political impasse. A few days after his release from prison, Mujib flew to Rawalpindi to attend the Round Table Conference.{{Cite web |date=September 2021 |title=Sheikh Mujibur Rahman {{!}} East Pakistan {{!}} Bangladesh {{!}} Pakistan {{!}} 1969 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U38kZqY6xS8 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107200432/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U38kZqY6xS8 |archive-date=7 November 2022 |access-date=7 November 2022 |via=YouTube}} Mujib sought to bargain for East Pakistan's autonomy. Mujib was the most powerful opposition leader at the Round Table Conference. Ayub Khan shook hands with Mujib, whom Khan previously had imprisoned. Talking to British media, Mujib said "East Pakistan must get full regional autonomy. It must be self-sufficient in all respects. It must get its due share and legitimate share in the central administration. The West Pakistani people support [East Pakistani demands]. Only the vested interests want to divide the people of East and West Pakistan". When asked about the prospect of East Pakistan ruling West Pakistan if the Awami League gained power, Mujib replied that majority rule is important in a democracy but the people of East Pakistan had no intention to discriminate against West Pakistan, and that West Pakistani parties would continue to play an important role. Mujib toured West Pakistani cities by train after the Round Table Conference. West Pakistani crowds received him with chants of "Sheikh Saheb Zindabad!" (meaning Long Live the Sheikh!).{{Cite news |date=17 March 2022 |title=A lapsed teenager remembers |url=https://www.dhakatribune.com/op-ed/2022/03/17/a-lapsed-teenager-remembers |work=Dhaka Tribune}} He was received by huge crowds in Quetta, Baluchistan. He spoke to West Pakistani crowds in a heavily Bengali accent of Urdu, talking about chhey nukati (six points) and hum chhoy dofa mangta sab ke liye.

Mujib demanded that Pakistan accept his six-point plan for federal democracy. He wasn't satisfied by Ayub Khan's pledges. When he returned to Dhaka, he declared that East Pakistan should be known as Bangladesh. On 5 December 1969 Mujib made a declaration at a public meeting, held to observe the death anniversary of his mentor Suhrawardy, that henceforth East Pakistan would be called "Bangladesh":

There was a time when all efforts were made to erase the word "Bangla" from this land and its map. The existence of the word "Bangla" was found nowhere except in the term Bay of Bengal. I on behalf of Pakistan announce today that this land will be called "Bangladesh" instead of East Pakistan.

Mujib's fiery rhetoric ignited Bengali nationalism and pro-independence aspirations among the masses, students, professionals, and intellectuals of East Pakistan. Many observers believed that Bengali nationalism was a rejection of Pakistan's founding two-nation theory but Mujib never phrased his rhetoric in these terms.{{Cite book |last1=Baxter |first1=Craig |author-link1=Craig Baxter |title=Government and Politics in South Asia |last2=Malik |first2=Yogendra K. |last3=Kennedy |first3=Charles |last4=Oberst |first4=Robert C. |date=1998 |publisher=Westview Press |isbn=978-0813339016 |edition=5th |location=Boulder, CO |page=251 |quote=Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan in 1971 was seen by many as the logical division of two disparate wings of a country united only by Islam, a mutual concern about India ... but divided by language and social customs ... the cultural differences between East and West Pakistan were so great that the division might be described as a second 'Two-Nation Theory,' based this time on culture rather than religion as in 1947.}} Mujib was able to galvanise support throughout East Pakistan, which was home to the majority of Pakistan's population. He became one of the most powerful political figures in the Indian subcontinent. Bengalis increasingly referred to him as Bangabandhu.

{{Main|1970 Pakistani general election}}

File:Sheikh Mujibur Rahman 1970 meeting.jpg in 1970]]

File:Sheikh Mujibur Rahman 1970 election campaign train station.jpg

File:Sheikh Mujibur Rahman election rally 1970.jpg

File:Sheikh Mujibur Rahman casting ballot 1970 election.jpg during the general election in 1970]]

In March 1969, Ayub Khan resigned and Yahya Khan became president. Prior to the scheduled general election for 1970, one of the most powerful cyclones on record devastated East Pakistan, leaving half a million people dead and millions displaced. President Yahya Khan, who was flying back from China after the cyclone, viewed the devastation from the air. The ruling military junta was slow to respond with relief efforts. Newspapers in East Pakistan accused the federal government of "gross neglect, callous inattention, and bitter indifference".{{Cite book |last=Blood |first=Peter R. |url=http://countrystudies.us/bangladesh/16.htm |title=Bangladesh: A Country Study |publisher=Federal Research Division, Library of Congress |year=1989 |editor-last=Heitzman |editor-first=James |location=Washington, D.C. |page=28 |chapter=Emerging Discontent, 1966–70 |oclc=49223313 |access-date=31 August 2016 |editor-last2=Worden |editor-first2=Robert L. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623150140/http://countrystudies.us/bangladesh/16.htm |archive-date=23 June 2011 |url-status=live}} Mujib remarked that "We have a large army but it is left to the British Marines to bury our dead". International aid had to pour in due to the slow response of the Pakistani military regime. Bengalis were outraged at what was widely considered to be the weak and ineffective response of the federal government to the disaster.{{Cite book |url=http://countrystudies.us/bangladesh/ |title=Bangladesh: A Country Study |date=1989 |publisher=Federal Research Division, Library of Congress |editor-last=Heitzman |editor-first=James |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=28–29 |chapter=Emerging discontent 1966–1970 |access-date=31 August 2016 |editor-last2=Worden |editor-first2=Robert |chapter-url=http://countrystudies.us/bangladesh/16.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622211513/http://countrystudies.us/bangladesh/21.htm |archive-date=22 June 2011 |url-status=live}}{{Cite news |date=24 November 1970 |title=Yahya Directing Disaster Relief |work=The New York Times |page=9 |agency=United Press International}} Public opinion and political parties in East Pakistan blamed the ruling military junta for the lack of relief efforts. The dissatisfaction led to divisions between East Pakistanis and West Pakistanis within the civil services, police and Pakistani Armed Forces.{{Cite news |last=Durdin |first=Tillman |date=11 March 1971 |title=Pakistanis Crisis Virtually Halts Rehabilitation Work in Cyclone Region |work=The New York Times |page=2}}

In the Pakistani general elections held on 7 December 1970, the Awami League won 167 out of 169 seats belonging to East Pakistan in the National Assembly of Pakistan, as well as a landslide in the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly.{{sfn|Kaushik|Patnayak|1995|p=295}}{{Cite book |last=Meghna Guhathakurta and Willem van Schendel |title=The Bangladesh Reader: History, Culture, Politics |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0822353188 |page=264}} The Awami League emerged as the single largest party in the federal parliament of Pakistan. With 167 seats, it was past the halfway mark of 150 seats in the 300 member national assembly and had the right to form a government of its own. Sheikh Mujib was widely considered to be the Prime Minister-elect, including by President Yahya Khan. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) came in second with 86 seats. The new parliament was scheduled to hold its first sitting in Dhaka, Pakistan's legislative capital under the 1962 constitution. The political crisis emerged when PPP leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto declared that his party would boycott parliament if Mujib formed the next government. Bhutto threatened to break the legs of any West Pakistani MP-elect who accepted Mujib's mandate.{{Cite news |date=22 February 1971 |title=Pakistani Cabinet Dissolved by Yahya |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/02/22/archives/pakistani-cabinet-dissolved-by-yahya.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170522062348/http://www.nytimes.com/1971/02/22/archives/pakistani-cabinet-dissolved-by-yahya.html? |archive-date=22 May 2017 |access-date=29 April 2017 |work=The New York Times}}{{Cite book |last=Hossain |first=Kamal |title=Bangladesh: Quest for Freedom and Justice |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199068531 |page=130}}{{Cite book |last=Jalal |first=Ayesha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xzGOBAAAQBAJ&dq=%22bhutto+threatens+to+break+legs%22&pg=PA167 |title=The Struggle for Pakistan: A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics |year= 2014 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674052895 |access-date=16 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010065215/https://books.google.com/books?id=xzGOBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA167&dq=%22bhutto+threatens+to+break+legs%22#v=onepage&q=%22bhutto%20threatens%20to%20break%20legs%22&f=false |archive-date=10 October 2024 |url-status=live |via=Google Books}}{{Cite book |last=Sobhan |first=Rehman |author-link=Rehman Sobhan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8qeMCwAAQBAJ&dq=%22bhutto+threatens+to+break+legs+1971%22&pg=PT300 |title=Untranquil Recollections: The Years of Fulfilment |date=2015 |publisher=Sage Publications India |isbn=9789351503200 |access-date=16 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010065216/https://books.google.com/books?id=8qeMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT300&dq=%22bhutto+threatens+to+break+legs+1971%22 |archive-date=10 October 2024 |url-status=live |via=Google Books}}{{Cite news |date=23 September 2017 |title=Special report: The Breakup of Pakistan 1969–1971 |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1359141 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171216060125/https://www.dawn.com/news/1359141 |archive-date=16 December 2017 |access-date=7 November 2022 |work=Dawn}}{{Cite news |date=17 December 2018 |title="Udhar tum, idhar hum": When Bhutto pushed Bangladesh to the edge of Pakistan |url=https://tribune.com.pk/article/75627/udhar-tum-idhar-hum-when-bhutto-divided-pakistan-into-east-and-west |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107234706/https://tribune.com.pk/article/75627/udhar-tum-idhar-hum-when-bhutto-divided-pakistan-into-east-and-west |archive-date=7 November 2022 |access-date=7 November 2022 |work=The Express Tribune}} However, Khan Abdul Wali Khan of the Awami National Party from North West Frontier Province was open to accepting an Awami League government and travelled to Dhaka to meet with Mujib.{{Cite news |last=Islam |first=Zyma |date=3 October 2013 |title=He rallied for Mujib, against Yahya |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/news/he-rallied-for-mujib-against-yahya |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107204316/https://www.thedailystar.net/news/he-rallied-for-mujib-against-yahya |archive-date=7 November 2022 |access-date=7 November 2022 |work=The Daily Star}} Many in Pakistan's establishment were opposed to Mujib becoming Pakistan's prime minister. At the time neither Mujib nor the Awami League had explicitly advocated political independence for East Pakistan, but smaller nationalist groups were demanding independence for Bangladesh.{{Cite book |last=Ahmed |first=Salahuddin |title=Bangladesh: Past and Present |date=2004 |publisher=APH Publishing |isbn=978-8176484695 |page=63}} After the election victory, Mujib was ornamented as "Sher-e-Pakistan" (Lion of Pakistan) on a newspaper ad published on The Daily Ittefaq on 3 January 1971.{{Cite web |date=1971-01-03 |title=Site is undergoing maintenance |script-title=bn:শেখ মুজিব "শের ই পাকিস্তান" |url=https://songramernotebook.com/archives/163311 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240801105549/https://songramernotebook.com/archives/163311 |archive-date=1 August 2024 |access-date=1 August 2024 |website=Songramer Notebook}}

Both Bhutto and Yahya Khan travelled to Dhaka for negotiations with the Awami League. Mujib's delegation included the notable lawyer and constitutional expert Kamal Hossain. The Bengali negotiating position is extensively discussed in Kamal Hossain's autobiography Bangladesh: Quest for Freedom and Justice.{{Cite book |last=Hossain |first=Kamal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yW1angEACAAJ |title=Bangladesh: Quest for Freedom and Justice |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-906853-1 |access-date=16 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010065217/https://books.google.com/books?id=yW1angEACAAJ |archive-date=10 October 2024 |url-status=live |via=Google Books}} The Pakistani government was represented by former chief justice Alvin Robert Cornelius. At the InterContinental Dhaka, Bengali chefs refused to cook food for Yahya Khan. Governor Sahabzada Yaqub Khan requested the Awami League to end the strike of the chefs at the InterContinental Hotel.

Bhutto feared civil war, and sent a secret message to Mujib and his inner circle to arrange a meeting with them.{{Cite book |last=Hassan |first=Mubashir |author-link=Mubashir Hassan |title=The Mirage of Power: An Inquiry Into the Bhutto Years |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0195793000 |page=3}}{{Cite news |last=Liton |first=Shakhawat |date=12 July 2016 |title=Who was a liar – Yahya or Bhutto? |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/op-ed/who-was-liar-yahya-or-bhutto-200383 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803211656/http://www.thedailystar.net/op-ed/who-was-liar-yahya-or-bhutto-200383 |archive-date=3 August 2017 |access-date=3 August 2017 |work=The Daily Star |type=Op-ed}} Mubashir Hassan met with Mujib and persuaded him to form a coalition government with Bhutto. They decided that Bhutto would serve as president, with Mujib as Prime Minister. These developments took place secretly and no Pakistan Armed Forces personnel were kept informed. Meanwhile, Bhutto increased the pressure on Yahya Khan to take a stand on dissolving the government.{{Cite book |title=The Mirage of Power: An Inquiry Into the Bhutto Years |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-0195793000 |page=107}}

In 1938, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman went to the house of Gopalganj Hindu Mahasabha president Suren Banerjee when his classmate friend Abdul Malek was beaten up. Sheikh Mujib was arrested for the first time in a case filed by the leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha when the scuffle took place there.{{Cite news |date=17 March 2020 |script-title=bn:বঙ্গবন্ধুর যত প্রথম |url=https://tbsnews.net/bangla/%E0%A6%AB%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%99%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A7%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%A4-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A5%E0%A6%AE |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411022947/https://www.tbsnews.net/bangla/%E0%A6%AB%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%99%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A7%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%A4-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A5%E0%A6%AE |archive-date=11 April 2021 |access-date=20 December 2020 |publisher=দ্য বিজনেস স্ট্যান্ডার্ড}} After seven days in jail, Sheikh Mujib was released when the case was dropped through settlement.{{Cite news |date=10 October 2020 |script-title=bn:কারাগারে বঙ্গবন্ধুর ৪৬৮২ দিন |url=https://m.bdnews24.com/bn/detail/mujib100/1825119 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112032034/https://m.bdnews24.com/bn/detail/mujib100/1825119 |archive-date=12 January 2021 |access-date=20 December 2020 |publisher=বিডিনিউজ২৪}} In addition, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was temporarily arrested twice for making a speech and staying at the meeting place during disturbances while being the vice-president of the Faridpur district branch of the All Bengal Muslim Chhatra League in 1941.

File:Mujib and Tajuddin on 10 January 1972.jpg

After the establishment of Pakistan, Sheikh Mujib was in jail for five days from 11 to 15 March 1948. He was arrested on 11 September of the same year and released on 21 January 1949. He spent 132 days in prison during this period. Then on 19 April 1949, he was again taken to jail and was released on 28 June after serving 80 days of imprisonment. At that point he spent 27 days in prison. In the same year, i.e., 63 days from 25 October to 27 December 1949 and 787 consecutive days from 1 January 1950 to 26 February 1952.

Sheikh Mujib had to spend 206 days in prison even after winning the United Front elections in 1954. Sheikh Mujib was arrested again on 11 October 1958 after Ayub Khan imposed martial law. At this time, he had to spend 1 thousand 153 consecutive days in prison. Then he was arrested again on 6 January 1962 and released on 18 June of that year. He spent 158 days in prison. Then in 1964 and 1965 he was in prison for 665 days in different terms. After making the six-point proposal, he was arrested at the place where he went to hold the rally. At that time, he held 32 public meetings and spent 90 days in prison for different periods. Then he was arrested again on 8 May 1966 and was released on 22 February 1969 through a popular uprising. At that time he was in prison for 1,021 days. He was arrested by the Pakistan government soon after declaring independence in the early hours of 26 March 1971. During this period he was in prison for 288 days.{{Cite news |date=7 March 2017 |script-title=bn:সংসদে তোফায়েল আহমেদ: বঙ্গবন্ধু ৪ হাজার ৬৮২ দিন কারাগারে ছিলেন |url=https://www.prothomalo.com/politics/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%99%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A7%E0%A7%81-%E0%A7%AA-%E0%A6%B9%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A7%AC%E0%A7%AE%E0%A7%A8-%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A8-%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%9B%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%A8 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240627201927/https://www.prothomalo.com/politics/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%99%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A7%E0%A7%81-%E0%A7%AA-%E0%A6%B9%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A7%AC%E0%A7%AE%E0%A7%A8-%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%A8-%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%9B%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%A8 |archive-date=27 June 2024 |access-date=20 September 2020 |publisher=প্রথম আলো}}

{{POV section|date=November 2024}}

{{Main|Non-cooperation movement (1971)|7 March Speech of Bangabandhu|Bangladesh Liberation War|Provisional Government of Bangladesh}}

File:Mujib addressing at a meeting with Syed Nazrul Islam and Tajuddin Ahmad.jpg (left) and Syed Nazrul Islam (right)]]

File:Life in Bangladesh 20240614 172540.jpg

The National Assembly was scheduled to meet in Dhaka on 3 March 1971. President Yahya Khan indefinitely postponed the assembly's first sitting, which triggered an uprising in East Pakistan. The cities of Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Rangpur, and Khulna were engulfed with protests. Amid signs of an impending crackdown, Mujib addressed the people of East Pakistan on 7 March 1971 at the Ramna Race Course Maidan.{{sfn|Kaushik|Patnayak|1995|p=296}}{{Cite news |date=11 March 2013 |title=Bangabandhu's March 7 speech Bangladesh's inspiration to rise: PM |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangabandhus-march-7-speech-bangladeshs-inspiration-to-rise-pm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911194751/http://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangabandhus-march-7-speech-bangladeshs-inspiration-to-rise-pm |archive-date=11 September 2016 |access-date=25 May 2013 |work=The Daily Star}}{{Cite web |last=Hossain |first=Amir |date=7 March 2013 |title=Historic 7th March speech of Bangabandhu |url=http://www.bangabandhu.com.bd/2013/03/07/historic-7th-march-speech-of-bangabandhu/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130615192547/http://www.bangabandhu.com.bd/2013/03/07/historic-7th-march-speech-of-bangabandhu/ |archive-date=15 June 2013 |access-date=25 May 2013 |website=Bangabandhu – The Man Behind the Nation |type=Blog}}{{Cite web |title=1971 March 7th shek mujibur rahman |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep74MqbXEWU |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120828042547/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep74MqbXEWU&feature=share |archive-date=28 August 2012 |access-date=25 May 2013 |via=YouTube}} In his speech, Mujib laid out the political history of Pakistan since partition and told the crowd that "[w]e gave blood in 1952; we won a mandate in 1954; but we were still not allowed to take up the reins of this country".{{Cite web |title=Sheikh Mujib's March 7 Speech – English Text |url=https://www.cbgr1971.org/index.php/sheikh-mujib-s-march-7-speech-english-text |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110120548/https://www.cbgr1971.org/index.php/sheikh-mujib-s-march-7-speech-english-text |archive-date=10 November 2022 |access-date=10 November 2022 |website=cbgr1971.org}} While Mujib stopped short of declaring outright independence, he stated that the goal of the Awami League from then on would be eventual independence. He declared that the Awami League would collect taxes and form committees in every neighbourhood to organise resistance. He called on the people "to turn every house into a fortress". His most famous words from the speech were the following.

This time the struggle is for our liberation! This time the struggle is for our independence!{{Cite magazine |date=20 December 1971 |title=The World: Bangladesh: Out of War, a Nation Is Born |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,878969,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070112032245/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,878969,00.html |archive-date=12 January 2007 |access-date=25 May 2013 |magazine=Time}}
(For more info, see: 7 March Speech of Bangabandhu){{Cite book |last=Sen Gupta |first=Jyoti |url={{GBurl|id=DedtAAAAMAAJ}} |title=History of freedom movement in Bangladesh, 1943–1973: some involvement |date=1974 |publisher=Naya Prokash |location=Calcutta |pages=325–326 |access-date=18 February 2013}}

Following the speech, 17 days of civil disobedience known as the non-cooperation movement took place across East Pakistan.{{sfn|Kaushik|Patnayak|1995|p=296}} The Awami League began to collect taxes while all monetary transfers to West Pakistan were suspended. East Pakistan came under the de facto control of the Awami League. On 23 March 1971, Bangladeshi flags were flown throughout East Pakistan on Pakistan's Republic Day as a show of resistance. The Awami League and the Pakistani military leadership continued negotiations over the transfer of power. However, West Pakistani troops were being flown into the eastern wing through PIA flights while arms were being unloaded from Pakistan Navy ships in Chittagong harbour.{{Cite news |last=Hamid |first=Major General Syed Ali |date=30 August 2019 |title=PIA at War |url=https://www.thefridaytimes.com/2019/08/30/pia-at-war/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110120552/https://www.thefridaytimes.com/2019/08/30/pia-at-war/ |archive-date=10 November 2022 |access-date=10 November 2022 |work=The Friday Times}}{{Cite news |date=26 March 2013 |title='Swat ' draws full house in Chittagong |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/news/swat-draws-full-house-in-chittagong |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110120546/https://www.thedailystar.net/news/swat-draws-full-house-in-chittagong |archive-date=10 November 2022 |access-date=10 November 2022 |work=The Daily Star}} The Pakistani military was preparing for a crackdown.

{{See also|Proclamation of Bangladeshi Independence}}

File:Bangabandhu Waiving Flag on 23 March 1971 at Dhanmondi 32.jpg in his residence at 32 Dhanmondi on 23 March 1971]]

File:Sheikh Mujib under Pakistani military custody in 1971.jpg]]

Talks broke down on 25 March 1971 when Yahya Khan left Dhaka, declared martial law, banned the Awami League and ordered the Pakistan Army to arrest Mujib and other Bengali leaders and activists. The Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight. Mujib sent telegrams to Chittagong where M. A. Hannan from the Awami League and Major Ziaur Rahman from the East Bengal Regiment announced the Bangladeshi declaration of independence on Mujib's behalf. The text of Mujib's telegram sent at midnight on 26 March 1971 stated the following:

{{blockquote|This may be my last message, from today Bangladesh is independent. I call upon the people of Bangladesh wherever you might be 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 Pakistan occupation army is expelled from the soil of Bangladesh and final victory is achieved.|}}

Shortly after having declared the independence of Bangladesh,{{Cite journal |last=Ludden |first=David |year=2011 |title=The Politics of Independence in Bangladesh |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23017911 |url-status=live |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=46 |issue=35 |pages=79–85 |issn=0012-9976 |jstor=23017911 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220820193156/https://www.jstor.org/stable/23017911 |archive-date=20 August 2022 |access-date=20 August 2022 }} Mujib was arrested without charges and flown to prison in West Pakistan after midnight. Mujib was moved to West Pakistan and kept under heavy guard in a jail near Faisalabad. Sheikh Mujib was later moved to Central Jail Mianwali where he remained in solitary confinement for the entirety of the war.{{Cite news |last=Badrul Ahsan |first=Syed |date=15 August 2018 |title=Pakistani jailer remembers incarcerated Bangabandhu |url=https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2018/08/15/pakistani-jailer-remembers-incarcerated-bangabandhu |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211225190534/https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/2018/08/15/pakistani-jailer-remembers-incarcerated-bangabandhu |archive-date=25 December 2021 |access-date=25 December 2021 |work=Dhaka Tribune}}{{Cite news |last=Samad |first=Saleem |author-link=Saleem Samad |date=17 March 2021 |title=Bangabandhu in Mianwali Jail |url=https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/bangabandhu-mianwali-jail-217729 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211225192035/https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/bangabandhu-mianwali-jail-217729 |archive-date=25 December 2021 |access-date=25 December 2021 |work=The Business Standard}} Kamal Hossain was also arrested and flown to West Pakistan while many other League leaders escaped to India.{{Cite magazine |date=20 December 1971 |title=Search results of From Jan 01, 1971 to Dec 31, 1971 |url=http://search.time.com/results.html?Ntt=Bangladesh&Nf=p_date_range%7cBTWN+19710101+19711231 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017154151/http://search.time.com/results.html?Ntt=Bangladesh&Nf=p_date_range%7cBTWN+19710101+19711231 |archive-date=17 October 2015 |magazine=Time}} Pakistani general Rahimuddin Khan was appointed to preside over Mujib's court-martial trial, the proceedings of which have never been made public.{{Cite news |date=20 December 2005 |title=Second Opinion: An honest look at the Dhaka debacle Khaled Ahmed's TV Review |url=http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/20-Dec-2005/second-opinion-an-honest-look-at-the-dhaka-debacle-khaled-ahmed-s-tv-review |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150109162831/http://archives.dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/20-Dec-2005/second-opinion-an-honest-look-at-the-dhaka-debacle-khaled-ahmed-s-tv-review |archive-date=9 January 2015 |access-date=27 January 2006 |work=Daily Times |location=Lahore |quote=Brig Siddiqi, commenting on his latest book on the fall of East Pakistan, said that the morale of the Pakistani troops was extremely low in 1970–71, but General Rahimuddin had tried East Pakistan's charismatic leader Mujibur Rehman in Faisalabad. (General Yahya did not confirm it.)}} Mujib was sentenced to death but his execution was deferred on three occasions.

The Pakistan Army's operations in East Pakistan were widely labelled as genocide.{{Cite news |date=17 August 1971 |title=Kennedy, in India, Terms Pakistani Drive Genocide |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/08/17/archives/kennedy-in-india-terms-pakistani-drive-genocide.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110122719/https://www.nytimes.com/1971/08/17/archives/kennedy-in-india-terms-pakistani-drive-genocide.html |archive-date=10 November 2022 |access-date=10 November 2022 |work=The New York Times}}Blood, Archer, [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB79/BEBB1.pdf Transcript of Selective Genocide Telex] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090612052659/http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB79/ |date=12 June 2009 }}, Department of State, United States The Pakistan Army carried out atrocities against Bengali civilians. With help from Jamaat militias like the Razakars, Al-Badr and Al-Shams, the army targeted Bengali intellectuals, professionals, politicians, students, and other ordinary civilians. Many Bengali women suffered rape. Due to the deteriorating situation, large numbers of Hindus fled across the border to the neighbouring Indian states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura.US State Department, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Vol. XI, South Asia Crisis, 1971, p. 165 Bengali army and police regiments soon revolted and League leaders formed the Provisional Government of Bangladesh. A major insurgency led by the Mukti Bahini arose across East Pakistan. Despite international pressure, the Pakistani government refused to release Mujib and negotiate with him. Mujib's family was kept under house arrest during this period. General Osmani was the key military commanding officer in the Mukti Bahini. Following Indian intervention in December, the Pakistan Army surrendered to the allied forces of Bangladesh and India.{{Cite book |last=Faiquzzaman |first=Mohammad |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bangladesh |year=2012 |editor-last=Sirajul Islam |editor-link=Sirajul Islam |edition=2nd |chapter=Mujibnagar Government |access-date=29 December 2017 |editor-last2=Jamal |editor-first2=Ahmed A. |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Mujibnagar_Government |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161208122432/http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Mujibnagar_Government |archive-date=8 December 2016 |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |title=Instrument of Surrender of Pakistan forces in Dacca, December 16, 1971 |newspaper=Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India |url=http://www.mea.gov.in/bilateral-documents.htm?dtl/5312/Instrument+of+Surrender+of+Pakistan+forces+in+Dacca |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224211634/http://www.mea.gov.in/bilateral-documents.htm?dtl/5312/Instrument+of+Surrender+of+Pakistan+forces+in+Dacca |archive-date=24 February 2021 |access-date=8 January 2020}}

{{external media|video1=[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsTOIiJr7so US media coverage on Mujib's homecoming]|width=210px|float=right}}

File:Mujib addressing at 10 January 1971 upon his return from Pakistan.jpg

Upon assuming the presidency after Yahya Khan's resignation, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto responded to international pressure and released Mujib on 8 January 1972.{{Cite book |last=Gandhi |first=Rajmohan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OVqP54UEe4QC |title=Revenge and Reconciliation |date=1999 |publisher=Penguin Books India |isbn=978-0-14-029045-5 |page=331 |language=en |access-date=16 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010065327/https://books.google.com/books?id=OVqP54UEe4QC |archive-date=10 October 2024 |url-status=live}} Kamal Hossain was also released. Bhutto and Aziz Ahmed secretly met Mujib and Kamal Hossain in Rawalpindi.{{Cite news |last=Malcolm Browne |date=28 December 1971 |title=Bhutto Meets With Mujib; Says He'll Continue Talrs |url=https://mobile.nytimes.com/1971/12/28/archives/bhutto-meets-with-mujib-says-hell-continue-talks-bhutto-meets-with.html |url-access=limited |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171205194743/https://mobile.nytimes.com/1971/12/28/archives/bhutto-meets-with-mujib-says-hell-continue-talks-bhutto-meets-with.html |archive-date=5 December 2017 |access-date=5 December 2017 |work=The New York Times}} Bhutto proposed a last minute attempt at mediation through the Shah of Iran, who was scheduled to arrive the next day.{{Cite web |date=28 November 2015 |title=History Wars: Kamal Hossain Interview (Part 2) |url=https://alalodulal.org/2015/11/27/kamal-hossain-2/}} Mujib declined the offer after consulting with Kamal Hossain. Mujib requested a flight to London.{{Cite news |date=15 November 2014 |title=In their words: Bhutto and Mujib, December, 1971 |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/in-their-words-bhutto-and-mujib-december-1971-50468 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820150110/http://www.thedailystar.net/in-their-words-bhutto-and-mujib-december-1971-50468 |archive-date=20 August 2017 |work=The Daily Star}} Both Mujib and Hossain were then flown to London. En route to London, their plane made a stopover in Cyprus for refuelling.{{Cite news |last=Hossain |first=Dr Kamal |date=10 January 2020 |title=A journey from darkness to light |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/bangabandhus-homecoming-day/news/journey-darkness-light-1852066 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110234502/https://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/bangabandhus-homecoming-day/news/journey-darkness-light-1852066 |archive-date=10 November 2022 |access-date=10 November 2022 |work=The Daily Star}} In London, Mujib was welcomed by British officials and a policeman remarked "Sir, we have been praying for you".{{Cite news |title=British policeman to Bangabandhu: 'We had been praying for you.' |url=https://www.thefinancialexpress.com.bd/national/british-policeman-to-bangabandhu-we-had-been-praying-for-you-1610259469 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110234454/https://www.thefinancialexpress.com.bd/national/british-policeman-to-bangabandhu-we-had-been-praying-for-you-1610259469 |archive-date=10 November 2022 |access-date=10 November 2022 |work=The Financial Express}} Mujib was lodged at Claridge's Hotel and later met with British Prime Minister Edward Heath at 10 Downing Street. Heath and Mujib discussed Bangladesh's membership of the Commonwealth. Crowds of Bengalis converged on Claridge's Hotel to get a glimpse of Mujib.{{Cite web |date=31 January 2011 |title=Press Conference of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in London 8 January 1972 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kcpVhptDuQ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110234455/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kcpVhptDuQ |archive-date=10 November 2022 |access-date=10 November 2022 |via=YouTube}}

Mujib held his first press conference in nine months and addressed the international media at Claridge's Hotel. He made the following remarks at the press conference.

I am free to share the unbounded joy of freedom with my fellow countrymen. We have won our freedom in an epic liberation struggle.{{Cite web |date=20 November 2013 |title=Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at a press conference in London |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gi5VkMxLsA |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221111003058/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gi5VkMxLsA |archive-date=11 November 2022 |access-date=11 November 2022 |via=YouTube}}

Mujib was provided an RAF plane by the British government to take him back to newly independent Bangladesh. He was accompanied on the flight by members of the Provisional Government of Bangladesh, as well as an emissary of India's premier Indira Gandhi. The emissary was Indian Bengali diplomat Shashank Banerjee, who recounted Mujib smoking his trademark smoking pipe with Erinmore tobacco.{{Cite news |title=13 historic hours in air |url=https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/13-historic-hours-in-air |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110234451/https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/13-historic-hours-in-air |archive-date=10 November 2022 |access-date=10 November 2022 |work=Prothom Alo}} During the flight, both men agreed that Bangladesh would adopt the Westminster style of parliamentary government. On Indira Gandhi's hopes for Bangladesh, Banerjee told Mujib that "on India's eastern flank, she wished to have a friendly power, a prosperous economy, and a secular democracy, with a parliamentary system of government".{{Cite news |date=15 February 2021 |title=Mujibur Rahman's First Secret Meeting with an Indian Officer – Me |newspaper=South Asia@Lse |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2021/02/15/mujibur-rahmans-first-secret-meeting-with-an-indian-officer-me/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110234452/https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2021/02/15/mujibur-rahmans-first-secret-meeting-with-an-indian-officer-me/ |archive-date=10 November 2022 |access-date=10 November 2022}} Regarding the presence of Indian troops in Bangladesh, Mujib requested Banerjee to convey to the Indian government that Indian troops should be withdrawn as early as possible. The RAF de Havilland Comet made a stopover in the Middle East en route to Dhaka.

The RAF plane then made a stopover in New Delhi. Mujib was received by Indian President V. V. Giri and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, as well as the entire Indian cabinet and chiefs of armed forces. Delhi was given a festive look as Mujib and Gandhi addressed a huge crowd where he publicly expressed his gratitude to Gandhi and the Indian public.{{Cite news |last=Rahman |first=Aziz |date=13 January 2017 |title=Historic Homecoming of Bangabandhu |url=https://daily-sun.com/printversion/details/198019/Historic-Homecomingof-Bangabandhu |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010065246/https://www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/198019/Historic-Homecomingof-Bangabandhu |archive-date=10 October 2024 |access-date=29 December 2017 |work=Daily Sun}}

After a few hours in Delhi, the RAF plane flew Mujib to Dhaka in independent Bangladesh. Before the plane landed, it circled the city to view the million people who converged on Tejgaon Airport to greet Mujib.{{Cite web |date=13 August 2011 |title=Bangabandhu returns home...coverage by ABC news at 10-01-1972.mp4 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9aeq1WfnIY |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110234451/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9aeq1WfnIY&gl=US&hl=en |archive-date=10 November 2022 |access-date=10 November 2022 |via=YouTube}} In Dhaka, Mujib's homecoming was described as "one of the most emotional outbursts in that emotional part of the world".{{Cite web |date=23 December 2013 |title=Sheikh Mujib's Return to Bangladesh – January 10, 1972 Monday |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsTOIiJr7so |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160317043314/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsTOIiJr7so |archive-date=17 March 2016 |access-date=10 November 2022 |via=YouTube}} Crowds overwhelmed the airport tarmac and breached the security cordon as cabinet ministers went inside the plane to bring Mujib out. Mujib was given a guard of honour by members of the nascent Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Navy, and Bangladesh Air Force. Mujib was driven in an open truck through the dense crowds for a speech at the Ramna Race Course, where ten months earlier he had announced the liberation movement.{{efn|Multiple references:{{Cite news |date=24 January 1972 |title=Bangladesh: A Hero Returns Home |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,905654,00.html |url-access=limited |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170914133432/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,905654,00.html |archive-date=14 September 2017 |access-date=8 August 2017}}{{Cite news |last=Haque |first=Junaidul |date=10 January 2014 |title=The return of Bangabandhu |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/the-return-of-bangabandhu-6167 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170815234109/http://www.thedailystar.net/the-return-of-bangabandhu-6167 |archive-date=15 August 2017 |access-date=15 August 2017 |work=The Daily Star}}{{Cite web |title=10 January 1972: Home Coming of Bangabandhu, NBC News Report |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYMThcUJ5cs |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110140201/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYMThcUJ5cs |archive-date=10 November 2022 |access-date=10 November 2022 |via=YouTube}}{{Cite web |date=25 March 2012 |title=Sheik Mujibur Rahman declares region Independent Republic, ABC, March 26, 1971 – MMR Jalal |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tQk4r0FtmY |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130328070211/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tQk4r0FtmY&gl=US&hl=en |archive-date=28 March 2013 |access-date=10 November 2022 |via=YouTube}}}} Mujib's emotional speech to the million-strong crowd was caught on camera by Marilyn Silverstone and Rashid Talukdar; the photos of his homecoming day have become iconic in Bangladeshi political and popular culture.{{Cite web |title=Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Bangabandhu) – return of Bangabandhu, re-building Bangladesh – biography of Muslim and Bengali |url=http://www.londoni.co/index.php/64-history-of-bangladesh/biography/sheikh-mujibur-rahman-bangabandhu/324-sheikh-mujibur-rahman-bangabandhu-return-of-bangabandhu-re-building-bangladesh-biography-of-muslim-and-bengali |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101005210/http://londoni.co/index.php/64-history-of-bangladesh/biography/sheikh-mujibur-rahman-bangabandhu/324-sheikh-mujibur-rahman-bangabandhu-return-of-bangabandhu-re-building-bangladesh-biography-of-muslim-and-bengali |archive-date=1 November 2020 |access-date=16 August 2023}}

{{See also|Premiership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman}}

File:The Bangladesh Gazette, July 6, 1972.pdf of 6 July 1972. The gazette officially published decisions and new laws of the government.]]

File:Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with Bangladesh Air Force personnel (03).png personnel]]

File:Bangabandhu Cox's Bazar.jpg]]

File:Sheikh Mujibur Rahman addressing at the Jatiyo Shangsad.jpg

Mujib briefly assumed the provisional presidency and later took office as the prime minister. In January 1972 Time magazine reported that "[i]n the aftermath of the Pakistani army's rampage last March, a special team of inspectors from the World Bank observed that some cities looked "like the morning after a nuclear attack". Since then, the destruction has only been magnified. An estimated 6,000,000 homes have been destroyed, and nearly 1,400,000 farm families have been left without tools or animals to work their lands. Transportation and communications systems are totally disrupted. Roads are damaged, bridges out and inland waterways blocked. The rape of the country continued right up until the Pakistani army surrendered a month ago. In the last days of the war, West Pakistani-owned businesses{{snd}}which included nearly every commercial enterprise in the country{{snd}}remitted virtually all their funds to the West. Pakistan International Airlines left exactly 117 rupees ($16) in its account at the port city of Chittagong. The army also destroyed bank notes and coins, so that many areas now suffer from a severe shortage of ready cash. Private cars were picked up off the streets or confiscated from auto dealers and shipped to the West before the ports were closed.{{Cite magazine |date=17 January 1972 |title=Banhladesh: Mujib's Road from Prison to Power |url=https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,877626,00.html |url-access=limited |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820201244/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,877626,00.html |archive-date=20 August 2017 |access-date=1 September 2017 |magazine=Time}}{{Cite news |last=Habib |first=Mohshin |date=4 August 2017 |title=Bangabandhu cared about the poor |url=http://dailyasianage.com/news/77958/bangabandhu-cared-about-the-poor |access-date=15 August 2017 |work=The Asian Age}}

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The new government of Bangladesh quickly converted East Pakistan's state apparatus into the machinery of an independent Bangladeshi state. For example, a presidential decree transformed the High Court of East Pakistan into the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.{{Cite web |date=16 March 2020 |title=Mujib Administration's Policy Action Timeline |url=https://whiteboardmagazine.com/1874/mujib-administrations-policy-action-timeline/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105033118/https://whiteboardmagazine.com/1874/mujib-administrations-policy-action-timeline/ |archive-date=5 November 2022 |access-date=5 November 2022}} The Awami League successfully reorganised the bureaucracy, framed a written constitution, and rehabilitated war victims and survivors. In January 1972, Mujib introduced a parliamentary republic through a presidential decree. The emerging state structure was influenced by the Westminster model in which the Prime Minister was the most powerful leader while the President acted on the government's advice. MPs elected during the 1970 general election became members of the Constituent Assembly of Bangladesh. The Constitution Drafting Committee led by Dr. Kamal Hossain produced a draft constitution which was adopted on 4 November 1972 and came into force on 16 December 1972. In comparison to the prolonged constitution-making process in Pakistan during the 1950s, the Awami League was credited for swiftly enacting the Constitution of Bangladesh within just one year of independence. However, the League is criticised for this swift enactment because the Constituent Assembly was largely made up of members from the League itself; the few opposition lawmakers included Manabendra Narayan Larma, who demanded the term "Bangladeshi" to describe the new country's citizens instead of "Bengali" since not all Bangladeshis were Bengalis.{{Cite news |last=Ahmed |first=Hana Shams |date=5 September 2010 |title=Our constitution |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-153616 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921040025/https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-153616 |archive-date=21 September 2018 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=The Daily Star}} Critics argued that in reality "the Awami League sought to rule by Mujib's charisma and build a political process by dicta".{{Cite news |last=Khan |first=Salimullah |date=4 November 2022 |title=Bangladesh began badly: Remembering the roots of the impasse |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/50-years-our-constitution-original-ideals-vs-reality/news/bangladesh-began-badly-remembering-the-roots-the-impasse-3160271 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105024615/https://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/50-years-our-constitution-original-ideals-vs-reality/news/bangladesh-began-badly-remembering-the-roots-the-impasse-3160271 |archive-date=5 November 2022 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=The Daily Star}}

Mujib introduced a quota for backward regions to get access to public sector jobs. Bangladesh also faced a gun control problem because many of its guerrilla fighters from the Liberation War were roaming the country with guns. Mujib successfully called on former guerrillas to surrender their arms through public ceremonies which affirmed their status as freedom fighters during the Liberation War. The President's Relief and Welfare Fund was created to rehabilitate an estimated 10 million displaced Bangladeshis. Mujib established 11,000 new primary schools and nationalised 40,000 primary schools.{{sfn|Mujibur Rahman|2012|p=xxvi}}

One of Mujib's first priorities was the withdrawal of Indian troops from Bangladesh. Mujib requested the Indian government to ensure a swift withdrawal of Indian military forces from Bangladeshi territory. A timeline was drawn up for rapid withdrawal. The withdrawal took place within three months of the surrender of Pakistan to the allied forces of Bangladesh and India. A formal ceremony was held in Dhaka Stadium on 12 March 1972 in which Mujib inspected a guard of honour from the 1st Rajput Regiment.{{Cite news |date=13 March 1972 |title=India's Soldiers Quit Bangladesh |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/03/13/archives/indias-soldiers-quit-bangladesh-ceremonies-in-dacca-mark-pullout.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221111000430/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/03/13/archives/indias-soldiers-quit-bangladesh-ceremonies-in-dacca-mark-pullout.html |archive-date=11 November 2022 |access-date=11 November 2022 |work=The New York Times}} The withdrawal of Indian forces was completed by 15 March.{{Cite news |last=Sajen |first=Shamsuddoza |date=15 March 2020 |title=Indian Army withdraws from Bangladesh |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/news/indian-army-withdraws-bangladesh-1880827 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221111000421/https://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/news/indian-army-withdraws-bangladesh-1880827 |archive-date=11 November 2022 |access-date=11 November 2022 |work=The Daily Star}} Many countries established diplomatic relations with Bangladesh soon after the withdrawal of Indian troops.{{Cite journal |last=O'Mahoney |first=Joseph |date=7 April 2017 |title=Making the Real: Rhetorical Adduction and the Bangladesh Liberation War |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/making-the-real-rhetorical-adduction-and-the-bangladesh-liberation-war/D7396F6DFDE0914CD3C1C8D7A7141BF9 |url-status=live |journal=International Organization |volume=71 |issue=2 |pages=317–348 |doi=10.1017/S0020818317000054 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221111000430/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/making-the-real-rhetorical-adduction-and-the-bangladesh-liberation-war/D7396F6DFDE0914CD3C1C8D7A7141BF9 |archive-date=11 November 2022 |access-date=11 November 2022 |via=Cambridge University Press}} India's intervention and subsequent withdrawal has been cited as a successful case of humanitarian intervention in international law.

File:Old Highcourt Bhaban (1).JPG

In 1972, Mujib told David Frost that he was a strong man but he had tears in his eyes when he saw pictures of the 1971 Bangladesh genocide.{{Cite web |date=26 August 2020 |title=Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with David Frost |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHxL6hhY4fc |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105034854/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHxL6hhY4fc |archive-date=5 November 2022 |access-date=5 November 2022 |via=YouTube}} He told Frost that "I am a very generous man. I always believe in forgive and forget but this is impossible on my part to forgive and forget. This was cold blooded murder in a planned way; genocide to kill my people. These people must be punished". Speaking about a potential war crimes trial, Mujib said "the world powers arranged the Nuremberg trials against the war criminals of fascist Germany. I think they should come forward and there should be another trial or inquiry under the United Nations". Mujib pledged to hold a trial for those accused in wartime atrocities. An estimated 11,000 local collaborators of the Pakistan Army were arrested.{{Cite news |title=Zia freed 11,000 jailed collaborators: Quamrul |url=https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/Zia-freed-11-000-jailed-collaborators-Quamrul |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123041721/https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/Zia-freed-11-000-jailed-collaborators-Quamrul |archive-date=23 November 2022 |access-date=23 November 2022 |work=Prothom Alo}} Their cases were heard by the Collaborators Tribunal.{{Cite web |title=Collaborators Tribunal Order, 1972 |url=https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Collaborators_Tribunal_Order,_1972 |website=Banglapedia}} In 1973, the government introduced the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act to prosecute 195 Pakistani PoWs under Indian custody.{{Cite web |title=The International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, 1973 |url=https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl-nat.nsf/0/0618daaa2660e9b3c125771a00264b13/$FILE/International%20Crimes%20(Tribunals)%20Act,%201973%20(as%20amended%20in%202009).pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220901070144/https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl-nat.nsf/0/0618daaa2660e9b3c125771a00264b13/$FILE/International%20Crimes%20(Tribunals)%20Act,%201973%20(as%20amended%20in%202009).pdf |archive-date=1 September 2022 |website=International Humanitarian Law Databases}} In response, Pakistan filed a case against India at the International Court of Justice.{{Cite web |title=Case Concerning Trial of Pakistani Prisoners of War |url=https://www.icj-cij.org/public/files/case-related/60/9461.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220816194320/https://icj-cij.org/public/files/case-related/60/9461.pdf |archive-date=16 August 2022 |access-date=23 November 2022 |website=International Court of Justice}} The Delhi Agreement struck a compromise between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh after the three countries agreed to transfer PoWs to Pakistani custody. However, the foreign minister of Bangladesh stated that "the excesses and manifold crimes committed by those prisoners of war constituted, according to the relevant provisions of the UN General Assembly resolutions and international law, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and that there was universal consensus that persons charged with such crimes as [the] 195 Pakistani prisoners of war should be held to account and subjected to the due process of law".{{Cite news |date=2 March 2008 |title=Text of the tri-patriate agreement of Bangladesh-Pakistan-India |newspaper=Bangladesh Genocide Archive |url=https://www.genocidebangladesh.org/text-of-the-tri-patriate-agreement-of-bangladesh-pakistan-india/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230102082927/https://www.genocidebangladesh.org/text-of-the-tri-patriate-agreement-of-bangladesh-pakistan-india/ |archive-date=2 January 2023 |access-date=23 November 2022}} In 1974, the Third International Criminal Law Conference was held at the Bangladesh Institute of Law and International Affairs; the meeting supported calls for the creation of an international penal court.{{Cite web |title=Bilia Home Page |url=https://library.biliabd.org/details/7204 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123052525/https://library.biliabd.org/details/7204 |archive-date=23 November 2022 |access-date=23 November 2022 |website=library.biliabd.org}}

File:Petrobangla Building.jpg as the national oil and gas company.]]

Mujib declared socialism as a national policy. His land reforms restricted land ownership to less than 25 bighas of land which effectively ended all traces of the zamindari system. Land owners with more than 25 bighas were subjected to taxes.{{sfn|Mujibur Rahman|2012|p=xxvi }} Farmers had to sell their products at prices set by the government instead of the market. Mujib nationalised all banks, insurance companies, and 580 industrial plants.{{sfn|Mujibur Rahman|2012|p=xxvi }} There was little foreign investment. The stock exchange remained closed. In 1974, the government sought to invite international oil companies to explore the Bay of Bengal for oil and natural gas. Shell sold five gas fields to the Bangladeshi government which set the stage for the creation of Petrobangla.{{Cite news |title=National Energy Security Day today |url=https://www.newagebd.net/article/178014/national-energy-security-day-today |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105024611/https://www.newagebd.net/article/178014/national-energy-security-day-today |archive-date=5 November 2022 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=New Age}} The national airline Biman was set up with planes from British Caledonian, the Indian government and the World Council of Churches. In the industrial sector, the Bangladeshi government built the Ghorashal Fertilizer Factory.{{sfn|Mujibur Rahman|2012|p=xxvi }} Work began on the Ashuganj Power Station. Operations in the Port of Chittagong were restored after the Soviet Navy conducted a clearing operation for naval mines.{{Cite news |title=50 years of Soviet naval operation in Ctg Port |url=https://www.daily-sun.com/post/615862/50-years-of-Soviet-naval-operation-in-Ctg-Port |work=Daily Sun}}

Industrial activity was eventually restored to pre-1971 levels.{{Cite web |date=17 March 2020 |title=Mujib's economic policies and their relevance today |url=https://whiteboardmagazine.com/471/mujibs-economic-policies-and-their-relevance-today/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230906123652/https://whiteboardmagazine.com/471/mujibs-economic-policies-and-their-relevance-today/ |archive-date=6 September 2023 |access-date=6 September 2023}} Banking services rapidly expanded in rural areas. Mujib recruited CEOs from the private sector to run state-owned companies. The first Five Year Plan was adopted by the Planning Commission, which was headed by the Harvard-trained economist Nurul Islam. The Planning Commission sought to diversify Bangladesh's exports. In trade with India, the Planning Commission identified fertilizer, iron, cement and natural gas as potential export sectors in Bangladesh. The Planning Commission, with Mujib's approval, wanted to transform Bangladesh into a producer of value added products generated from imported Indian raw materials. In addition to state-owned firms, many private sector companies emerged, including the Bangladesh Export Import Company and Advanced Chemical Industries. These companies later became some of Bangladesh's biggest conglomerates.

The Mujib government faced serious challenges, which included the resettlement of millions of people displaced in 1971, organisation of food supply, health services and other necessities. The effects of the 1970 cyclone had not worn off, and the economy of Bangladesh had immensely deteriorated due to the conflict.Lawrence B. Lesser. "Economic Reconstruction after Independence". [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/bdtoc.html A Country Study: Bangladesh] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150711103712/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/bdtoc.html |date=11 July 2015 }} (James Heitzman and Robert Worden, editors). Federal Research Division, Library of Congress (September 1988). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/about.html About the Country Studies / Area Handbooks Program: Country Studies – Federal Research Division, Library of Congress] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120710004153/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/about.html |date=10 July 2012 }} In 1973, thousands of Bengalis arrived from Pakistan while many non-Bengali industrialists and capitalists emigrated; poorer non-Bengalis were stranded in refugee camps. Major efforts were launched to help an estimated 10 million former refugees who returned from India. The economy began to recover eventually.{{Cite journal |last=Jahan |first=Rounaq |author-link=Rounaq Jahan |date=February 1973 |title=Bangladesh in 1972: Nation Building in a New State |journal=Asian Survey |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=199–210 |doi=10.2307/2642736 |jstor=2642736}} The five-year plan released in 1973 focused state investments into agriculture and cottage industries.{{Cite web |last=Farid |first=Shah Mohammad |title=Integration of Poverty Alleviation and Social Sector Development into the Planning Process in Bangladesh |url=http://www.unescap.org/drpad/publication/ldc6_2174/chap4.PDF |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227002742/http://www.unescap.org/drpad/publication/ldc6_2174/chap4.PDF |archive-date=27 February 2008 |access-date=7 July 2006 |website=UNESCAP}} But a famine occurred in 1974 when the price of rice rose sharply. In that month there was widespread starvation in Rangpur district. Government mismanagement was blamed.{{Cite book |last=Sen |first=Amratya |title=Poverty and famines: An essay and entitlement and deprivation |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1982 |page=138}}{{Cite book |last=Maidul Islam |title=Limits of Islamism |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-1107080263 |page=172}} Many of Mujib's socialist policies were eventually overturned by future governments. The five years of his regime marked the only intensely socialist period in Bangladesh's history. Successive governments de-emphasised socialism and promoted a market economy. By the 1990s, the Awami League returned to being a centre-left party in economics.

File:বাংলাদেশের সংবিধান ১৯৭২ (পৃষ্ঠা ১).jpg

The Constitution of Bangladesh became the first Bengali written constitution in modern history. The Awami League introduced a new bill of rights, which was more broad and expansive than the laws of East and West Pakistan.{{Cite web|url=https://legal.un.org/avl/faculty/Hossain.html|title=AVL Faculty: Dr. Kamal Hossain|website=legal.un.org}} In addition to freedom of speech and freedom of religion, the new constitution emphasized property rights, the right to privacy, the prohibition of torture, safeguards during detention and trial, the prohibition of forced labor, and freedom of association.{{Cite web |title=The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh |url=http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-367.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221126173126/http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-367.html |archive-date=26 November 2022 |access-date=6 September 2023}} The Awami League repealed many controversial laws of the Pakistani period, including the Public Safety Act and Defense of Pakistan Rules. Women's rights received more attention than before. Discrimination on grounds of religion, ethnicity, gender, place of birth or disability was discouraged.{{Cite web |title=The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh | 28. Discrimination on grounds of religion, etc |url=http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-367/section-24576.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010065828/http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/act-367/section-24576.html |archive-date=10 October 2024 |access-date=6 September 2023}}

{{Main|Secularism in Bangladesh}}

While Pakistan adopted progressive reforms to Muslim family law as early as 1961,{{Cite news |date=2 September 2017 |title=Special report: The Changing of the Guard 1958–1969 |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1355171 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205233009/https://www.dawn.com/news/1355171 |archive-date=5 December 2022 |access-date=7 November 2022 |work=Dawn}} Bangladesh became the first constitutionally secular state in South Asia in 1972 when its newly adopted constitution included the word "secularism" for the first time in the region.{{Cite web |title=Struggle for the Soul of Bangladesh |url=https://institute.global/policy/struggle-soul-bangladesh |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221014052636/https://institute.global/policy/struggle-soul-bangladesh |archive-date=14 October 2022 |access-date=13 November 2022 |website=Institute for Global Change}} Despite the constitution's proclamation of secularism as a state policy, Mujib banned "anti-Islamic" activities, including gambling, horse racing and alcohol. He established the Islamic Foundation to regulate religious affairs for Muslims, including the collection of zakat and setting dates for religious observances like Eid and Ramadan.{{sfn|Mujibur Rahman|2012|p=xxvi }} Under Mujib, Bangladesh joined the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in 1974. Bangladesh was not the only Muslim-majority secular republic in the OIC; others included Turkey and Nigeria. Secularism was later removed from the constitution by the military dictatorship in the late 1970s. Secularism was reinstated by the Supreme Court into the constitution in 2010.{{Cite news |date=5 October 2010 |title=Secularism is back in Bangladesh, rules High Court |url=https://www.deccanherald.com/content/102192/secularism-back-bangladesh-rules-high.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221108030834/https://www.deccanherald.com/content/102192/secularism-back-bangladesh-rules-high.html |archive-date=8 November 2022 |access-date=8 November 2022 |work=Deccan Herald |language=en}}

Mujib said "secularism doesn't mean irreligiosity. Hindus will practice their religion; Muslims will practice their religion; Christians, Buddhists{{snd}}everyone will practice their respective religions. No one will interfere in someone else's religion; the people of Bengal do not seek to interfere in matters of religion. Religion will not be used for political purposes. Religion will not be exploited in Bengal for political gain. If anyone does so, I believe the people of Bengal will retaliate against them".

File:Mujib and Ford.jpg at the Oval Office in 1974]]

In the early 1970s, Sheikh Mujib emerged as one of the most charismatic leaders of the third world.{{Cite journal |last1=Hossain |first1=Md Read |last2=Ulfat |first2=Tasnova Jerin |last3=Hossain |first3=Md Read |last4=Ulfat |first4=Tasnova Jerin |date=30 November 2020 |title=Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Charismatic Leader of Bangladesh |url=https://airccse.com/ijhas/abstract/5420ijhas04.html |url-status=live |journal=International Journal of Humanities, Art and Social Studies (Ijhas) |volume=5 |issue=4 |page=21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817171917/https://airccse.com/ijhas/abstract/5420ijhas04.html |archive-date=17 August 2023 |access-date=17 August 2023}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.uplbooks.com/book/third-world-charismat-sheikh-mujib-and-struggle-freedom|title=The Third World Charismat: Sheikh Mujib and the Struggle for Freedom | the University Press Limited}} His foreign policy maxim was "friendship to all, malice to none".{{Cite web |date=17 March 2020 |title=Friendship towards all was a masterstroke |url=https://whiteboardmagazine.com/346/friendship-towards-all-was-a-masterstroke/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817171919/https://whiteboardmagazine.com/346/friendship-towards-all-was-a-masterstroke/ |archive-date=17 August 2023 |access-date=17 August 2023}} Mujib's priorities were to secure aid for reconstruction and relief efforts; normalizing diplomatic relations with the world; and joining major international organizations.

Mujib's major foreign policy achievement was to secure normalisation and diplomatic relations with most countries of the world. Bangladesh joined the Commonwealth, the UN, the OIC, and the Non-Aligned Movement.{{Cite news |date=18 April 2020 |title=Bangladesh enters Commonwealth |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/news/bangladesh-enters-commonwealth-1894048 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926153013/https://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/news/bangladesh-enters-commonwealth-1894048 |archive-date=26 September 2022 |access-date=16 August 2023 |work=The Daily Star}}{{Cite web |title=Admission of Bangladesh to the Commonwealth – Statement by the Prime Minister, The Rt Hon William McMahon CH MP |url=https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/original/00002565.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230816164415/https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/original/00002565.pdf |archive-date=16 August 2023 |access-date=16 August 2023 |website=pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au}}{{Cite news |date=13 July 2009 |title=Non-aligned conference and Bangladesh |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-96760 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230816164413/https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-96760 |archive-date=16 August 2023 |access-date=16 August 2023 |work=The Daily Star}}{{Cite journal |last=Ali |first=Mehrunnisa |date=20 August 1974 |title=The Second Islamic Summit Conference, 1974 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41393199 |url-status=live |journal=Pakistan Horizon |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=29–49 |jstor=41393199 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230816164415/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41393199 |archive-date=16 August 2023 |access-date=16 August 2023}} His allies included Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India and Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia.{{Cite book |last=Uddin |first=Sufia M. |title=Constructing Bangladesh: Religion, Ethnicity, and Language in an Islamic Nation |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8078-3021-5 |page=137}}{{Cite news |title=Recalling Bangabandhu in Belgrade |url=https://dailyasianage.com/news/200799/recalling-bangabandhu-in-belgrade |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230816164414/https://dailyasianage.com/news/200799/recalling-bangabandhu-in-belgrade |archive-date=16 August 2023 |access-date=16 August 2023 |work=The Asian Age |location=Bangladesh}}{{Cite news |date=20 October 2021 |title=Tito calls for political solution to Bangladesh problem |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/tito-calls-political-solution-bangladesh-problem-2202366 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230816164415/https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/tito-calls-political-solution-bangladesh-problem-2202366 |archive-date=16 August 2023 |access-date=16 August 2023 |work=The Daily Star}}

Japan became a major aid provider to the new country. Mujib attended Commonwealth summits in Canada and Jamaica, where he held talks with Queen Elizabeth II, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and New Zealand Prime Minister Norman Kirk.Kamal Hossain, Bangladesh: Quest for Freedom and Justice, pp. 171–197{{Cite news |title=PM mourns demise of Queen Elizabeth II |url=https://www.bssnews.net/news-flash/81571 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105024607/https://www.bssnews.net/news-flash/81571 |archive-date=5 November 2022 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha}} The Soviet Union supplied several squadrons of MiG-21 planes for the Bangladesh Air Force.{{sfn|Heitzman|Library of Congress|Nyrop|Worden|1989|pages=226, 234}} China initially blocked Bangladesh's entry to the UN in 1972, but withdrew its veto in 1974 which allowed Bangladesh to join the UN. The United States recognized the independence of Bangladesh on 4 April 1972 and pledged US$300 million in aid.{{Cite news |last=Newsom |first=Phil |date=1 June 1972 |title=U.S. Strives to Improve Relations with Bangladesh |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bLEiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PbMFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5951,588675&dq=bangladesh+embassy+united+states&hl=en |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605131656/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=bLEiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PbMFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5951%2C588675&dq=bangladesh+embassy+united+states&hl=en |archive-date=5 June 2020 |access-date=17 August 2023 |work=Beaver County Times |location=Beaver, Pennsylvania |agency=United Press International}}{{Cite news |date=5 April 1972 |title=U.S. recognizes Bangladesh |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/494346155/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010065722/https://www.proquest.com/docview/494346155 |archive-date=10 October 2024 |access-date=17 August 2023 |work=Chicago Daily Defender |page=14 |agency=United Press International}} Britain, Malaysia, Indonesia, West Germany, Denmark, Norway and Sweden were among the several countries which recognized Bangladesh in February 1972.Kamal Hossain, Bangladesh: Quest for Freedom and Justice (UPL) pp. 171–197{{Cite news |date=5 February 1972 |title=British Establish Bangladesh Ties |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/02/05/archives/british-establish-bangladesh-ties-west-germany-israel-and-7-others.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817171915/https://www.nytimes.com/1972/02/05/archives/british-establish-bangladesh-ties-west-germany-israel-and-7-others.html |archive-date=17 August 2023 |access-date=17 August 2023 |work=The New York Times}}

File:New York 043 (3033705218).jpg and the occupation of Palestine, as well as freedom for Namibia and Rhodesia.]]

Mujib was a firm opponent of apartheid. In his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly in 1974, Mujib remarked that "In spite of the acceleration of the process of abolishing colonialism, it hasn't reached its ultimate goal. This is more strongly true of Africa, where the people of Rhodesia and Namibia are still engaged in the final struggle for national independence and absolute freedom. Although racism has been identified as a serious offence in this council, it's still destroying the conscience of the people".{{Cite news |title=Bangabandhu's historic 1974 UN speech |url=https://www.theindependentbd.com/post/253673 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105024614/https://www.theindependentbd.com/post/253673 |archive-date=5 November 2022 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=The Independent |location=Dhaka}}{{Cite web |date=14 August 2016 |title=25th September 1974 Speech in UN by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzpb14fl73M |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230402125355/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzpb14fl73M |archive-date=2 April 2023 |access-date=5 November 2022 |via=YouTube}} This was the first speech in the UN General Assembly to be spoken in Bengali.

Bangladesh joined the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) during the 4th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Algiers.{{Cite news |title=Bangladesh: A strong supporter of Non-Aligned Movement |url=https://www.newagebd.net/article/119336/bangladesh-a-strong-supporter-of-non-aligned-movement |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817171927/https://www.newagebd.net/article/119336/bangladesh-a-strong-supporter-of-non-aligned-movement |archive-date=17 August 2023 |access-date=17 August 2023 |work=New Age}} Mujib told Nigerian leader Yakubu Gowon that "if we had remained in Pakistan, it would be a strong country. Again, if India had not been divided in 1947, it would be an even stronger country. But, then, Mr. President, in life do we always get what we desire?".{{Cite news |title=The statesman in Bangabandhu |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2009/08/02/tribute.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817171917/https://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2009/08/02/tribute.htm |archive-date=17 August 2023 |access-date=17 August 2023 |work=The Daily Star}} The comment was in response to Gowon questioning the need for the break up of Pakistan.{{Cite news |date=16 March 2011 |title=Bangabandhu was our Druid |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-177836 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817171926/https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-177836 |archive-date=17 August 2023 |access-date=17 August 2023 |work=The Daily Star}} Mujib met Zambian leader Kenneth Kaunda and Senegalese president Léopold Sédar Senghor.{{Cite web |title=Photo Archive | 100 Years of Mujib |url=https://mujib100.gov.bd/pages/mujib/photo-archive.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817171921/https://mujib100.gov.bd/pages/mujib/photo-archive.html |archive-date=17 August 2023 |access-date=17 August 2023}} He developed a good rapport with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt, who gifted 30 tanks to the Bangladeshi military in return for Mujib's support to Egypt.{{sfn|Heitzman|Library of Congress|Nyrop|Worden|1989|page=226}}{{Cite news |title=The Way an Egyptian Tank Was Used in Mujib's Assassination |url=https://en.shampratikdeshkal.com/bangladesh/news/200810067/the-way-an-egyptian-tank-was-used-in-mujibs-assassination |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230914220338/https://en.shampratikdeshkal.com/bangladesh/news/200810067/the-way-an-egyptian-tank-was-used-in-mujibs-assassination |archive-date=14 September 2023 |access-date=9 September 2023 |work=Shampratik Deshkal English}}{{Cite web |title=Trade Registers |url=https://armstrade.sipri.org/armstrade/page/trade_register.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091126192819/https://armstrade.sipri.org/armstrade/page/trade_register.php |archive-date=26 November 2009 |access-date=9 September 2023 |website=armstrade.sipri.org |publisher=Stockholm International Peace Research Institute}} Algerian president Houari Boumédiène brought Mujib to the OIC Summit in Lahore on his plane.

File:OIC Leaders in Shalimar Gardens, Lahore.jpg (far left), Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (left), and Prince Sultan of Saudi Arabia (right) at the Shalimar Gardens, Lahore]]

While addressing the UN General Assembly in 1974, Mujib said "injustice is still rampant in many parts of the world. Our Arab brothers are still fighting for the complete eviction of the invaders from their land. The equitable national rights of the Palestinian people have not yet been achieved". While Israel was one of the first countries to recognize Bangladesh,{{Cite book |last=Husain |first=Syed Anwar |title=Bengal and Bangladesh: Politics and Culture on the Golden Delta |publisher=Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University |year=1990 |editor-last=Tepper |editor-first=Elliot L. |page=103 |chapter=Bangladesh and Islamic Countries, 1972–1983 |quote=In April 1972, Israel also extended recognition to Bangladesh. |editor-last2=Hayes |editor-first2=Glen A.}} the Mujib government dispatched an army medical unit to support Arab countries during the Arab-Israeli War of 1973.{{Cite news |last=Dr Rounaq Jahan |date=10 April 2021 |title=OP-ED: A champion of peace, freedom, and humanity |url=https://www.dhakatribune.com/amp/opinion/op-ed/244471/op-ed-a-champion-of-peace-freedom-and-humanity |work=Dhaka Tribune}} This was Bangladesh's first dispatch of military aid overseas.{{Cite news |last=Chowdhury |first=Umran |date=14 July 2023 |title=Bangladesh's Palestine policy |url=https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/320335/bangladesh%E2%80%99s-palestine-policy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817115236/https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/op-ed/320335/bangladesh%E2%80%99s-palestine-policy |archive-date=17 August 2023 |access-date=17 August 2023 |work=Dhaka Tribune}} Kuwait sent its foreign minister Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to persuade Mujib to join the OIC Summit in Lahore in 1974.{{Cite news |title=President of Algeria in Dhaka |url=https://www.daily-sun.com/post/468598/President-of-Algeria-in-Dhaka |work=Daily Sun}}{{Cite news |date=February 2020 |title=Bangabandhu at OIC Summit in Lahore |url=https://www.daily-sun.com/post/463468/Bangabandhu-at-OIC-Summit-in-Lahore |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817115224/https://www.daily-sun.com/post/463468/Bangabandhu-at-OIC-Summit-in-Lahore |archive-date=17 August 2023 |access-date=17 August 2023 |work=Daily Sun}} The Lebanese foreign minister accompanied Sabah during the visit to Dhaka.Kamal Hossain, Bangladesh: Quest for Freedom and Justice, p. 233 Bangladesh enjoyed strong relations with the secular Arab government of Iraq.{{Cite web |title=Iraq: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh Visits Iraq |url=https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/200210/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240324000422/https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/200210/ |archive-date=24 March 2024 |access-date=24 March 2024}}{{Cite news |date=October 2020 |title=Bangabandhu in Iraq |url=https://www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/510481/Bangabandhu-in-Iraq |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240324000420/https://www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/510481/Bangabandhu-in-Iraq |archive-date=24 March 2024 |access-date=24 March 2024 |work=Daily Sun}} Mujib had a warm rapport with Sheikh Zayed of the UAE, with the two men joking about their names.{{Cite news |date=15 August 2011 |title=He was our Caesar |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-198705 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240324000420/https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-198705 |archive-date=24 March 2024 |access-date=24 March 2024 |work=The Daily Star}}

Egyptian president Anwar Sadat visited Bangladesh on 25 February 1974 to thank Mujib for his support during the 1973 war.{{Cite web |title=Bangladesh: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat Visits Bangladesh – Urges It to Forget the Past |url=https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/113351/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010065723/https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/113351/ |archive-date=10 October 2024 |access-date=24 March 2024}} Sadat became a close friend of Mujib.{{Cite news |date=February 2020 |title=Anwar Sadat's Sojourn in Dhaka |url=https://www.daily-sun.com/post/465158/Anwar-Sadat%E2%80%99s-Sojourn-in-Dhaka- |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240324000420/https://www.daily-sun.com/post/465158/Anwar-Sadat%E2%80%99s-Sojourn-in-Dhaka- |archive-date=24 March 2024 |access-date=24 March 2024 |work=Daily Sun}} Algerian president Houari Boumédiène was instrumental in getting Bangladesh into the OIC. Mujib met with Takieddin el-Solh, the Prime Minister of Lebanon.{{Cite web |title=Bangabandhu in the international Sphere (1974–75) : Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Museum |url=https://bangabandhumuseum.org.bd/en/gallery/details/52/21 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240324000420/https://bangabandhumuseum.org.bd/en/gallery/details/52/21 |archive-date=24 March 2024 |access-date=24 March 2024}} He also met Hafez al-Assad, the President of Syria.{{Cite web |title=Bangabandhu in the international Sphere (1974) : Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Museum |url=https://bangabandhumuseum.org.bd/en/gallery/details/51/21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190831024230/http://bangabandhumuseum.org.bd/en/gallery/details/51/21 |url-status=dead |archive-date=31 August 2019 }} Mujib visited Iraq, Egypt, and Algeria. During his trip to Iraq, crowds of several thousand Iraqis welcomed him on the streets of Baghdad, Karbala and Babylon.

Mujib and Indira Gandhi signed the 25-year Indo-Bangladeshi Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Peace.{{sfn|Frank|2001|p=343}}{{Cite journal |last=Shamim |first=Choudhury M. |year=2001 |title=The Bangladesh-India Friendship Treaty: A Critical Analysis |url=https://archive.org/stream/BangladeshIndiaTreaty/bangladesh_djvu.txt |journal=Journal of Bangladesh Studies |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=1–14}} India and Bangladesh developed extremely cordial relations based on shared political values, a common nonaligned worldview and cultural solidarity. In February 1972, Mujib visited the Indian city of Calcutta in West Bengal to thank the people of India for their support during the liberation war. Mujib was immensely popular in India. Many of India's leading film directors, singers, writers, actors and actresses came to meet with Mujib, including Satyajit Ray, Hemanta Mukherjee and Hema Malini.{{Cite news |date=26 March 2018 |title=On Bangladesh independence day, rare photographs of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with Indian personalities |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/research/bangladesh-independence-day-sheikh-mujibur-rahman-photographs-5111723/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817222012/https://indianexpress.com/article/research/bangladesh-independence-day-sheikh-mujibur-rahman-photographs-5111723/ |archive-date=17 August 2023 |access-date=17 August 2023 |work=The Indian Express}} In Pakistan, a constitutional amendment was passed to establish diplomatic relations with Bangladesh.Raza, Syed Rasul (2008). Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto; The Architect of New Pakistan. Karachi, Sindh Province, Pakistan: Printwise publication. {{ISBN|978-969-8500-00-9}}. pp. 15–17 In the Delhi Agreement of 1974, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan pledged to work for regional stability and peace. The agreement paved the way for the return of interned Bengali officials and their families stranded in Pakistan, as well as the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan.{{sfn|Ahmed|1983|pp=202–205}} However, Bangladesh had to concede on the issue of putting 195 Pakistani PoWs on trial for war crimes, after the three countries agreed by consensus to transfer the 195 PoWs to Pakistani custody.Kamal Hossain, Bangladesh: Quest for Freedom and Justice (UPL) pp. 217–259

Mujib and Gandhi also signed a Land Boundary Treaty concerning the India-Bangladesh enclaves. The treaty was challenged in court.{{Cite web |title=Berubari Case: The Third Amendment in the Constitution of Bangladesh |url=http://lawsden.info/2020/05/10/berubari-case-the-third-amendment-in-the-constitution-of-bangladesh/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105024605/http://lawsden.info/2020/05/10/berubari-case-the-third-amendment-in-the-constitution-of-bangladesh/ |archive-date=5 November 2022 |access-date=5 November 2022}}{{Cite news |last1=Chakma |first1=Parban |last2=Saumik |first2=Rafid Azad |date=4 November 2022 |title=50 Years of Bangladesh Constitution In a nutshell |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/law-our-rights/news/50-years-bangladesh-constitution-nutshell-3160281 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105024603/https://www.thedailystar.net/law-our-rights/news/50-years-bangladesh-constitution-nutshell-3160281 |archive-date=5 November 2022 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=The Daily Star}} The government attempted to ratify the treaty without consulting parliament. Chief Justice Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem ruled that parliament had to ratify the treaty in accordance with the constitution, otherwise the government's actions were illegal and unconstitutional. The Chief Justice dissented with the government's actions. The treaty was subsequently ratified by parliament. In his decision, Justice Sayem referred to the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.Kazi Mukhlesur Rahman v Bangladesh and Others (1974) 26 DLR (AD) 44 The land boundary treaty was finally implemented in 2015.{{Cite news |date=31 July 2015 |title=History at midnight: India, Bangladesh exchange enclaves |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/history-at-midnight-india-bangladesh-exchange-enclaves/story-gLtjOSQWFhbnCFsR0S1RaI.html |work=Hindustan Times}}

{{Main|Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini}}

At the height of Mujib's power, left-wing insurgents from the Gonobahini fought against Mujib's government to establish a Marxist government.{{Cite news |title=JS sees debate over role of Gono Bahini |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/js-sees-debate-over-role-of-gono-bahini-31691 |access-date=9 July 2015 |work=The Daily Star}}{{Cite news |date=15 June 2016 |title=Rizvi now blasts Inu at press briefing |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/politics/rizvi-now-blasts-inu-press-briefing-1240042 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200517145945/https://www.thedailystar.net/politics/rizvi-now-blasts-inu-press-briefing-1240042 |archive-date=17 May 2020 |access-date=12 July 2016 |work=The Daily Star |agency=UNB}} The government responded by forming an elite paramilitary force called Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini on 8 February 1972. Many within the Bangladeshi military viewed the new paramilitary force with suspicion.{{Cite book |last1=Bangladesh |url={{GBurl|id=zGIKAQAAIAAJ}} |title=Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini Act |last2=Hossain |first2=Hamza |last3=Kamrul Islam |first3=A. T. M |date=1974}}{{Cite book |last=Ahamed |first=Emajuddin |url=http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p33231/pdf/ch0731.pdf |title=The military and democracy in Bangladesh |publisher=Australian National University Press |year=2004 |location=Sydney |pages=108–110 |access-date=22 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160811030523/http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p33231/pdf/ch0731.pdf |archive-date=11 August 2016 |url-status=live}} The new paramilitary force was responsible for human rights abuses against the general populace, including extrajudicial killings,{{Cite web |date=18 March 2009 |title=Ignoring Executions and Torture : Impunity for Bangladesh's Security Forces |url=https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/bangladesh0509webwcover.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170317221538/https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/bangladesh0509webwcover.pdf |archive-date=17 March 2017 |access-date=16 August 2013 |publisher=Human Rights Watch}}{{Cite news |date=16 January 2011 |script-title=bn:রক্ষীবাহিনীর নৃশংসতা মধ্যযুগীয় বর্বরতাকেও হার মানিয়েছিল |url=http://www.amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2011/01/15/63217 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110117040756/http://www.amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2011/01/15/63217 |archive-date=17 January 2011 |work=Amar Desh |language=bn}} shootings by death squads,{{Cite news |last=Chowdhury |first=Atif |date=18 February 2013 |title=Bangladesh: Baptism By Fire |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/atif-choudhury/bangladesh-no-justice-wit_b_4455782.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160822113717/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/atif-choudhury/bangladesh-no-justice-wit_b_4455782.html |archive-date=22 August 2016 |access-date=12 July 2016 |work=HuffPost}} and rape.{{Cite book |last1=Fair |first1=Christine C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SpFaBwAAQBAJ&q=Rape+by+Rakkhi+Bahini&pg=PA30 |title=Political Islam and Governance in Bangladesh |last2=Riaz |first2=Ali |date=2010 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1136926242 |pages=30–31 |access-date=19 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010065826/https://books.google.com/books?id=SpFaBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA30&q=Rape+by+Rakkhi+Bahini#v=snippet&q=Rape%20by%20Rakkhi%20Bahini&f=false |archive-date=10 October 2024 |url-status=live}} Members of the Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini were granted immunity from prosecution and other legal proceedings.{{Cite journal |last=Maniruzzaman |first=Talukder |date=February 1976 |title=Bangladesh in 1975: The Fall of the Mujib Regime and Its Aftermath |journal=Asian Survey |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=119–129 |doi=10.2307/2643140 |jstor=2643140}}{{Cite web |last=Country Studies |first=Bangladesh |date=12 September 2006 |title=Mujib's fall |url=http://countrystudies.us/bangladesh/19.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110805012545/http://countrystudies.us/bangladesh/19.htm |archive-date=5 August 2011 |access-date=12 September 2006}} The force swore an oath of loyalty to Mujib.{{Cite book |last=Pike |first=Francis |title=Empires at War: A Short History of Modern Asia Since World War II |publisher=I.B. Tauris |year=2011 |isbn=978-1848850798 |page=569}}

{{further|Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League|Second Revolution (Bangladesh)}}

Mujib's political philosophy dramatically changed in 1975. Elections were approaching in 1977 after the end of his five-year term. Mujib sensed growing dissatisfaction with his regime. He changed the constitution, declared himself president, and established a one party state. Ahrar Ahmed, commenting in The Daily Star, noted that "Drastic changes were introduced through the adoption of the 4th amendment on Jan[uary] 25, 1975, which radically shifted the initial focus of the constitution and turned it into a single-party, presidential system, which curtailed the powers of the parliament and the judiciary, as well as the space for free speech or public assembly".{{Cite news |last=Ahmad |first=Ahrar |date=4 November 2022 |title=Constitutional supremacy: The dangers within |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/50-years-our-constitution-original-ideals-vs-reality/news/constitutional-supremacy-the-dangers-within-3160241 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010065725/https://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/50-years-our-constitution-original-ideals-vs-reality/news/constitutional-supremacy-the-dangers-within-3160241 |archive-date=10 October 2024 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=The Daily Star}} Censorship was imposed in the press. Civil society groups like the Committee for Civil Liberties and Legal Aid were suppressed. The Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (BAKSAL), meaning the "Bangladesh Farmers Workers Peoples League", became the only legal political party. Bureaucrats and military officers were ordered to join the single party. These actions profoundly impacted Mujib's legacy. Many Bangladeshis opposed to the Awami League cite his creation of BAKSAL as the ultimate hypocrisy. The one party state lasted for 7 months till Mujib's assassination on 15 August 1975.

{{Main|Assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman|15 August 1975 Bangladeshi coup d'état|Indemnity Ordinance, 1975}}{{See also|3 November 1975 Bangladeshi coup d'état}}

File:Secretary Kerry Looks at Stars Where a Founder was Gunned Down in Dhaka (28692593883).jpg

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated along with most of his family in his personal residence on 15 August 1975 during a military coup by renegade army officers.{{Cite news |date=23 August 1975 |title=Bangladesh Coup: A Day of Killings |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/23/archives/bangladesh-coup-a-day-of-killings-account-depicts-how-young.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231118222143/https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/23/archives/bangladesh-coup-a-day-of-killings-account-depicts-how-young.html |archive-date=18 November 2023 |access-date=31 July 2024 |work=The New York Times}}{{Cite news |date=15 August 2018 |title=15 August 1975: Bloodbath on road 32 |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/news/frontpage/bloodbath-road-32-1621003 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105171100/https://www.thedailystar.net/news/frontpage/bloodbath-road-32-1621003 |archive-date=5 November 2022 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=Daily Star}} His wife, brother, three sons, two daughters-in-law, and hosts of other relatives, personal staff, police officers, a brigadier general of the Bangladesh Army and many others were killed during the coup.{{Cite news |title=Factbox: Aug 15 victims |url=https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/bangabandhu-appeals/factbox-aug-15-victims |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010070227/https://bdnews24.com/bangladesh/bangabandhu-appeals/factbox-aug-15-victims |archive-date=10 October 2024 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=bdnews24.com}} More than 40 people got injured.{{Cite news |last=জাহিদ |first=সুমন |title=Checking your browser |script-title=bn:শোকাবহ আগস্টে কিছু সরল জিজ্ঞাসা |url=https://www.channelionline.com/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405201033/https://www.channelionline.com/amp/%E0%A6%B6%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%B9-%E0%A6%86%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%9F%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%9B%E0%A7%81-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%B2-%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BF/ |archive-date=5 April 2023 |access-date=7 June 2024 |work=Channel i}} The army chief K. M. Shafiullah was caught unaware and failed to stop the coup. Mujib was shot on the staircase of his house.{{Cite news |date=13 August 2023 |title=The Mournful Day |url=https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/mournful-day-681882 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240806145022/https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/mournful-day-681882 |archive-date=6 August 2024 |access-date=16 August 2023 |work=The Business Standard}} Curfew was imposed after his death was announced on Bangladesh Radio nationwide.{{Cite news |date=15 August 2016 |title=Dalim goes on air |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/dalim-goes-air-1270015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109220658/http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/dalim-goes-air-1270015 |archive-date=9 November 2016 |access-date=9 November 2016 |work=The Daily Star}}

Mujib was warned by many including the Indian intelligence about a possible coup.{{Cite news |title=Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had ignored RAW alert ahead of bloody 1975 coup |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/sheikh-mujibur-rahman-had-ignored-raw-alert-ahead-of-bloody-1975-coup/articleshow/48483920.cms?from=mdr |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105171100/https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/sheikh-mujibur-rahman-had-ignored-raw-alert-ahead-of-bloody-1975-coup/articleshow/48483920.cms?from=mdr |archive-date=5 November 2022 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=The Economic Times}}{{Cite news |date=17 March 2021 |title=Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, from an Indian perspective |url=https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/sheikh-mujibur-rahman-indian-perspective-217738 |work=The Business Standard}} Mujib shrugged off these warnings by saying his own people would never hurt him.{{Cite news |date=14 August 2021 |title=August 15: Coup plotters were looking for a stalking horse |url=https://archive.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2021/08/15/coup-plotters-were-looking-for-a-stalking-horse |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105171102/https://archive.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2021/08/15/coup-plotters-were-looking-for-a-stalking-horse |archive-date=5 November 2022 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=Dhaka Tribune}} Moreover, being the president, he did not stay in Bangabhaban but stayed in his unguarded house at 32 Dhanmondi.{{Cite news |last=Syed Tawsif Monowar |date=15 August 2022 |script-title=bn:সাক্ষাৎকার: স্থপতি এহসান খান; চিরায়ত স্থাপত্যে চিরন্তন মুজিব |trans-title=Interview: Architect Ehsan Khan; Eternal Mujib in traditional architecture |url=https://www.ittefaq.com.bd/610011/চিরায়ত-স্থাপত্যে-চিরন্তন-মুজিব |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815135304/https://www.ittefaq.com.bd/610011/%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A7%9F%E0%A6%A4-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A5%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%A4%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%9A%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%A8-%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AC |archive-date=15 August 2022 |access-date=15 August 2022 |work=Ittefaq |language=bn}} German politician and federal chancellor Willy Brandt said in emotion, "Bengalis can no longer be trusted after the killing of Sheikh Mujib. Those who killed Mujib can do any heinous act."

File:বঙ্গবন্ধু শেখ মুজিবুর রহমান এর সমাধিসৌধ.jpg]]

On 16 August 1975, Mujib's coffin was taken to his birthplace Tungipara in an army helicopter. He was buried next to his parents after his funeral led by Sheikh Abdul Halim. Others were buried in the Banani graveyard of Dhaka.{{Cite book |last=SA Karim |url=https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/special-issues/special-on-national-mourning-day-2022/burial-in-his-native-village-1660496194 |title=Sheikh Mujib: Triumph and Tragedy |publisher=The University Press Limited |year=2005 |location=Dhaka |chapter=The End of the Mujib Regime |access-date=16 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220816190813/https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/special-issues/special-on-national-mourning-day-2022/burial-in-his-native-village-1660496194 |archive-date=16 August 2022 |url-status=live}} The national flag was kept at half-mast by the locals in several government and non-government institutions in honour of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib.{{Cite news |script-title=bn:শোকাবহ আগস্ট ও বঙ্গবন্ধু হত্যার প্রতিবাদ |url=https://www.jagonews24.com/opinion/article/521057 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190819111332/https://www.jagonews24.com/opinion/article/521057 |archive-date=19 August 2019 |access-date=19 August 2019 |work=Jago News 24 |language=bn |type=Opinion}} During the time, the Bangladesh national football team was in the Merdeka Tournament in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. There the national flag of Bangladesh was kept at half-mast on the day of Bangladesh's match. Prior to the match, the players observed a minute's silence for Mujib and his eldest son Sheikh Kamal, who was a keen sportsman and the founder of Abahani Limited Dhaka.

Absentee funeral prayers were held in the Eidgah field of Jessore, Dhanmondi of Dhaka and Baitul Mukarram National Mosque.{{Cite news |date=August 2017 |script-title=bn:গায়েবানা জানাজার কারণে নির্যাতন চলে যশোরে |url=https://www.kalerkantho.com/print-edition/pochattor-er-protibad/2017/08/15/531795 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240510063631/https://www.kalerkantho.com/print-edition/pochattor-er-protibad/2017/08/15/531795 |archive-date=10 May 2024 |access-date=2017-08-15 |work=Kaler Kantho |language=bn}}{{Cite news |script-title=bn:মুজিব হত্যার প্রতিবাদ |url=https://www.dw.com/bn/%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AC-%E0%A6%B9%E0%A6%A4%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A5%E0%A6%AE-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A6-%E0%A6%B9%E0%A7%9F%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%9B%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B2-%E0%A7%A8%E0%A7%A6%E0%A6%B6%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%85%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%9F%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%B0/a-17021398 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240512150627/https://www.dw.com/bn/%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AC-%E0%A6%B9%E0%A6%A4%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A5%E0%A6%AE-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A6-%E0%A6%B9%E0%A7%9F%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%9B%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B2-%E0%A7%A8%E0%A7%A6%E0%A6%B6%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%85%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%9F%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%B0/a-17021398 |archive-date=12 May 2024 |access-date=2013-08-15 |work=Deutsche Welle}} Thousands of people joined the mass procession led by the students of Dhaka University and special prayer in Dhaka on 4 November 1975.{{Cite news |title=Checking your browser |script-title=bn:বঙ্গবন্ধু হত্যা পরবর্তী প্রতিরোধ যুদ্ধ |url=https://www.channelionline.com/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%99%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A7%E0%A7%81-%E0%A6%B9%E0%A6%A4%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A4%E0%A7%80/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605051758/https://www.channelionline.com/%e0%a6%ac%e0%a6%99%e0%a7%8d%e0%a6%97%e0%a6%ac%e0%a6%a8%e0%a7%8d%e0%a6%a7%e0%a7%81-%e0%a6%b9%e0%a6%a4%e0%a7%8d%e0%a6%af%e0%a6%be-%e0%a6%aa%e0%a6%b0%e0%a6%ac%e0%a6%b0%e0%a7%8d%e0%a6%a4%e0%a7%80/ |archive-date=5 June 2024 |access-date=2016-08-08 |work=Channel i |language=bn}} Heads of state, political figures and media of several countries including United States, United Kingdom, India, Iraq and Palestine mourned Mujib's death.{{Cite news |script-title=bn:মুজিব হত্যায় বিশ্বনেতা ও গণমাধ্যমের প্রতিক্রিয়া |url=https://ekushey-tv.com/%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AC-%E0%A6%B9%E0%A6%A4%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BE%E0%A7%9F-%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B6%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%93-%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%A3%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A7%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BF%E0%A7%9F%E0%A6%BE/15540 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231127205953/https://ekushey-tv.com/%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AC-%E0%A6%B9%E0%A6%A4%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BE%E0%A7%9F-%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B6%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%93-%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%A3%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A7%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BF%E0%A7%9F%E0%A6%BE/15540 |archive-date=27 November 2023 |access-date=2017-08-15 |work=Ekushey TV}} Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro stated upon Mujib's death, "The oppressed people of the world have lost a great leader of theirs in the death of Sheikh Mujib. And I have lost a truly large-hearted ally."

Today, Mujib rests beside his parents' graves in a white marble tomb in his native Tungipara.{{Cite news |last=Sheikh Abdur Rahim |date=15 March 2022 |script-title=bn:টুঙ্গিপাড়া একটি অমর সমাধি |trans-title=Tungipara: An immortal tomb |url=https://www.jugantor.com/todays-paper/features/out-of-home/530900/%E0%A6%9F%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%99%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%BE%E0%A7%9C%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%8F%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%9F%E0%A6%BF-%E0%A6%85%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A7%E0%A6%BF |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220315060432/https://www.jugantor.com/todays-paper/features/out-of-home/530900/%E0%A6%9F%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%99%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%BE%E0%A7%9C%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%8F%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%9F%E0%A6%BF-%E0%A6%85%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A7%E0%A6%BF |archive-date=15 March 2022 |access-date=16 August 2022 |work=Jugantor |language=bn}}{{Cite news |last=Haq |first=Naimul |date=15 August 2023 |title=What happened at Bangabandhu's Burial Site |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/national-mourning-day-2023/news/what-happened-bangabandhus-burial-site-3394191 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240805035436/https://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/national-mourning-day-2023/news/what-happened-bangabandhus-burial-site-3394191 |archive-date=5 August 2024 |access-date=4 August 2024 |work=The Daily Star}} His personal residence where he was assassinated along with most of his family members, was opened as Bangabandhu Memorial Museum.{{Cite news |last=Ali |first=Tawfique |date=5 February 2009 |title=100 heritage sites listed: Gazette notification soon to conserve those |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-74498 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220901005511/https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-74498 |archive-date=1 September 2022 |access-date=1 September 2022 |work=The Daily Star}} It was demolished during demonstrative riots in Bangladesh in 2025.{{cite web |url=https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/mujibs-dhanmondi-32-house-burnt-demolished-1062146 |title=Mujib's Dhanmondi 32 house burnt, demolished |date=6 February 2025 |website=The Business Standard |access-date=6 February 2025}}

After the coup, a martial law regime was established. Four allies of Mujib who led the Provisional Government of Bangladesh in 1971 were arrested and eventually executed on 3 November 1975. Mujib's killers included 15 junior army officers with ranks of colonels, majors, lieutenants and havildars. They were backed up by Awami League politician Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad, who usurped the presidency. On the day of the coup, the junior officers ordered their soldiers to take over the national radio and television stations. They were all later toppled by yet another coup led by Brigadier General Khaled Mosharraf on 3 November 1975.{{Cite news |date=3 November 2014 |title=Jail killing: An attempt to cripple Bangladesh |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/jail-killing-an-attempt-to-cripple-bangladesh-48566 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201012093346/https://www.thedailystar.net/jail-killing-an-attempt-to-cripple-bangladesh-48566 |archive-date=12 October 2020 |access-date=22 January 2018 |work=The Daily Star }}

According to American investigative journalist Lawrence Lifschultz, the army's deputy chief Ziaur Rahman was approached by the coup plotters and expressed interest in the proposed coup plan, but refused to become the public face of the coup.{{Cite news |date=20 August 2020 |title=Zia was one of Bangabandhu killing masterminds: Researchers |url=https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/zia-was-one-bangabandhu-killing-masterminds-researchers-122071 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230816161509/https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/zia-was-one-bangabandhu-killing-masterminds-researchers-122071 |archive-date=16 August 2023 |access-date=16 August 2023 |work=The Business Standard}}{{Cite book |last=Mascarenhas |first=Anthony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VoZ0QgAACAAJ |title=Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood |publisher=Hodder and Stoughton |year=1986 |isbn=9780340394205 |page=88 |access-date=5 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010070230/https://books.google.com.bd/books?id=VoZ0QgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y |archive-date=10 October 2024 |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |title=Bangladesh A Legacy of Blood |url=https://sanipanhwar.com/Bangladesh%20A%20Legacy%20of%20Blood.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230816161505/https://sanipanhwar.com/Bangladesh%20A%20Legacy%20of%20Blood.pdf |archive-date=16 August 2023 |access-date=16 August 2023 |website=sanipanhwar.com}} Zia did not deny meeting with the coup plotters, according to Anthony Mascarenhas. Zia was legally obliged to prevent a mutiny against the country's legally appointed president but did not stop the impending mutiny despite having knowledge of it.Anthony Mascarenhas, Chapter V: A Summer of Tigers, Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood p. 73 The only survivors from Mujib's family were his daughters Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, who were visiting Hasina's physicist husband in West Germany at the time. After the coup, they were barred from returning to Bangladesh and were granted asylum by India. Sheikh Hasina lived in New Delhi in exile before returning to Bangladesh on 17 May 1981.{{Cite book |last=Ahmed |first=Helal Uddin |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bangladesh |year=2012 |editor-last=Islam |editor-first=Sirajul |editor-link=Sirajul Islam |edition=Second |chapter=Hasina, Sheikh |access-date=21 June 2024 |editor-last2=Jamal |editor-first2=Ahmed A. |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Hasina,_Sheikh |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201012093315/http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Hasina%2C_Sheikh |archive-date=12 October 2020 |url-status=live}} On 26 September 1975, the martial law regime introduced the Indemnity Ordinance, 1975, which gave legal immunity to all persons involved in the coup of 15 August 1975.

File:Indemnity Act (Bangladesh).jpg shielded Mujib's assassins from prosecution for 26 years. It was repealed in 1996.]]

His assassins continued to enjoy immunity from prosecution for 26 years. The Indemnity Ordinance was repealed in 1996 after his daughter Sheikh Hasina was elected as prime minister. A murder case was subsequently initiated in the courts of Bangladesh. Several of the 15 assassins, including coup leader Sayed Farooq-ur-Rahman, were arrested and put on trial. Others like Khandaker Abdur Rashid became fugitives. The 15 were given the death penalty by a court in 1998.{{Cite news |date=21 April 2000 |title=Call to execute Bangladesh assassins |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/721941.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105171102/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/721941.stm |archive-date=5 November 2022 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=BBC News}} Five of the convicts were hanged in 2010.{{Cite news |date=27 January 2010 |title=Bangladesh hangs killers of independence leader Mujib |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8483988.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010070228/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8483988.stm |archive-date=10 October 2024 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=BBC News}} A sixth convict was hanged in 2020.{{Cite news |title=Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Army officer hanged for murder of Bangladesh's founding president |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52258557 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200414100828/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52258557 |archive-date=14 April 2020 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=BBC News}} Of the remaining fugitives, a few have died or are in hiding. In 2022, the Bangladeshi government reported that five fugitives are still on the run, including coup leader Rashid.{{Cite news |date=15 August 2022 |title=5 fugitive killers of Bangabandhu: Little progress in bringing them back |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/little-progress-bringing-them-back-3095336 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010070229/https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/little-progress-bringing-them-back-3095336 |archive-date=10 October 2024 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=The Daily Star}} One of the convicted assassins is living in Canada.{{Cite news |date=17 February 2011 |title=Convicted assassin living freely in Etobicoke |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2011/02/17/convicted_assassin_living_freely_in_etobicoke.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010070230/https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/convicted-assassin-living-freely-in-etobicoke/article_14173338-5537-533c-8cdd-636b4fc67e86.html |archive-date=10 October 2024 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=Toronto Star}} One of the convicts is living in the United States.{{Cite web |date=24 July 2020 |title=He thought he had asylum. Now, he could face a death sentence |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/24/rashed-chowdhury-asylum-death-sentence-381075 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240412215129/https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/24/rashed-chowdhury-asylum-death-sentence-381075 |archive-date=12 April 2024 |access-date=5 November 2022 |website=Politico}} Bangladesh has requested Canada and the United States to deport the fugitives following the precedent set by the deportation of A. K. M. Mohiuddin Ahmed in 2007.{{Cite news |title=Bangabandhu's Convicted Killer Muhiuddin deported from US |url=https://www.voabangla.com/a/a-16-2007-06-17-voa1-94419064/1394502.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105171105/https://www.voabangla.com/a/a-16-2007-06-17-voa1-94419064/1394502.html |archive-date=5 November 2022 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=VOABangla.com}}

{{Main|Mujibism}}

File:Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in May 1953.jpg

Mujib's statements, letters and life have attracted much political and scholarly analysis of his principles, ideology and beliefs, including what influenced him. These consist of four fundamental policies:

• Nationalism
• Socialism
• Democracy
• Secularism{{Cite book |last=Blood |first=Peter R. |url=http://countrystudies.us/bangladesh/ |title=Bangladesh: A Country Study |date=1989 |publisher=Federal Research Division, Library of Congress |editor-last=Heitzman |editor-first=James |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=31–32 |chapter=Historical Setting |access-date=31 August 2016 |editor-last2=Worden |editor-first2=Robert |chapter-url=http://countrystudies.us/bangladesh/18.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110622211513/http://countrystudies.us/bangladesh/21.htm |archive-date=22 June 2011 |url-status=live}}{{Cite book |last=Dastogir |first=K. A. Golam |title=Bangabandhur Rajnoitik Dorshon |publisher=Adorsho |year=2013 |location=Dhaka |pages=10 |language=bn |script-title=bn:বঙ্গবন্ধুর রাজনৈতিক দর্শন |trans-title=Political views of Bangabandhu}}

When the Constitution of Bangladesh was adopted in 1972, the four policies became the four fundamental state policies of Bangladesh.{{Cite book |title=Bangabandhur Manobadhikar Darshon |publisher=National Human Rights Commission |year=2013 |editor-last=Hossain |editor-first=Abu Md. Delwar |location=Dhaka |pages=16–25}}

{{Main|Electoral history of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman}}

{{Update section|date=November 2024}}

{{See also|List of artistic depictions of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman|List of things named after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman}}

File:Shikha Chirantan, Dhaka, Bangladesh 3.jpg

File:Gallery of the Museum of Independence 07.jpg at Suhrawardy Udyan, Dhaka]]

Mujib continues to be a revered, popular, divisive, and controversial figure in Bangladesh. Opponents of the League are fierce critics of Mujib's populism and authoritarianism, including his creation of BAKSAL. League supporters and other Bangladeshis credit Mujib for successfully leading the country to independence in 1971. However, Mujib's socialist and economic policies after 1971 are largely frowned upon{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} except among his most loyal supporters and family members.

In 2004, listeners of the BBC Bangla radio service ranked Mujib first among the 20 Greatest Bengalis, ahead of Asia's first Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore; Bangladesh's national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam; and other Bengali icons like Subhash Chandra Bose, Amartya Sen, Titumir, Begum Rokeya, Muhammad Yunus, and Ziaur Rahman.{{Cite news |date=14 April 2004 |title=Listeners name 'greatest Bengali' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3623345.stm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225011709/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3623345.stm |archive-date=25 December 2018 |access-date=10 June 2016 |publisher=BBC}}

{{Main|Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's cult of personality}}

File:Mujib Mural in Birampur.jpg

During his daughter Sheikh Hasina's rule from 2009 to 2024, the Awami League had ruled Bangladesh based on a cult of personality around his legacy.{{efn|Multiple references:{{Cite news |date=17 October 2024 |script-title=bn:বঙ্গবন্ধু এই জাতির নেতা: আওয়ামী লীগ |url=https://www.ittefaq.com.bd/703851/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%99%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A7%E0%A7%81-%E0%A6%8F%E0%A6%87-%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%86%E0%A6%93%E0%A7%9F%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%80-%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%80%E0%A6%97 |work=The Daily Ittefaq}}{{Cite news |date=4 January 2024 |title=Ode to the father: Bangladesh's political personality cult |url=https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240104-ode-to-the-father-bangladesh-s-political-personality-cult |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240805120455/https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240104-ode-to-the-father-bangladesh-s-political-personality-cult |archive-date=5 August 2024 |work=France 24 |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=5 January 2024 |title=Bangladesh's growing political personality cult around 'Father of the Nation' |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/bangladeshs-growing-political-personality-cult-around-father-of-the-nation/article67706051.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240518174518/https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/bangladeshs-growing-political-personality-cult-around-father-of-the-nation/article67706051.ece |archive-date=18 May 2024 |work=The Hindu |language=en-IN}}{{Cite news |date=20 October 2024 |title=By Revoking Some National Holidays, Bangladesh Signals Shift Away from Cult Worship of Sheikh Mujib |url=https://thewire.in/south-asia/by-revoking-some-national-holidays-bangladesh-signals-shift-away-from-cult-worship-of-sheikh-mujib |work=The Wire |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Chowdhury |first=Jennifer |date=15 August 2024 |title=In Bangladesh, a Personality Cult Gives Way After Student Protests |url=https://newlinesmag.com/argument/in-bangladesh-a-personality-cult-gives-way-after-student-protests/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240921075020/https://newlinesmag.com/argument/in-bangladesh-a-personality-cult-gives-way-after-student-protests/ |archive-date=21 September 2024 |work=New Lines Magazine |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=20 August 2024 |title=Lessons from the fall of Bangladeshi icons Hasina and Mujib |url=https://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/Lessons-from-the-fall-of-Bangladeshi-icons-Hasina-and-Mujib/172-289861 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240922155643/https://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/Lessons-from-the-fall-of-Bangladeshi-icons-Hasina-and-Mujib/172-289861 |archive-date=22 September 2024 |work=Daily Mirror |language=English}}{{Cite magazine |last=Campbell |first=Charlie |date=25 July 2024 |title=Mass Protests Challenge Bangladesh's Past{{snd}}and Threaten to Rewrite Its Future |url=https://time.com/7003130/bangladesh-student-protests-police-job-quota-hasina-awami-league-razakars/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240728014629/https://time.com/7003130/bangladesh-student-protests-police-job-quota-hasina-awami-league-razakars/ |archive-date=28 July 2024 |access-date=6 August 2024 |magazine=Time |quote=In lieu of a true popular mandate{{snd}}the U.S. deemed January's election, which returned the Awami League for a fourth straight term but was boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), as neither free nor fair{{snd}}Hasina increasingly leans upon the cult of personality she's constructed around her father.}}}} His birthday, along with the National Children's Day,{{Cite news |date=17 March 2019 |title=Nation celebrates Bangabandhu's birthday |url=https://en.banglatribune.com/national/news/34282/Nation-celebrates-Bangabandhu%E2%80%99s-birthday |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191028001408/http://en.banglatribune.com/national/news/34282/Nation-celebrates-Bangabandhu%E2%80%99s-birthday |archive-date=28 October 2019 |access-date=13 June 2023 |work=Bangla Tribune}} and assassination day were designated as an official public holiday. Many roads, institutions, military bases, bridges and other places in Bangladesh were named or renamed after him during Sheikh Hasina's tenure. Under the Awami League's rule, Mujib's picture was printed on the national currency Bangladeshi taka. Even a space satellite was named after him. In 2020, the Hasina government organised a year-long grand programme to mark the centenary of his birth.{{Cite web |title=100 Years of Mujib |url=https://mujib100.gov.bd/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210706041518/https://mujib100.gov.bd/ |archive-date=6 July 2021 |access-date=18 December 2020 |website=mujib100.gov.bd}}

This, combined with his mismanagement of the country post-independence, has led to an "anti-Mujib" sentiment among a large part of the people including the Awami League opposition in the country. Statues, murals and buildings related to Sheikh Mujib were vandalised after the Student–People's uprising, which witnessed the fall of Hasina.{{Cite news |date=5 August 2024 |title=Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, Awami League offices set ablaze in Dhaka |url=https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/353741/bangabandhu-memorial-museum-awami-league-offices |access-date=6 August 2024 |work=Dhaka Tribune}} Following the violent overthrow of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, the cult of personality around Mujib is being systematically dismantled.{{Cite news |date=16 October 2024 |title=Bangladesh government cancels national holidays introduced by Hasina regime |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/bangladesh-government-cancels-national-holidays-introduced-by-hasina-regime/article68759906.ece/ |access-date=17 October 2024 |work=The Hindu |language=en-IN |issn=0971-751X}} The interim government formed after the fall of Hasina renamed some institutions previously named after Mujib.{{cite news |title=14 govt hospitals renamed by removing names of Sheikh Mujib, Hasina, family |url=https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/14-govt-hospitals-renamed-removing-names-sheikh-mujib-hasina-family-983786 |work=The Business Standard |date=4 November 2024 |language=en}}{{cite news |title=Bangladesh has ousted an autocrat. Now for the hard part |url=https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/08/08/bangladesh-has-ousted-an-autocrat-now-for-the-hard-part |newspaper=The Economist |date=8 August 2024}}

Mujib is remembered in India as an ally. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Road in New Delhi and an avenue in Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal are named in his honour. The Palestinian Authority named a street in Hebron in honour of Mujib.{{Cite news |title=Palestine city names street after Mujib |url=https://www.newagebd.net/article/129865/palestine-city-names-street-after-mujib |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010070230/https://www.newagebd.net/article/129865/palestine-city-names-street-after-mujib |archive-date=10 October 2024 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=New Age}} Bangabandhu Boulevard in Ankara, Turkey is named after Mujib. There is also a Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Street in Port Louis, Mauritius.{{Cite news |date=17 December 2020 |title=Mauritius names street after Bangabandhu |url=https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/mauritius-names-street-after-bangabandhu-172885 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105040413/https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/mauritius-names-street-after-bangabandhu-172885 |archive-date=5 November 2022 |access-date=5 November 2022 |work=The Business Standard}} Sheikh Mujib Way in Chicago in the United States is named after him.{{Cite web |title=Bangladeshis |url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/107.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010070802/http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/107.html |archive-date=10 October 2024 |access-date=5 November 2022 |website=encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org}}

Archer Blood described Mujib as charismatic.{{Cite book |last=Bass |first=Gary J. |author-link=Gary J. Bass |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9PnNZTp3BQYC |title=The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-307-70020-9 |page=24 |access-date=16 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241010070732/https://books.google.com/books?id=9PnNZTp3BQYC |archive-date=10 October 2024 |url-status=live}} Gary J. Bass wrote that "Mujib's very appearance suggested raw power," cabled Blood, "a power drawn from the masses and from his own strong personality." He was tall and sturdy, with rugged features and intense eyes. Blood found him serene and confident amid the turmoil, but eager for power. "On the rostrum he is a fiery orator who can mesmerize hundreds of thousands in a pouring rain," Blood wrote. "Mujib has something of a messianic complex which has been reinforced by the heady experience of mass adulation. He talks of 'my people, my land, my forests, my rivers.' It seems clear that he views himself as the personification of Bengali aspirations." According to Time magazine, "A man of vitality and vehemence, Mujib became the political Gandhi of the Bengalis, symbolizing their hopes and voicing their grievances. Not even Pakistan's founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, drew the million-strong throngs that Mujib has attracted in Dacca. Nor, for that matter, has any subcontinent politician since Gandhi's day spent so much time behind bars for his political beliefs".{{Cite magazine |title=::: Star Weekend Magazine ::: |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2008/08/04/chintito.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170817044150/http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2008/08/04/chintito.htm |archive-date=17 August 2017 |access-date=1 September 2017 |magazine=Star Weekend Magazine}}

An Egyptian journalist noted that "Sheikh Mujibur Rahman does not belong to Bangladesh alone. He is the harbinger of freedom for all Bengalis. His Bengali nationalism is the new emergence of Bengali civilization and culture. Mujib is the hero of the Bengalis, in the past and in the times that are". Fidel Castro remarked that "I have not seen the Himalayas. But I have seen Sheikh Mujib. In personality and in courage, this man is the Himalayas. I have thus had the experience of witnessing the Himalayas". Mujib cited Abraham Lincoln, Mao Zedong, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Sukarno and Kemal Ataturk, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Suhrawardy, Subhas Chandra Bose, and A. K. Fazlul Huq as the individuals he admires during an interview with David Frost.{{sfn|Kādira|2004|p=422}}

File:Bangladesh Air Force Formation Flight (Fly Past) to Celebrate The Birth Centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.jpg formation flight during celebration of Mujib's birth centenary on 17 March 2021]]

Mujib's consideration as the "Father of the Nation" of Bangladesh is debated.{{efn|Multiple references:{{Cite news |date=1975-01-27 |title='Father' of Bangladesh |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/01/27/archives/father-of-bangladesh-mujibur-rahman.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230618195215/https://www.nytimes.com/1975/01/27/archives/father-of-bangladesh-mujibur-rahman.html |archive-date=18 June 2023 |access-date=2019-05-18 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite journal |last1=Lifschultz |first1=Lawrence |last2=Bird |first2=Kai |year=1979 |title=Bangladesh: Anatomy of a Coup |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=14 |issue=49 |pages=1999–2014 |issn=0012-9976 |jstor=4368204}}{{Cite journal |last=Jahan |first=Rounaq |year=1973 |title=Bangladesh in 1972: Nation Building in a New State |journal=Asian Survey |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=199–210 |doi=10.2307/2642736 |issn=0004-4687 |jstor=2642736}}}} Origin of this title is traced back to a public meeting on 3 March 1971 (during Non-cooperation movement) where A. S. M. Abdur Rab referred Mujib as "The Father of the Nation".{{Cite news |script-title=bn:আ স ম আবদুর রব |url=https://www.priyo.com/people/a-s-m-abdur-rab |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180422034145/https://www.priyo.com/people/a-s-m-abdur-rab/ |archive-date=22 April 2018 |access-date=18 September 2020 |work=Priyo |language=bn}} However, later claimed that Tajuddin Ahmad, the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh, was the first to refer Mujib as "The Father of the Nation".{{Cite news |date=2021-03-26 |script-title=bn:বঙ্গবন্ধুকে জাতির পিতা উপাধি দেন তাজউদ্দীন |url=https://www.bhorerkagoj.com/national/83342 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240617055212/https://www.bhorerkagoj.com/national/83342 |archive-date=17 June 2024 |work=Bhorer Kagoj |language=bn}} The 1972 Constitution of Bangladesh declared Mujib to be "Father of the Nation".{{Cite news |title=Country profile: Bangladesh |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/country_profiles/1160598.stm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081111022801/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/country_profiles/1160598.stm |archive-date=2008-11-11 |access-date=2008-11-09 |work=BBC News}} On 8 March 1975, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani in a college foundation stone ceremony also addressed Mujib as "Father of the Nation".{{Cite news |date=2021-03-16 |script-title=bn:বিস্তৃত পরিচিতির পরও ভাসানীর কাছে বিনয়ী ছিলেন বঙ্গবন্ধু |url=https://www.jagonews24.com/country/news/651296 |work=Jago News 24 |language=bn}} In 2011, the Awami League-led parliament of Bangladesh passed the 15th amendment to the country's constitution which referred to Mujib as the "Father of the Nation" in attached fifth, sixth, and seventh schedules covering his 7 March Speech, the declaration of independence on 26 March 1971, and the Proclamation of Independence issued by the Provisional Government on 10 April 1971.{{Cite web |title=Appendix I |url=http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/upload/act/2020-10-14-17-08-19-Appendix.pdf |website=Laws of Bangladesh}} On 17 December 2024, 15th amendment was declared illegal by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.{{cite news |title=15th amendment to constitution declared illegal |url=https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/national/15th-amendment-to-constitution-declared-illegal |work=The Financial Express|date=17 December 2024 |language=en}}{{cite news |title=15th amendment to abolish caretaker govt is illegal, HC verdict |url=https://www.observerbd.com/news/503317 |work=The Daily Observer|date=17 December 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241217063750/https://www.observerbd.com/news/503317 |archive-date=17 December 2024 }} On 16 October 2024, Nahid Islam, an adviser to the interim government stated that they doesn't consider Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib as the only Father of the Nation.{{Cite news |date=16 October 2024 |title=Govt doesn't consider Bangabandhu the Father of the Nation |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/govt-doesnt-consider-bangabandhu-the-father-the-nation-nahid-islam-3728976 |work=The Daily Star |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=16 October 2024 |title=Interim govt doesn't acknowledge Sheikh Mujib as Father of the Nation: Adviser |url=https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/interim-govt-doesnt-acknowledge-sheikh-mujib-father-nation-adviser-nahid-968336 |work=The Business Standard |language=en}}

• "Shono Ekti Mujiburer Theke", a 1971 song about him, was inspiration for freedom fighters during liberation war of Bangladesh.
• A song was written about him in 1990 and recorded in 1991 named "Jodi Raat Pohale Shona Jeto" became popular during election.
• In 2020 "Tumi Banglar Drubotara" (You are the star of Bengal), a song composed by poet Kamal Chowdhury on the occasion of Mujib Year was released.

• Humayun Ahmed included Sheikh Mujib in two of his historical novels, 2004's Jochona O Jononir Golpo and 2012's Deyal.
• Neamat Imam's novel The Black Coat depicts Mujib as a dictator.Jha, Aditya Mani. [http://www.sunday-guardian.com/bookbeat/the-black-coat-by-neamat-imam "In the famine-ravaged fields of Bangla, we are all Mujib"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170901162037/http://www.sunday-guardian.com/bookbeat/the-black-coat-by-neamat-imam |date=1 September 2017 }}, The Sunday Guardian, 15 June 2013
• In 2015, the Centre for Research and Information (CRI) department of Bangladesh Awami League published a four-part children's comic book named Mujib based on Sheikh Mujib's two autobiographies.
• In March 2022, Muktidata Sheikh Mujib (Liberator Sheikh Mujib), a memoir of Mujibur Rahman, was published.{{Cite news |date=14 March 2022 |title='মুক্তিদাতা শেখ মুজিব' গ্রন্থের মোড়ক উন্মোচন করলেন প্রধানমন্ত্রী {{!}} কালের কণ্ঠ |url=https://www.kalerkantho.com/online/corporatecorner/2022/03/14/1129084 |access-date=14 March 2022 |work=Kalerkantho |language=bn}}

• In 1972, David Frost Program in Bangladesh, a documentary based on interviews with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was released. British journalist David Frost made it based on the political life of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.{{Cite news |date=2013-09-21 |title=Frost documentary - Bangabandhu |url=https://www.banglanews24.com/english/international/news/bd/7263.details |access-date=2023-10-27 |work=banglanews24.com |language=bn}}
• In the 1973 Japanese Documentary "Bengaru no chichi: Râman" (Rahman, The Father of Bengal), produced by Japanese director Nagashi Oshima, depicts Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's personal life, daily activities and subsequent plans.
• In 1973 Welcome Bangabandhu, a documentary based on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's state visit to Japan, was produced by Mainichi Productions of Japan.{{Cite web |title=Welcome Bangabandhu 1973 (বঙ্গবন্ধুর জাপান সফর ১৯৭৩) |url=https://www.bd.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/11_000001_00592.html |access-date=2022-09-08 |website=Embassy of Japan in Bangladesh}}
• In 1996 "Chironjib Bangabandhu" (Immortal Bangabandhu), a documentary on the life and work of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was produced.
• In the 2018 documentary film Hasina: A Daughter's Tale, Sheikh Mujib's daughter Sheikh Hasina spoke about the assassination of her father.{{Cite news |last=Elita Karim |date=29 September 2018 |title='Hasina: A Daughter's Tale' to Premiere Soon |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/news/hasina-daughters-tale-premiere-soon-1640251 |publisher=The Daily Star}}
• In 2021 "Bangabandhur Rajnoitik Jibon O Bangladesher Obbhudoy" (Bangabandhu's Political Life and the Rise of Bangladesh), a documentary on the life of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the independence of Bangladesh, won the 45th Bangladesh National Film Awards in the 'Best Documentary' category.{{Cite news |date=2022-02-15 |script-title=bn:জাতীয় চলচ্চিত্র পুরস্কার ২০২০ ঘোষণা করেছে সরকার |url=https://www.bssnews.net/bangla/news-flash/30740 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216164332/https://www.bssnews.net/bangla/news-flash/30740 |archive-date=2022-02-16 |access-date=2022-03-12 |work=Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha |language=bn}}
• On 17 November 2023, The Assassin Next Door, an episode of Canadian documentary series The Fifth Estate was released on Noor Chowdhury, the assassin of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.{{Cite news |date=21 November 2023 |title=The assassin next door |url=https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/the-assassin-next-door |publisher=CBC News}}

• In the 1974 Bangladeshi film Sangram, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was portrayed by himself.
• In the 2014 British-Bangladeshi film "Shongram"(Struggle), about Bangladesh Liberation War, loosely based around key events and dates, such as Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after the war speech on 7 March 1971, just before his arrest, the first day of attack on the Bengali civilian population on 25 March 1971, while also explaining the atrocities that took place.{{Cite news |last=Raybe |first=Tovonya |date=11 January 2012 |title=Shongram |url=http://www.flavourmag.co.uk/shongram/ |access-date=1 March 2014 |publisher=Flavour Magazine}}
• In the 2014 Indian film Children of War, Prodip Ganguly portrayed of Sheikh Mujib.
• On 30 March 2021, Tungiparar Miya Bhai, a biopic of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was released.
• On 15 August 2021, August 1975, a Bangladeshi political drama film based on the immediate aftermath of assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was released.
• On 31 December 2021, Chironjeeb Mujib, another biopic of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was released.
• In the 2023 short film "Bangamata" (Mother of Bengal), on the life of Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib, wife of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Mujib is portrayed by Monir Ahmed Shakeel.{{Cite news |date=2023-08-08 |script-title=bn:মুক্তি পেল 'বঙ্গমাতা' |url=https://www.prothomalo.com/entertainment/dhallywood/r3fs0f36ho |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230809195526/https://www.prothomalo.com/entertainment/dhallywood/r3fs0f36ho |archive-date=2023-08-09 |access-date=2023-08-09 |work=Prothom Alo |language=bn}}
• On 29 September 2023, Dusshahoshi Khoka, a film was released that depicts Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's birth to adolescence and youth (1920–1938).{{Cite news |date=28 September 2023 |script-title=bn:শুক্রবার মুক্তি পাচ্ছে 'দুঃসাহসী খোকা' |url=https://www.somoynews.tv/news/2023-09-28/JGJy3OtU |access-date=27 November 2023 |work=Somoy News |language=bn}}
• On 13 October 2023, Mujib: The Making of a Nation, a biopic of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman directed by Shyam Benegal was released.

• In 2007, With funding from the "Sheikh Mujib Research Center London", writer and journalist Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury made a television film "Palashi Theke Dhanmondi" based on his autobiographical political novel of the same name, starring Pijush Bandyopadhyay as Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.{{Cite news |last=পাণ্ডে |first=গৌতম |date=2016-08-11 |script-title=bn:সেলুলয়েডে বঙ্গবন্ধু |url=https://www.dailyjanakantha.com/details/article/209812/%E0%A6%B8%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%81%E0%A6%B2%E0%A7%9F%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%A1%E0%A7%87-%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%99%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%97%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A7%E0%A7%81/ |access-date=2020-09-18 |publisher=দৈনিক জনকণ্ঠ}}

• On 28 September 2021, Khoka Theke Bangabandhu Jatir Pita, an animated biopic of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was released.{{Cite news |date=17 March 2021 |script-title=bn:অ্যানিমেশন: 'খোকা থেকে বঙ্গবন্ধু জাতির পিতা' |url=https://www.kalerkantho.com/online/national/2021/03/17/1014908 |access-date=28 November 2023 |work=Kaler Kantho |language=bn}}
• On 1 October 2021, Mujib Amar Pita, another animated film about Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was released.{{Cite news |last=Joya |first=Sharmin |date=2 October 2021 |title=Meet the director of Bangladesh's first animated theatrical release, 'Mujib Amar Pita' |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/entertainment/tv-film/news/meet-the-director-bangladeshs-first-animated-theatrical-release-mujib-amar-pita-2188951 |work=The Daily Star}}
• On 23 June 2023, Mujib Bhai, another animated film about Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was released.{{Cite news |date=25 June 2023 |title=Animated film 'Mujib Bhai' premiers at Star Cineplex |url=https://www.tbsnews.net/splash/animated-film-mujib-bhai-premiers-star-cineplex-655694 |publisher=The Business Standard}}
• On 26 October 2023, Amader Choto Russel Shona, an animated film about Sheikh Russel was released where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was portrayed as father of Russel.

File:Bangabandhu & Bangamata.jpg in 1947]]

The Mujib couple had two daughters{{snd}}Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana{{snd}}and three sons{{snd}}Sheikh Kamal, Sheikh Jamal, and Sheikh Russel.{{sfn|Kādira|2004|p=440}} Kamal was an organiser of the Mukti Bahini guerrilla struggle in 1971 and received a wartime commission in the Bangladesh Army during the Liberation War.[http://dailyasianage.com/news/78103/sheikh-kamal Sheikh Kamal] The Asian Age. 5 August 2017 Jamal was trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Great Britain and later joined the Bangladesh Army as a Commissioned Officer.{{Cite web |title=Sheikh Jamal |url=http://www.bongobondhuinfocenter.org/personal-life/sheikh-jamal |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818201320/http://www.bongobondhuinfocenter.org/personal-life/sheikh-jamal |archive-date=18 August 2018 |access-date=24 January 2017}}{{Cite web |title=Sheikh Jamal profile |url=http://www.albd.org/bangabandhu/August15Show.pps |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091104093255/http://www.albd.org/bangabandhu/August15Show.pps |archive-date=4 November 2009 |access-date=2 September 2009 |publisher=Bangladesh Awami League}}{{sfn|Gupta|1981|p=5}} The Sheikh family was under house arrest during the Bangladesh Liberation War until 17 December,{{Cite news |date=8 August 2011 |title=Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib's 81st birth anniversary today |url=http://archive.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=197727 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160215115255/http://archive.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=197727 |archive-date=15 February 2016 |access-date=10 February 2016 |work=The Daily Star}} Sheikh Kamal and Jamal found the means to escape and cross over to a liberated zone, where they joined the struggle to free the country. Almost the entire Sheikh family was assassinated on 15 August 1975 during a military coup d'état. Only Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, who were visiting West Germany, survived. Mujib is the maternal grandfather of Tulip Siddiq, British MP{{Cite news |title=UK vote could create cross-border dynasty |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/01/uk-vote-could-create-cross-border-dynasty-2014113112342206325.html |publisher=Al Jazeera}} for Hampstead and Kilburn since the 2015 UK general election.{{Cite web |title=Hampstead and Kilburn MP Tulip Siddiq set to back Owen Smith in Labour leadership contest |url=http://www.camdennewjournal.com/tulipsiddiq-owensmith |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160904145159/http://www.camdennewjournal.com/tulipsiddiq-owensmith |archive-date=4 September 2016 |access-date=24 January 2017 |website=Camden New Journal}} Sajeeb Wazed is his eldest grandson.

File:Sculpture of bangabandhu at ekushe boimela 2023 2.jpg]]

Mujib is today celebrated as a political diarist. He kept a diary during his early political career in the 1940s and 50s. This diary was translated into English by Fakrul Alam and published as The Unfinished Memoirs. The book was published in both India and Pakistan by Penguin Books and Oxford University Press respectively. The book has since been translated into French, Spanish, Korean, Arabic, and many other languages.{{efn|Multiple references:{{Cite news |title=PM unveils Spanish version of The Unfinished Memoirs |url=https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/PM-unveils-Spanish-version-of-The-Unfinished |work=Prothom Alo}}{{Cite news |date=26 March 2017 |title='The Unfinished Memoirs' published in French |url=https://archive.dhakatribune.com/feature/writing/2017/03/27/unfinished-memoirs-published-french |work=Dhaka Tribune}}{{Cite news |date=2 July 2021 |title=Bangabandhu's autobiography translated to Korean |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/asia/news/bangabandhus-autobiography-translated-korean-2122101 |work=The Daily Star}}{{Cite news |title=Bangabandhu's unfinished memories now in Arabic |url=https://www.daily-sun.com/post/191224/Bangabandhus-unfinished-memories-now-in-Arabic |work=Daily Sun}}{{Cite news |date=21 June 2012 |title=Autobiography of Mujibur handed over to Hasina |url=https://www.gulf-times.com/story/114559/autobiography-of-mujibur-handed-over-to-hasina|access-date=12 September 2012 |work=Gulf Times|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250109062701/https://www.gulf-times.com/story/114559/autobiography-of-mujibur-handed-over-to-hasina |archive-date=9 January 2025 }}{{Cite news |last=Ahsanuzzaman |first=Ahmed |date=20 May 2017 |title=Karagarer Rojnamcha: A Jail Diary with a Difference |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/book-reviews/karagarer-rojnamcha-jail-diary-difference-1407826 |access-date=3 August 2017 |work=The Daily Star}}}}

Mujib also started writing his autobiography while in prison between 1967 and 1969; this diary was published in Bengali as The Prison Diaries. Mujib wrote a travelogue of his visits to China during the 1950s. This travelogue was published as the book The New China as I Saw.{{Cite news |date=2 February 2020 |title=Cover of 'Amar Dekha Naya Chin's by Bangabandhu unveiled |url=https://www.daily-sun.com/post/458961/Cover-of-Amar-Dekha-Naya-Chin%E2%80%99-by-Bangabandhu-unveiled |access-date=18 December 2020 |work=Daily Sun}}

• {{Cite book |title=The Unfinished Memoirs |title-link=The Unfinished Memoirs |date=2012 |publisher=The University Press Limited, Penguin Books and Oxford University Press |isbn=978-9845061100 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |title=The Prison Diaries |title-link=Karagarer Rojnamcha |date=2017 |publisher=Bangla Academy |isbn=978-0470602645 |language=en}}
• {{Cite book |title=Amar Dekha Noya Chin |title-link=Amar Dekha Noyachin |date=2020 |publisher=Bangla Academy |isbn=978-9840759880 |language=bn}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• {{Cite book |last=Mujibur Rahman |first=Sheikh |title=The Unfinished Memoirs |title-link=The Unfinished Memoirs |publisher=The University Press Limited |year=2012 |isbn=9789845061100 |location=Dhaka}}
• {{Cite book |last=Kādira |first=Muhāmmada Nūrula |title=Independence of Bangladesh in 266 days: history and documentary evidence |date=2004 |publisher=Mukto Publishers |isbn=978-984-32-0858-3 |location=Dhaka}}
• {{Cite book |last=Karim |first=S. A. |title=Sheikh Mujib: Triumph and Tragedy |publisher=The University Press Limited |year=2005 |isbn=9789840517374}}
• {{Cite book |last=Milam |first=William B. |title=Pakistan and Bangladesh: Flirting with Failure |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-231-70066-5}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Kaushik |first1=S. L. |title=Modern Governments and Political Systems: governments and politics in South Asia |last2=Patnayak |first2=Rama |date=1995}}
• {{Cite book |last=Frank |first=Katherine |author-link=Katherine Frank (biographer) |url=https://archive.org/details/indiralifeofindi00fran |title=Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi |date=2001 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0-395-73097-3 |url-access=registration}}
• {{Cite book |last=Ahmed |first=Moudud |author-link=Moudud Ahmed |title=Bangladesh: Era of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman |publisher=The University Press Limited |year=1983 |isbn=978-984-506-226-8}}
• {{Cite book |last=Ahmed |first=Salahuddin |title=Bangladesh: Past and Present |publisher=A.P.H. Publishing Corporation |year=2003 |isbn=9788176484695 |location=New Delhi}}
• {{Cite book |title=Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Struggle for Independence: UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, De-classified Documents, 1962–1971 |publisher=Hakkani Publishers |year=2013 |isbn=978-7-02-140067-5 |editor-last=Enayetur Rahim and Joyce L. Rahim}}
• {{Cite book |last=Meghna Guhathakurta and Willem van Schendel |title=The Bangladesh Reader: History, Culture, Politics |publisher=Duke University Press |year=2013 |isbn=9780822353188}}
• {{Cite book |last=Maidul Islam |title=Limits of Islamism |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2015 |isbn=9781107080263}}
• {{Cite book |last=Jahan |first=Rounaq |title=Bangladesh: promise and performance |publisher=Zed Books |year=2000 |isbn=9781856498258}}
• {{Cite book |last=Gupta |first=Jyoti Sen |title=Bangladesh, in Blood and Tears |publisher=Naya Prokash |year=1981}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Heitzman |first1=James |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/89600298/ |title=Bangladesh : a country study |last2=Library of Congress |first2=Federal Research Division |last3=Nyrop |first3=Richard F. |last4=Worden |first4=Robert L. |series=DA pam |date=1989 |publisher=Library of Congress |location=Washington, D.C.}}

{{Sister project links|auto=1|d=1}}

• {{URL|www.mujibnagar.com/bangladesh-history/6-bongobondhu-sheik-mujibur-rahaman-in-1971-1975|Sheikh Mujib (1971–1975)}}
• {{Banglapedia|Rahman,_Bangabandhu_Sheikh_Mujibur}}
• {{IMDb name|id=nm0706730|name=Sheikh Mujib}}
• {{Internet Archive short film|id=gov.archives.arc.652014|name=Interview with Bangladesh Prime Minister Mujbur Rahman {{noitalic|(1972)}}}}
• Japanese documentary film {{YouTube|we4EuvkKlGw|Rahman – The Father of Bengal (1973)}}
• {{YouTube|7xl90y37_24|"Coverage of the declaration of Bangladeshi independence on US media"}}
• {{YouTube|VdbMGCi20Qg|"A french documentary on Mujib's homecoming (Bengali subtitled)"}}
• {{NPG name|id=166530}}

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