Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman led Bangladesh to independence in 1971 and was assassinated with most of his family four years later. Born in Tungipara in 1920 in what was then Bengal, he became politically active as a student, supported the creation of Pakistan, and then almost immediately opposed the terms on which East Bengal was joined to it. He was jailed repeatedly from 1948, beginning with the language movement, which demanded that Bengali be a state language alongside Urdu; police killed demonstrators in Dhaka in February 1952, and the date is now observed internationally as Mother Language Day. He led the Awami League from 1966 and issued the Six Points, a demand for federal autonomy giving East Pakistan control of its own taxation, currency and militia. He was charged with conspiracy in the Agartala case in 1968 and released after mass protests. In the December 1970 election the Awami League won 167 of 169 East Pakistani seats and an absolute majority in the national assembly. The military and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto refused to convene it. On 25 March 1971 the army launched Operation Searchlight in Dhaka; Mujib was arrested and flown to West Pakistan, and the war that followed killed hundreds of thousands and drove ten million refugees into India. India intervened in December and Pakistan surrendered. He returned in January 1972 to lead a country with its infrastructure destroyed. Famine in 1974 killed a large number, and in January 1975 he abolished the multi-party system, creating a one-party state under BAKSAL. Army officers murdered him at his home on 15 August 1975 along with his wife, three sons and others.
- Lived: 1920 CE – 1975 CE
- Nationality: Bangladeshi
- Roles: head_of_state, independence_leader
