March 17, 1971

On the morning of March 17, the Mujib-Yahya talks resumed. Today was Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's 51st birthday. Bangabandhu reiterated his demand for the withdrawal of martial law and the immediate transfer of power to elected representatives. Yahya put forth the same excuse of legal difficulties and stated that Justice Cornelius, then Yahya's legal adviser, had been entrusted with the task to consider the legal aspects.

A meeting between the advisers on both sides was proposed, which took place the same evening. Lt Gen Peerzada started off with the observation that the discussions between Bangabandhu and Yahya that morning had proceeded on the basis that Yahya would make a proclamation.

Bangabandhu, according to Peerzada, had proposed that the elected members from both the eastern and western wings should separately draw up constitutions for the respective wings, and thereafter, they should sit together to make a constitution for Pakistan; eastern wing should make provisions for autonomy on the basis of the Six-Point demand, and in the western wing the provinces would have autonomy to the extent provided to a province under the 1962 Constitution; the Centre will retain additional powers.

Justice Cornelius suggested that a provisional constitution should be brought into force through a resolution of the National Assembly. It was also suggested that the advisers of both sides should sit in plenary meeting with Bangabandhu and Yahya to decide on the basic guidelines based on which the provisional instrument would be drafted.  [Kamal Hossain, Bangladesh: Question for Freedom and Justice, UPL, 2013, pg.93]

'GET READY'

On the evening of March 17, Yaha Khan summoned General Tikka Khan to the President's House. He reportedly told Tikka that Mujib was not "behaving".

"You get ready," Yahya added.

Subsequently, Tikka Khan rang up Major General Khadim Hussain Raja, then General Officer Commanding of 14 Division in East Pakistan, and asked him to go to the Command House along with Major General Rao Farman Ali, then military adviser to the governor of East Pakistan.

They went there and found that Tikka Khan and General Abdul Hamid Khan, chief of staff of the Pakistan army, were present there. Tikka Khan informed them that the negotiations with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were not proceeding well and, therefore, the president wanted the military to be ready for action. Khadim and Farman were asked to jointly prepare a plan which was the blueprint for Operation Searchlight. [Khadim Hussain Raja, A Stranger in My Own Country: East Pakistan (1969-1971), UPL,2012, 70]

ENQUIRY INTO KILLINGS

At night, the central government's martial‐law administration announced that an investigation into killings of civilians by soldiers during the ongoing protest in East Pakistan would be carried out. Bangabandhu, in a statement, dismissed the enquiry as "a mere device to mislead the people".

He called on all East Pakistanis not to cooperate with the enquiry "in any respect" as such an inquiry was the least important of several demands that Bangabandhu had said must be met before he would consider attending the assembly session.

Shamsuddoza Sajen is a journalist and researcher. He can be contacted at sajen1986@gmail.com