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It was Mujib who proclaimed independence, rules court

DHAKA: In a landmark judgment, the High Court has ruled that Bangladesh’s founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, proclaimed independence on March 26, 1971.

The debate over independence history began after the death of the former President and founder of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Major-General Ziaur Rahman, in 1981.

Supported by the fundamentalists, his party claimed that it was Ziaur Rahman who proclaimed independence and not Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who is widely known as the architect of independent Bangladesh. The politically motivated debate had the nation deeply split for over two decades. The most damaging part of the campaign was the inclusion of its view of history in school textbooks by the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami coalition government.

The High Court Bench, comprising Justice A.B.M. Khairul Haque and Justice Mamtazuddin Ahmed, on Sunday dismissed the claim of the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami. It ordered the cancellation of the edition of the independence documents that portrayed Ziaur Rahman, the slain husband of Begum Khaleda Zia, as the one who proclaimed independence.

In a significant observation, the court asked the government to take action against those who sought to rewrite history.

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