ifty-one years ago today, Sergeant Zahurul Haque was murdered in Dhaka cantonment.
On this day, February 15 in 1969, Sergeant Zahurul Haque, one of the 35 accused in the Agartala Conspiracy Case, was shot by soldiers of the Pakistan army in the Dhaka cantonment area. He succumbed to his injuries late in the evening on the same day.
A press statement released by the Inter Services Public Relations department of the army gave it out that Haque, along with another accused, Flight Sergeant Fazlul Haque, had been shot in the morning while trying to make their escape from military custody. Both men were taken to the Combined Military Hospital, where Zahurul Haque died at 9:50pm. Fazlul Haque’s condition was reported to have been improving.
Subsequent news reports on the incident, with the shadow of censors looming over them, spoke of an attempt by the two men to escape from custody in the cantonment, where they were being held on charges of engaging in conspiracy against the state of Pakistan. As they moved to do that, the soldiers fired at them.
However, the reports were not acceptable to Bengalis, who by then were engaged totally in the burgeoning political movement, known as Gano Obhyuththan -- or Mass Upsurge -- to push the decade-long dictatorial regime of Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan from power.
The conclusion was that the idea that the two accused could try to escape was preposterous, since security was tight around their place of confinement. Moreover, it was a time when proceedings of the trial were going on before a special tribunal which functioned inside the cantonment. The tribunal was headed by a West Pakistani, Justice SA Rehman, with two other judges, both Bengalis, serving as members. They were Justice Mujibur Rahman Khan and Justice Maksumul Hakim.
Furthermore, it was subsequently revealed that Zahurul Haque and Fazlul Haque had been shot in the chest. Had they been trying to escape, it was pointed out, the bullets from the soldiers’ guns would have struck them in the back rather than in front.
The death of Sergeant Zahurul Haque added new impetus to the movement against the regime. Spearheaded by the fiery Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, the public agitation became increasingly vocal in its demand that the so-called Agartala Conspiracy Case, officially dubbed as Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and others versus the State of Pakistan, be withdrawn and all the accused, of whom the leading one was certainly Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, be released unconditionally.
Bhashani was also telling Mujib’s family and other AL politicians privately that the imprisoned leader should not agree to attend on parole a round table conference called by President Ayub Khan in Rawalpindi.
On the streets of Dhaka, citizens across the spectrum brought out spontaneous processions demanding Mujib’s release. Bhashani threatened to lead a march on the cantonment if the demand was not met. A defining moment in the situation was reached when a crowd of Bengalis set the residential accommodation of Justice SA Rehman in Dhaka on fire.
The petrified judge lost no time in flying back to West Pakistan. The trial proceedings collapsed in the all-round chaos.
The Agartala Conspiracy Case was instituted in late December 1967. It was alleged that a number of Bengalis in the Pakistan civil service and armed forces, 34 in all, had engaged in a conspiracy to cause an uprising in East Pakistan with the intention of bringing about the secession of the province from the rest of Pakistan.
In January 1968, AL leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s name (the AL chief was eventually to be crowned Bangabandhu by a grateful Bengali nation) was added to the case. He was made accused number one. The trial of the accused went underway in June 1968 before a special tribunal in the Dhaka cantonment.
Syed Badrul Ahsan is a journalist and biographer.