“Ziaur Rahman got involved in the war because he was caught up in a difficult situation for himself, not on the basis of the ideology,” Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque said while responding to a question from party backbencher Habibur Rahman Mollah.
Mozammel said Ziaur Rahman, a sector commander during the Liberation War, fought against the Pakistan occupation army reluctantly, since he had other personal agendas to advance his career.
Regarding the former president's reluctance to join the struggle, the minister said: “Ziaur Rahman proposed to form a war council instead of fighting under the command of the Mujibnagar government. MAG Osmani (wartime commander-in-chief) suspended him for making this outrageous proposal. He resumed his duties as a sector commander only after apologising.”
Mozammel further claimed that Ziaur Rahman was also involved in a conspiracy to form a sub-state of Pakistan with greater autonomy, rather than an independent nation.
The minister also said Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad, the wartime foreign minister and later the head of the post-coup government after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, was a co-conspirator.
