Person · Bengali independence leader · India
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Also known as Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangabandhu, Mujib, Mujibur Rahman
Bengali political leader (1920–1975) who led the Awami League's Six Point programme of 1966, won the 1970 Pakistan general election with 160 of 162 East Pakistan seats on a federal autonomy platform, and after Yahya Khan refused to convene the National Assembly in March 1971 declared the independence of Bangladesh on the night of 25 March. Pakistan arrested him, and he spent the 1971 Liberation War in jail at Mianwali while his movement, with Indian military intervention, won the war. He returned on 10 January 1972 as the first President of Bangladesh and was assassinated with much of his family at Dhanmondi in Dhaka on 15 August 1975 in a military coup.
- Date
- 1920–1975
- Function
- Authority & administration
- Patron dynasty
- Awami League
- Tradition
- Standard reference and biographical literature; contemporary chronicles and institutional records as applicable.
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
The Dhanmondi 32 house where he was killed is now the Bangabandhu Museum. The 7 March 1971 speech at the Dhaka Race Course, where he said 'the struggle this time is the struggle for our liberation, the struggle this time is the struggle for our independence', is included in UNESCO's Memory of the World register since 2017. His daughter Sheikh Hasina, who survived because she was in Germany in 1975, has served multiple terms as Prime Minister.
About the place
Placed at Dhaka where he was killed in 1975.