Since Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman launched the non-cooperation movement, officials, artistes and staff of the state-run Radio Pakistan and Pakistan Television in Dhaka expressed their solidarity with it.

On 4 March 1971, they declared that as long as the countrymen and students continue to struggle for freedom they will not perform in any programme for Pakistan.

Being inspired by the spirit of independence, they began broadcasting programmes renaming Radio Pakistan in Dhaka as Dhaka Betar Kendra while the officials of Pakistan Television’s Dhaka centre changed the station’s name to Dhaka Television on the day.

They started playing patriotic numbers by Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam.

During the observance of countrywide hartal (strike), a total of six people were killed in Khulna by the Pakistan army while in Chattogram, the death toll rose to 121 in two days.

According to ‘Witness to Surrender’ written by Siddique Salik, who was the public relations officer in the ISPR East Pakistan of Eastern Command of the Pakistan Army, during the riots between locals and settlers in Khulna on 3 and 4 March, some 41 people were killed by police.

In Rangpur, three people were killed and 11 others were injured when police opened fire on them.

He also writes that four people were killed and one was injured in a police firing in Khulna on 4 March when a train derailed.

On the same day, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in a speech, expressed his gratitude to the countrymen and congratulated them for responding to his call by demonstrating courage and standing up against oppression.

“We need to stand up against this ploy… Without immense sacrifice, no country has ever achieved independence,” he said.

Bangabandhu called for hartals on 5 and 6 March again from 6:00am to 2:00pm and asked those state-run and private offices which didn’t pay salaries to remain open from 2:30pm to 4:00pm so that officials and staff could collect salaries.

Dhaka University Teachers’ Association and 55 teachers of the university, on 4 March 1971, in separate statements condemned the anti-people role of the then Pakistan Observer newspaper.

That same day, Sahibzada Yaqub Khan resigned from his posts as governor of East Pakistan and martial law administrator amid a military attack on Bangalees and Gen Yahya Khan’s refusal to visit East Pakistan.

Tehrik-e-Istiqlal (TeI) founder Air Marshal (retd) Asghar Khan in Karachi urged that for the sake of saving Pakistan power be immediately handed over to Sheikh Mujib and his party Awami League as they obtained a majority in the election.

In another development, top military bureaucrats in Rawalpindi sat in a meeting to find a solution to the problem.