Amid foul weather marked by the rumblings of thunder in the sky and torrential downpours in the early hours of 30 May 1981, the hugely popular President of Bangladesh, Ziaur Rahman, was fatally shot by a band of assassins in the port city Chattogram, resulting in his tragic martyrdom. A macabre drama was enacted by the assassins at the Chattogram Circuit House, but the rebellion was soon crushed. From an unmarked grave on a range of hills about 15 miles east of Chattogram city, where he was previously buried, the president’s body was recovered on 1 June and then flown back to Dhaka. The Vice President Abdus Sattar, who took over charge as the Acting President in accordance with the Constitution, tearfully received the body of the late president along with his cabinet colleagues on that sombre afternoon of June amid drizzles from an overcast sky.
The assassinated president’s body lay in state at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban for about 18 hours, when hundreds of thousands of his compatriots filed past with bouquets of flowers to pay their last homage. He was buried beside the Crescent Lake near the new parliament building at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar on 2 June 1981 – the day he was scheduled to visit the Jatiya Sangsad. Millions of people thronged the sprawling Manik Mia Avenue to attend the funeral prayer of the late president and bid him an emotional farewell amid expressions of unprecedented love and grief for their most revered and beloved leader. He was laid to eternal rest with full military honours amid the wailing of bugles playing the last post and the booming of 21 gun salutes for the soldier-statesman. He was a man of destiny for his people and nation since his emergence on the national scene as the declarer of the country’s independence and Liberation War from Chattogram in late March 1971.
A decorated hero of the Liberation War of Bangladesh, Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman was born on 19 January 1936 at Bagbari in Bogura district. His father, Mansur Rahman, worked as a chemist at a government department. Zia spent his childhood in rural Bogura and later in Kolkata. His father was transferred to Karachi after the partition of India in 1947. He then left the Hare School of Kolkata and got admitted to the Academy School in Karachi. He finished his secondary education from that school in 1952. Then in 1953, he was admitted to the D. J. College of Karachi. At the same time, he joined the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul as an officer cadet. He was commissioned in 1955 as a second lieutenant, and after two years of service in the Punjab regiment, Major Zia was transferred to the East Bengal regiment in 1957. He received training at a special intelligence course and served in the Army Intelligence from 1959 to 1964.
During the Indo-Pak war of 1965, Ziaur Rahman was Commander of a Company at the First East Bengal Regiment, which fought gallantly in the Khemkaran sector, resulting in the halting of the Indian advance towards Lahore as well as the capture of enemy territory. He was the lone Bengali Company Commander in that battalion at that time. Zia was subsequently appointed an instructor at the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul in 1966, and in the same year, he joined the Staff College located in Quetta.
Major Zia was posted as Second-in-Command of the Second East Bengal Regiment at Joydebpur during 1969. Towards the end of that year, he went to West Germany for training and later spent a few months in the United Kingdom. He was a paratrooper and evinced keen interest in games and sports throughout his military career.
Major Ziaur Rahman was transferred to the newly raised Eighth East Bengal Regiment at Chittagong in October 1970. While serving in that regiment, he revolted against the Pakistan Army on the night of 25 March 1971. He then made the historic declaration of independence from Kalurghat radio centre of Chattogram on behalf of the freedom-seeking people of Bangladesh after joining the War of Liberation.
Ziaur Rahman was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in August 1971. He then organised the first brigade of the Bangladesh Army with the jawans of the First, Second and Eighth East Bengal Regiments. It was popularly known as the Z-Force. As the Commander of Sector One and the Head of Z-Force, Zia distinguished himself as a brave warrior, which brought him the gallantry award of Bir Uttam after the war.
Following the liberation of the country, Ziaur Rahman initially served as the Commander of the Cumilla Brigade. He was appointed the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Bangladesh Army in mid-1972 and promoted to the rank of Colonel in 1972, Brigadier in 1973 and then Major General on 10 October 1973. After the political changeover of 15 August 1975 following the assassination of the then President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, General Zia was appointed the Chief of Staff of the Bangladesh Army on 25 August 1975.
General Zia became the Deputy Chief Martial Law Administrator following the sepoy-people revolution of 7 November 1975. He was appointed the Chief Martial Law Administrator on 19 November 1976 and took oath as the President of the country on 21 April 1977. He received a popular mandate for his presidency through a countrywide referendum held in June 1977.  Then in June 1978, he became the first directly elected president of the country as a nominee of the Nationalist Front by winning overwhelming popular support from the masses of Bangladesh (76.67 % of the votes cast). On 1 September 1978, he founded his political platform Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which swept the parliamentary election held in February 1979. His political programmes were incorporated in what was popularly known as the 19-Point Programme. The first session of the second Jatiya Sangsad was convened on 1 April 1979. On 9 April, martial law was lifted after the passage of the Fifth Amendment Act. Bangladesh thereby entered a new era of multi-party democracy and constitutional rule.
During the two years that followed, Zia worked tirelessly for the uplift of the teeming millions of Bangladesh and achieved commendable successes both on the domestic and international fronts. But unfortunately, he did not survive for long. He was tragically assassinated on 30 May 1981 by a group of conspirators in Chattogram, just when he appeared to be leading the nation to a new era of socio-economic prosperity and international eminence. He was survived by his wife, Begum Khaleda Zia, and sons Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman.
It was cruel and ironic that the great visionary and architect of modern Bangladesh succumbed to the assassins’ bullets at a time when the country was on the verge of getting the practical results of his dedicated and relentless toil for self-reliance and economic growth at home and rising prestige cum appreciation abroad. Shaheed Zia has passed into eternity, never to come back to this mundane earthly abode and his beloved motherland. But the wider world and the land of his dream ‘Bangladesh’ will forever remember and cherish his contributions to democracy and freedom, and fondly recall his role in shaping the destiny of a nation born from the blood of martyrs.
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The writer is a former Editor of Bangladesh Quarterly. Email: [email protected]