Father of the Nation of Bangladesh Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (16 March 1920–15 August 1975), or Sheikh Mujib for short, was the first President of Bangladesh and one of the most influential political figures in South Asia. He took an active part in the Partition of India movement from British India to protect the rights of the Bengalis and later led the struggle for the establishment of Bangladesh from East Pakistan. Initially, he was the President of the Awami League, then the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and later the President of Bangladesh. Mujib is credited as one of the most important figures in the struggle for political autonomy in East Pakistan and later in 1971 as the central figure behind the Bangladesh independence movement and the liberation war of Bangladesh. For all these reasons, he is considered as the "Father of the Nation" or "Father of the Nation" of Bangladesh. [2] He was popularly known as "Sheikh Mujib" or "Sheikh Saheb" and his title was "Bangabandhu". His daughter Sheikh Hasina is the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh and President of Bangladesh Awami League.

Sheikh Mujib was a young student leader in the early stages of East Pakistani politics after the partition of India in 1947. He later became the president of the Awami League. [3] As an advocate of socialism, he formed a movement against all forms of discrimination against the people of East Pakistan at that time. In order to establish the rights of the people, he proposed a six-point plan of autonomy, which was declared a separatist plan by the then government of Pakistan. [4] In 1978, he was indicted in Agartala on charges of collusion and conspiracy with the Government of India; However, it was withdrawn due to the mass uprising of 1969. [5] The Awami League under his leadership won an absolute victory in the 1970 elections; Despite this, he was not given a chance to form a government.

After the failure of Sheikh Mujib's talks with the then President Yahya Khan and West Pakistani politician Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on the formation of a new government of Pakistan, the Pakistan Army carried out a massacre in Dhaka at midnight on March 25, 1971. As a result, he declared the independence of Bangladesh. He was arrested on the same night and taken to West Pakistan. [6] He was sentenced to death by a military court of Brigadier Rahimuddin Khan but was not executed. [6] [8] After nine months of bloody war of liberation, Pakistan surrendered to the Bangladesh-India joint forces on 16 December 1971. With the surrender of the army, an independent, sovereign state called "Bangladesh" emerged on the world map. On 10 January 1972, Sheikh Mujib was released from prison in Pakistan and returned home and became the first President of Bangladesh. He became the Prime Minister on 12 January 1972, introducing a parliamentary system of government. [9] Ideologically, he was a believer in Bengali nationalism, socialism, democracy and secularism; Which is collectively known as Mujibism. Despite drafting a constitution based on these and trying to run the state accordingly, he spent a difficult time tackling widespread corruption, including extreme poverty, unemployment, and anarchy everywhere. In 1975, he was forced to introduce a one-party political system to quell growing political instability. Seven months later, on August 15, 1975, he and his family were killed by a group of military officers. In 2004, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was voted the greatest Bengali of all time in a poll conducted by the BBC.