THE TIMES OF INDIA, JULY 16, 1971
LIBERATION STRUGGLE BODY FORMED
Mujibnagar, July 15, A Nine Party “Bangladesh National Liberation Struggle Coordination Committee” formed recently has pledged to raise guerilla squads in every village for the Liberation of the country.
The committee is led by Maulana Bhasani’s National Awami Party and includes the Communist Party of East Bengal (Sikdar group).
It has resolved to wage a struggle to rehabilitate in an “atmosphere of freedom and independence” all people who fled the country to escape army atrocities and has thanked India for the help rendered to the people of Bangladesh.
The immediate objective of the committee is to “work for the success of the liberation struggle on the basis of a definite programme and line of action keeping close contact and maintaining full co-ordination with the Bangladesh Government and all forces engaged in the liberation struggle”.
The committee, at its first meeting held somewhere in Bangladesh adopted a 15 point progrmme and appealed to all parties to co-operate in implementing it.
The other Seven parties of the committee are the Communist Revolutionaries East Bengal Co-ordination Committee, the Shramik Krishak Karmee Sangha, the Communist Party of Bangladesh (Hatiar group), the Purba Bangla Krishak Samiti, the Purba Bangia Shramik Federation, the East Bengal Revolutionary Students Union and the Bangladesh Shramik Federation.
The committee in a resolution said the people of Bangladesh had now learn that the liberation of the country would not come peacefully or through compromise and they would have to carry on the armed struggle relentlessly.
The committee’s programme envisages formation of an all-party Peoples Liberation Council in each village to take over political, social, administrative and other responsibilities of villages, organise direct village protection forces and administer justice through peoples courts.
These councils will put an end to the usury system, and punish those co-operating with, aiding or acting as agents of the Pakistani running clique.
They will also look after the properties of those citizens of Bangladesh who have been compelled to leave the country.
Small guerilla squads will be organized in villages with peasants, workers, students and other militant youth to “liquidate isolated enemies and replenish their armory with arms snatched from the enemy.”
“Those people willingly rendering help to or co-operating with the Pakistan Government and the Pakistani forces or their agents in any way -politically, economically or militarily-should be treated as national enemies and after thorough investigation they should either be liquidated or punished in any other manner on the basis of collective decision.”
The programme proposes to replace the present “modes of education and influence of corrupt culture,” with a system inculcating nationalism.