An eyewitness account of the Mujibnagar government’s swearing-in ceremony

On April 17, 1971, the provisional government of Bangladesh was sworn in. I was lucky to have witnessed the historic event first-hand. India was monitoring the developments in Bangladesh, particularly Pakistan army's build-up, from March 1, 1971 onwards. India had apprehensions that Pakistanis might create some mischief on the International Border (IB) to draw away the attention of Bangladeshis. Therefore, from March 20, the Indian Army deployed some units (including my one) on the IB as a precautionary measure. The Indian Army's Wireless Experimental Units (monitoring enemy wireless transmissions)—due to being located on the high mountains of Meghalaya—picked up all the VHF wireless transmissions between Pak formations and units from zero hours on March 26. India, thus, knew about all the developments inside Bangladesh. All BSF BOPs along the Indo-Bangladesh border were alerted to be ready to receive political leaders, civil servants, and armed forces personnel from Bangladesh.

Tajuddin Ahmad, the second-most influential Bengali leader after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, along with Barrister Amir-ul Islam came to the Indian border via Kushtia. They reached Banpur near Chuadanga on March 30, and sent a message to Banpur BOP that two Awami League leaders wanted to cross over to India. This information went up the chain of command to BSF IG Golok Majumdar, who personally rushed to Banpur to welcome them. He took them to Kolkata. Information about Tajuddin's arrival was passed on to New Delhi. He was personally escorted to Delhi by DG, BSF KF Rustomji by a special Indian Air Force (IAF) plane at night on April 1. In Delhi, they met other leaders who had reached there from Chattogram via Agartala.