Bangladesh flags flutter in Dhaka

What should, in normal times, have been a commemoration of the adoption of the 1940 Pakistan Resolution on this day, 23 March, turned out to be a moment when the Bengali nation collectively made it clear that Bangladesh was on the way. All across East Pakistan, the flags of Bangladesh were hoisted on homes and public buildings. A Bangladesh flag fluttered on Bangabandhu's residence, where crowds converged in increasingly larger numbers to hear the Awami League chief's pronouncements on developments in the country. The only places where the Pakistani flag was found were the cantonment and President's House.

A meeting was held on this day on economic issues between the representatives of President Yahya Khan and an Awami League team. The vehicles carrying the members of the Awami League team to President's House bore Bangladesh flags, a sight which clearly disturbed the junta. The government team was led by M.M. Ahmed, while the Awami League delegation comprised such individuals as Anisur Rahman, Nurul Islam, Rehman Sobhan and others. Not much progress appears to have been made in the talks.

Meanwhile, General Yahya Khan spent the day not at President's House but in the cantonment, where formal preparations for a military strike against the rebellious province were being given final shape. As Dr. Kamal Hossain would later report, it subsequently emerged that it was on this day that Yahya Khan and the military leadership decided to exercise the military option against the rebellion in East Pakistan. What would come to be known as Operation Searchlight was formally authorised on this day. Thus, while the pretence of political negotiations was being carried on by the Yahya Khan regime, the junta was in fact rushing its plans through to bring the civil disobedience movement to an end, through violence and mayhem.

By the evening of March 23, the feeling that the negotiations were on their way to failure began to seep into the public consciousness.