MOHIUDDIN ALAMGIR

The new textbooks for primary and secondary students will now state that Ziaur Rahman declared the independence of Bangladesh in 1971.

Earlier, the books mentioned that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman made the declaration.

The new textbooks, which will have several changes, are currently being printed and will be distributed among the students from today (January 1).

Since 2010, a year after Sheikh Hasina came to power for the second time, the textbooks had mentioned that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared independence via a wireless message just before he was arrested by the Pakistan army on March 26, 1971.

Prof AKM Reazul Hassan, chairman of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board, said the new textbooks for the 2025 academic year will state that “on March 26, 1971, Ziaur Rahman declared the independence of Bangladesh, and on March 27, he made another declaration of independence on behalf of Bangabandhu”.

The information has been included in the free textbooks where the matter of the declaration was mentioned, he added.

Writer and researcher Rakhal Raha, who was involved in the process of making changes in the textbooks, said they tried to free the textbooks from “exaggerated, imposed history”.

“Those who revised the textbooks found that it wasn’t a fact-based information that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman sent the wireless message [declaring independence] while being arrested by the Pakistani army, and so they decided to remove it.”

Earlier, in the textbooks of classes one to 10, the information on who made the declaration of independence was changed according to the government in power.

It is widely believed among supporters of Awami League that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had made the announcement, and that Ziaur Rahman, who was an army major and later a sector commander of the Liberation War, merely read out the declaration upon Mujib’s instructions.

Meanwhile, supporters of BNP believe their party founder and also former president of the country The It

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