Bangladesh has now introduced new textbooks which state that Ziaur Rehman, the slain husband of Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief Khaleda Zia, declared the country’s independence in 1971.

The new textbooks for the 2025 academic session will replace the existing Awami League founder textbooks. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman With the announcement, the Daily Star of Bangladesh Reported.

Since 2010, textbooks under Sheikh Hasina’s rule stated that her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, had declared independence via a wireless message on February 26, 1971, before being captured by the Pakistan Army.

According to the report, the title of ‘Father of the Nation’ for Mujibur Rahman has also been removed from the new textbooks.

National Curriculum and Textbook Board Chairman Professor AKM Riazul Hasan said that the new textbooks will state that “On March 26, 1971, Zia-ur-Rehman declared the independence of Bangladesh, and on March 27, he Bangabandhu made another declaration of independence.”

He added that the information has been included in the free textbooks where the issue of declaration was mentioned.

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

“Those who revised the textbooks found that it was not factual information that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had sent a wireless message. [declaring independence] While the Pakistani army arrested him, and so they decided to remove him.”

Earlier, in textbooks for grades 1 to 10, the information about who declared independence was changed, the paper claimed. That the government is in power.

Awami League supporters believed that the announcement was made by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and that Zia-ur-Rehman, an army major and later a sector commander in the War of Independence, “merely read out the announcement on Mujib’s instructions.”

Bangladesh’s attempt to remove Mujib’s legacy

After Sheikh Hasina fled to Bangladesh. On August 5, protesters against his rule attacked statues and murals associated with his father, who had been called ‘Binga Bandhu’ for years.

Earlier, Bangladesh decided to begin the process of erasing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s image from its currency notes as it phases out old notes.

The interim government also canceled the national holiday on August 15 on the occasion of Mujibur Rahman’s murder.