Muslim Brotherhood Party (East Pakistan)

The following letter and the attached "appeal" was forwarded to the US Department of State by the American Consulate General in Dacca on November 28, 1967, with a note that the appeal has been turned down but being forwarded to the Department on the request of Abu Sayeed Bangal, alongwith his covering letter. Bangal introduced himself as the leader of a co-called Muslim Brotherhood Party, and requested for an aid of Rs.5.5 million at that moment, and arms and ammunitions in future, to help his party overthrow the Ayub regime and establish an independent state in East Pakistan.

The Consulate General's note described him as a third-rate Bengali novelist with strong Islamic and Bengali sentiments. He was about 45 years old, a native of Jessore District, and had added 'Bangal' to his name to signify that he was an original Bengali as differentiated from post-Partition immigrants. The note further stated: "Abu Sayeed has the earmarks of a Bengali nationalist and a militant Muslim fundamentalist: he has the fixed stare and intense manner of a dedicated fundamentalist."

M

Bangal Abu Sayeed
D.I.T Building No. 3,
Room No. 6, First Floor,
Nayabazar, Dacca-1.

Dated 21st Nov 1967

Dear Sir,

With reference to my letter of the 9th instant I beg to enclose herewith an appeal, which may kindly be forwarded to your Government.

I would again request you to kindly treat this as strictly secret in the interest of fifty-five million people of East Pakistan. Recently enquiries have been made regarding me from your office to certain businessmen of Dacca, which they have reported to me and I apprehend these sorts of enquiries may cause hindrance to our activities. In my previous letter I requested you to grant me an audience so that you could know all about me and our party.

With best regards.

Yours truly

/s/ Bangal Abu Sayeed
(Bengal Abu Sayeed)

Mr Metcalf
Consul General of USA in Dacca

An Appeal

The fifty five million people of East Pakistan are being denied of their civic rights, of their legitimate claims for economic development. Rather they are being cornered in all financial fields and are being driven down to more and more poverties, day by day, by the step-fatherly policies and treatment of the present Pakistan Government.

Most of the political parties; namely-the Awami League, the National Awami Party, the Jamaat-e-Islami are not strong enough organisationally to fight for the cause of the people as their policies are based on wrong political philosophy and their modus operandi is cowardly and defective. As a result those parties are being divided in several groups gradually.

Observing this hopeless condition of those political parties we have begun organising a new political party. Our workers are devoted to liberate their motherland. Muslim Brotherhood Party is the name of our party. Our object is to form a separate sovereign state in East Pakistan overthrowing the so-called central Government, which is mostly, strategically and purposely manned by people of West Pakistan with a view to exploit the people of East Pakistan. We are quite sanguine, we shall solve our own problems in our own way after achieving our object of establishing our separate sovereign state of East Pakistan.

But we lack in finance for the time being. So we have decided to request our friend-nations for financial aid as loan, which we shall repay in time. Particularly we expect such aid from the people of United States of America who are more lover of freedom than any other nation and who are the leader of the free world.

We hope, the great people of USA and their Government would extend their helping hand to the 55 millions of oppressed people of East Pakistan in their national need. In return we shall remain ever-friendly to our helping friend-nations.

We have become sound enough organisationally to declare our independence within a shorter period of time after getting substantial aid in finance first and in arms-ammunitions next.

/s/ Bangal Abu Sayeed
(Bangal Abu Sayeed)
Chief Organising Secretary, and Supreme Command of Operation Committee

Source: The American Papers: Secret and Confidential India-Pakistan-Bangladesh Documents 1965-1973
Compiled and Selected by Roedad Khan (1999). Oxford University Press, Karachi.

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