Ziaur Rahman

Biography

Ziaur Rahman was born in 1936 in Bagbari, Bogura, and spent his teens in Karachi after his family moved to Pakistan in 1947. He was commissioned from the Pakistan Military Academy in 1955, served in military intelligence and commanded a company in the 1965 war with India, and later taught at the academy and attended the Command and Staff College in Quetta.

As a major in Chittagong in March 1971 he revolted against the Pakistani army and, on 27 March, broadcast the declaration of Bangladesh's independence on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from the Kalurghat radio station. During the war he commanded Sector 1, then Sector 11, and from July the Z Force brigade, and he received the Bir Uttom gallantry award. After independence he rose to deputy chief and, in August 1975, chief of army staff.

Deposed and placed under arrest in the coup of 3 November 1975, he was freed by mutinous soldiers four days later and became deputy chief martial law administrator, then chief martial law administrator in 1976. He assumed the presidency in April 1977, won a confidence referendum that year and a presidential election in 1978, and founded the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. He restored multi-party politics, promoted private enterprise and rural development, moved the country closer to the West, China and the Muslim world, and proposed the regional grouping that became SAARC.

His rule also saw some twenty coup attempts, which were met with mass military trials and executions. He was killed by army officers in Chittagong on 30 May 1981. His widow Khaleda Zia and son Tarique Rahman later led the BNP and became prime ministers.