Bangladesh Timeline Year 1952-1999

In East Pakistan, police fire at students protesting against the imposition of Urdu as the national language of Pakistan.

Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) placed under Pakistan’s Ministry of Home and Kashmir Affairs; all branches of local administration previously managed by the tribals themselves brought under the Federal government of Pakistan.

Construction of the Kaptai hydroelectric dam and the Karnaphuli reservoir submerge 54,000 acres of arable land affecting about 100,000 people, mostly Chakmas.

About 64,000 Chakmas cross over to the neighbouring Indian States of Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Meghalaya.

Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation, 1900, prohibiting settlement of outsiders in the district and the transfer of land to non-indigenous people, abrogated.

Awami League secures absolute majority in the first general elections; Military ruler Yahya Khan declines to convene National Assembly.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gives call for ‘total non-cooperation' with the government.

Mujib gives call for the emancipation of East Pakistan from Pakistani rule .

Military offensives launched against East Pakistan; full-scale civil war breaks out.

Government-in-exile formed at Mujibnagar; Tajuddin Ahmed appointed Prime Minister.

Pakistani military forces surrender to the Indian armed forces and Bangladesh becomes independent.

Government-in-exile returns to Dhaka.

Mujib returns to Dhaka on being released from a Pakistani prison and assumes leadership of the country.

Manabendra Narayan Larma, tribal leader, meets Mujib and puts forward four demands of the CHT people.Mujib refuses to accept most of the demands.

Manabendra Larma and his brother, Jyotirindra Bodhipriyo Larma, found Parbattya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS - Chittagong Hill Tracts United People’s Party).

Jyotindra Larma forms the Gana Mukti Fauj (People’s Liberation Army), armed wing of the PCJSS; later renamed as Shanti Bahini (Peace Force).

Manabendra Larma forms a new political party, Chittagong Hill Tracts Solidarity Party (CHTSP), to champion the cause of regional autonomy

Mujib proclaims a 'state of emergency'; fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution suspendd indefinitely.

A group of junior army officers assassinate Mujib.

Brigadier Khaled Mosharraf stages bloodless coup; Mujib’s four close political associates killed in the Dhaka Central Jail; on November 7, Brigadier Khaled and his supporters killed at a cantonment near Dhaka by mutineers; Major General Ziaur Rahman reinstated Chief of Army Staff; President A. S. M. Sayem becomes Chief Marlial Law Administrator (CMLA).

Eleven air force officers killed in an abortive coup attempt.

Ziaur Rahman assassinated in an abortive coup allegedly engineered by Major General M.A. Manzoor; Sattar becomes acting president.

Lt. General H.M. Ershad, Army Chief, ousts Abdus Sattar in a bloodless coup, imposes martial law in the country, dissolves the parliament and suspends the constitution; Ershad assumes full powers as CMLA.

Student riots mark the first major public opposition to Ershad’s martial law administration.

Inter-factional feuds within the CHTSP lead to Manabendra Larma's assassination.

About 2,500 Shanti Bahini members surrender under an amnesty offer.

About 50,000 Chakmas flee to the neighbouring Indian State of Tripura alleging persecution by Bangladesh Army.

"Siege of Dhaka", mass demonstrations by united opposition parties against the Ershad regime.

PCJSS submits a five-point charter of demands to the government

Eighth Amendment establishes Islam as state religion.

Anti-Ershad movement intensifies and Ershad is forced to relinquish power on December 6, 1990.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) emerges as the single largest party in the country’s first free and fair elections, held under a neutral caretaker government; Khaleda Zia sworn in Prime Minister.

Harkat-ul-Hihad-al-Islami, aided by Osama Bin Laden, Saudi billionaire-militant, established under the leadership of of Shawkat Osman alias Sheikh Farid; the Harkat aims to establish Islamic Hukumat (Islamic rule) in Bangladesh by waging war and killing progressive intellectuals.

Bangladesh Army, in league with the Bengali settlers, massacres 29 tribals in Namiachar, Rangamati district.

Awami League wins a majority of seats in the parliamentary elections held under a caretaker government; Sheikh Hasina heads the first Awami League government since the assassination of her father, Mujib.

Shanti Bahini rebels abduct, and subsequently gun down, 30 Bengali settlers near Rangamati.

Awami League government offers to hold talks with the PCJSS to resolve the CHT problem.

Bangladesh and India agree to cooperate to fight terrorism along their border; also decide to form a joint working group to investigate terrorist activities.

Indian government orders the closure of Shanti Bahini camps in Tripura.

About 6,700 Chakmas return to the CHT from refugee camps in Tripura.

Priti Kumar Chakma forms New Chittagong Hill Tracts Council (NCHTC); its primary objective is to achieve total autonomy for the CHT region.

Government signs CHT Peace Accord with the PCJSS ending 20 years of tribal insurgency; the Accord provides for a 22-member Regional Council -- the chairman and 14 members must be tribal people.

Awami League government announces amnesty for all tribal militants who are willing to lay down arms.

740 Shanti Bahini rebels surrender in Khagrachari; J.B. Larma announces the formal disbandment of the Shanti Bahini; Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina pledges a $ 470 million development package for the CHT region.

650 Shanti Bahini rebels surrender to the authorities.

A final group of 209 Shanti Bahini rebels lay down arms.

The government constitutes an interim CHT Regional Council entrusting with the task of maintaining law and order, levying taxes and overseeing development projects in the CHT region.

According to the provision of the CHT Accord, the government forms a Ministry for CHT Affairs and appoints Kalpa Ranjan Chakma as Minister.

Jyotindra Larma appointed Chairman of the CHT Regional Council.

Verdict spelt in the Mujib assassination case; 15 of the 19 accused awarded the death penalty.

Harkat militants make a vain bid on the life of Shamsur Rahman, renowed poet.

Six persons killed and over 100 injured when two bombs planted by suspected religious extremists explode at a cultural function in Jessore district.

Sheikh Hasina government sacks Home Affairs Minister, Major (retd.) Rafiqul Islam for his failure to check spiralling violence.

The High Court rules that strikes are illegal as they undermine stability in the country.

Seven persons of the Ahamadiya sect killed and some 40 injured when a bomb planted by Islamic terrorists explodes during Friday prayers at the Kadiani Mosque, in Khulna.