Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party

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Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party
Proletarian Party of East Bengal
পূর্ব বাংলার সর্বহারা পার্টি
AbbreviationPBSP
FounderSiraj Sikder
Founded3 June 1971
IdeologyCommunism
Marxism–Leninism–Maoism
Political positionFar-left
International affiliationRIM (formerly)
CCOMPOSA
Colors  Red
Seats in the Jatiya Sangsad
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Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party (Bengali: পূর্ব বাংলার সর্বহারা পার্টি, Proletarian Party of East Bengal) is a communist party in Bangladesh. The party played a role in the independence struggle of the country. In the early 1970s it engaged in armed struggle supporting the new Bangladeshi state. Since then its political fortunes have dwindled, having suffered from several waves of internal divisions. The group remains active, and still carries out attacks against its opponents.

Origins

The group emerged from the pro-China trend of the communist movement in erstwhile

Jamaat-e-Islami cadres at several times.[citation needed] On January 8, 1968 the group formed the Purba Banglar Sramik Andalon ('Workers Movement of East Bengal'). The founding conference lasted, which was completed in a single day, was held in the residence of a jute mill worker in Dhaka. The conference was attended by 45 to 50 followers of the centre.[1]

The line of this tendency differed clearly from other pro-Chinese groupings in East Pakistan at the time. Sikdar's faction saw

PRC foreign policy, which generally supported Pakistan against India. This line was also more radical than that of the mainstream Bengali nationalist movement. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman denounced the Sikdar faction as 'pro-Chinese provocateurs'.[2]

The group also opposed

Soviet social imperialism, Indian expansionism and feudalism.[1]

In mid-1968 the movement began underground actions. Their first action was to capture a

Munshigonj and Mymensingh. On Karl Marx's birthday, May 6, 1970, the group threw bomb into the Pakistan Council office in Dhaka. In October the same year, the group attacked a number of buildings around East Pakistan with bombs, including the American Information Centre.[1]

Liberation War

When the

Liberation War began in 1971, the Sikder faction strove to establish national resistance cells. On April 30 they founded a paramilitary force of their own, the Purba Banglar Sashastra Deshapremik Bahini (Armed Patriotic Force of East Bengal), which initiated armed struggle against the Pakistani army.[3]
Notably, this grouping was one among the pro-China factions that took active part in the liberation war. [4] The official PRC line at the time was that East Bengal was part of Pakistan, and that Indian expansionism constituted the major threat to the region at large. However, the group did consider the mainstream nationalist movement as class enemies.

On June 3, 1971, Purba Bangla Sarbahara Party was constituted as a political party, at a meeting in the Barisal district.[5]

Post-independence

After Independence of Bangladesh, PBSP emerged as one of the main challengers of the new Awami League-government, which it considered as Indian puppets. The first party congress was held on January 14, 1972. Sikder was elected as the Chairman of the party. In April 1973 the Purba Banglar Jatiya Mukti Front, a coalition of 11 groups, was formed. Sikder became the president of the front. After the formation of the front, the party initiated a campaign of armed struggle against the Bangladeshi state.[3] The party had strong support amongst university circles. It published Lal Jhanda (Red Flag) and Sangbad Bulletine. Although an underground movement, it brought out publications of its Central Committee rather regularly and had a functioning propaganda work.[6]

Death of Sikder

In December 1974, Siraj Sikder was captured in

Albanian Communists. That group would later take the name Communist Party of Bangladesh.[7]

Party today

The current group that can be seen as the inheritor of the original PBSP is often referred to as the "PBSP (Central Committee)". The party remains an underground group, and has a programme of armed revolution. It is led by Anwarul Kabir ('Abdur Rouf'). Its area of activities includes the

CCOMPOSA
.

In 2001 a group broke away from PBSP(CC) and formed the

Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party (Maoist Bolshevik Reorganisation Movement).[citation needed
]

In May 2013 six PBSP cadres were arrested along with pipe guns and homemade rifles.[9]

See also

Notes

  1. ^
    JSTOR 2644210
    .
  2. ^ Adil, Nehal (8 April 2006). "Storm over Timor Sea". The Financial Express. Dhaka. Archived from the original on 13 March 2007.
  3. ^ a b Khan, Muazzam Hussain (2012). "Sikder, Siraj". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  4. ^ Ahmad, Mohiuddin (2012). "Radical Politics". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  5. ^ "Puubo Banglar Sarbahara Party". Regional Information Base on Terrorism. Archived from the original on 22 February 2012. Retrieved 29 April 2006.
  6. ^ "The strategy and the struggle of different political parties who opposed AWAMI-BKSAL regime needed a careful study". MajorDalim.com. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 29 April 2006.[self-published source]
  7. ^ "Leftist Parties of the World: Bangladesh". BroadLeft. Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2006.[self-published source]
  8. ^ Alam, M. J. (30 May 2004). "10 outlawed parties active in half of Bangladesh". Ittefaq. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007.
  9. ^ "Armed Maoist Activity in Bangladesh 2012-2013". Signalfire (Blog).[self-published source]

External links

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