Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party

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Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party (Bangla for '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 against 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 violent attacks against its opponents.

Contents 1 Origins 2 Liberation War 3 Post-Independence 4 Death of Sikder 5 The party today 6 Notes

[edit] Origins

The group emerged out of the pro-China trend of the communist movement in erstwhile East Pakistan in January 1968, then under the name Purba Banglar Sramik Andalon ('Workers Movement of East Bengal'). The group had split away from the East Pakistan Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist).

In fall of 1969 the group founded the 'Mao Tse-Tung Research Centre' in Dhaka (which was soon closed down by the Pakistani government). The leader of the group was Siraj Sikder.^[1]

The line of this tendency differed clearly from other pro-Chinese groupings in East Pakistan at the time. Sikdar's faction saw Pakistan as a colonial power, and wanted to struggle for national liberation for East Bengal and the formation of a Democratic Republic of East Bengal. This stood in sharp contrast to official 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]

[edit] Liberation War

When the Liberation War began in 1971, the Sikdar 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 the only pro-Chinese faction that actively took part in the resistance struggle. Other groups either took a more neutral stand or aided the Pakistani government against the resistance movement. .^[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 considered the mainstream nationalist movement as class enemies.

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

[edit] 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 has 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] The party was active in the Dhaka, Barisal, Faridpur, Mymensingh, Tangail, Chittagong, Sylhet and Comilla districts. It carried out assasinatations of Awami League cadres and attacks on police stations throughout the country.

[edit] Death of Sikder

In December 1974 Siraj Sikder was captured in Hali Shahr, Chittagong by the state intelligence service. On January 2 1975 he was killed, en route from the Dhaka airport to a paramilitary camp at Savar. After the death of Sikder, the party was split into two. Later these two factions split further. One of the splinter-groups would break with Maoism and adopt the political line of Albania. That group would later take the name Bangladesher Communist Party.^[7]

[edit] The party today

The current group that can be seen as the inheritor of the original PBSP is often referred to as '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 Sirajganj, Bogra, Pabna, Rajshahi and Khulna districts.^[8] The party is affiliated to the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement and CCOMPOSA.

In 2001 a group broke away from PBSP(CC) and formed the Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party (Maoist Bolshevik Reorganisation Movement).

[edit] Notes