How the events unfolded from 07 March to 26 March

07 March:

• Addressing a huge public meeting at the Ramna Race Course Maidan, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the then leader of the majority party Awami League, announces the closure of all government and semi-government offices in East Pakistan and stoppage of all rents and taxes until the demands of the Bangalis were accepted. 

The Father of the Nation lists his 4-Point Demand at the meeting: 

1. Withdrawal of Martial Law

2. Sending troops back to the barracks

3. Inquiry into the killings 

4. Transfer of power to the elected representatives

09 March:

• The NAP chief Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bashani tells a big crowd at Paltan Maidan that the majority party alone is authorised to frame the country's constitution in a democracy.

10 March:

• Citizens hoist black flags atop private houses, educational institutions, business establishments and many offices in response to a call by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after protestors are fired upon.

All means of transport also fly miniature black flags and members of the public, belonging to all ages, wear black ribbons.

11 March:  

• Tajuddin Ahmad, general secretary of the East Pakistan Awami League, says, "People's movement has attained unprecedented heights because every person in his own sphere has taken it as his sacred duty to implement, in spirit and in substance, all the directives of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman issued in the name of the People of Bangladesh." 

13 March: 

• Minority groups in the National Assembly accept, in principle, the 4-Point demand and demand that interim governments be set up at the Centre and in the provinces before the commencement of the Assembly session on 25 March.

• Jamaat-e-Islami chief of parliamentary affairs Syed Siddiqul Hasan Gilani says that the responsibility for the present crisis lies with  ZA Bhutto, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) chief, who had aggravated the situation by threatening to boycott the National Assembly session on 03 March. 

14 March:

• Zulfikar Ali Bhutto demands that if power is to be transferred to the people before any constitutional settlement, as demanded by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, it should be transferred to the majority party in East Pakistan "and the majority party here".

15 March: 

• At a press conference in Karachi, Bhutto claims rule of majority does not apply to Pakistan and PPP cannot be ignored in the country's governance. He further goes on to say that the present deadlock on the constitution could not be resolved "by ignoring the wishes of the people of West Pakistan as represented by the majority party in the West Wing".

• Sheik Mujibur Rahman says that the non-violent non-cooperation movement will continue till their goal is achieved. 

"The heroic struggle of the people marches forward. All those who cherish freedom and are struggling for it the world over should regard our cause as their own. Our people have proved how a determined and united people can be a bulwark of freedom against those who conspire to rule by force," he says.

19 March:   

• Talks between President Yahya Khan and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman resume at the president's residence. Several thousand people waiting outside the security area of the President's House break the security cordon and mob Bangabandhu's car.

• Asked whether the "Joy Bangla" slogan raised by him after he emerged from the President's House indicated something hopeful, the Awami League chief said that he always uttered this slogan and that he would utter it at the time of his death along with the Kalima.

• Military imposes curfew in Joydevpur town, about 22 miles from Dhaka following exchange of fire between locals and army personnel, resulting in casualties to both sides. 

21 March: 

• Sheikh Mujibur Rahman says that there must not be any relaxation in the movement until the demands of 75 million people of Bangladesh are fulfilled."We will not allow Bangladesh as a colony and a market any more," he declares.

22 March: 

• President Yahya postpones the National Assembly session scheduled to begin on 25 March.

• Bhutto says President Yahya communicated to him the general agreement arrived at with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and that this agreement was subject to "our agreement".

24 March:

• Tajuddin Ahmed urges people to be vigilant and to be ready to make any sacrifice to defeat the conspiracies of the anti-people forces.

"I view with grave the report which we are receiving from Saidpur, Chittagong and other places of military action. In Rangpur, there is a report of numerous casualties of curfew being imposed. In Mirpur also tension is being fomented. All these actions are creating an abnormal and tense situation.

• Sheikh Mujibur Rahman warns against any attempt to impose a decision on the people of "Bangladesh" and says that "we would not tolerate it".

25 March:

• Talks between Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Yahya Khan breakdown. The Pakistan president leaves for West Pakistan.

• Sheikh Mujibur Rahman calls for a general strike throughout "Bangladesh" for 27 March to protest against heavy firing upon the civilian population" in Saidpur, Rangpur and Joydevpur. In a statement, he declares that such "atrocities and killing of unarmed people will not go unchallenged".

• Operation Searchlight begins. Pakistani soldiers come out of the cantonment at 11:30PM, launching an indiscriminate attack on the demonstrating Bangalis in the Farmgate area. They launch simultaneous attacks on Peelkhana and Rajarbagh. In the dead of night, they raid the residential quarters of the teachers of Dhaka University, killing a huge number of students and nine teachers. Attacks are also made in old Dhaka, Tejgaon, Indira Road, Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Dhaka airport, Ganaktuli, Dhanmondi, Kalabagan, Kathalbagan and many other areas of the capital.

26 March: 

• Bangabandhu declares the independence of Bangladesh before being arrested. The declaration reads: "This may be my last message, from today Bangladesh is independent. I call upon the people of Bangladesh, wherever you might be and with whatever you have, to resist the army of occupation to the last. Your fight must go on until the last soldier of the Pakistan occupation army is expelled from the soil of Bangladesh and final victory is achieved."