Bangladesh Rebels Strike Back: Mosharraf Ousted, Rahman Freed

Khaled Mosharraf had held power for exactly three days. He'd seized control of Bangladesh in a coup, then lost everything in a counter-coup led by Col. Abu Taher, who mobilized not just soldiers but ordinary people into the streets. The target: free Maj-Gen. Ziaur Rahman from house arrest. It worked. Mosharraf was killed. Rahman walked out and eventually became president. But Taher never celebrated freely: Rahman later had him executed. The man who freed the future president was killed by the man he freed. The events of November 7, 1975, known as the Sepoy Mutiny or the National Revolution and Solidarity Day, were the third violent power transfer in Bangladesh within four months. After Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's assassination in August and Mosharraf's coup on November 3, Taher saw an opportunity to push Bangladesh toward a socialist revolution. He organized a coordinated uprising of enlisted soldiers and armed civilians who overwhelmed the military hierarchy. Mosharraf and several loyalist officers were killed in the fighting. Ziaur Rahman, a war hero of the 1971 liberation who had been under house arrest since the August coup, was freed and installed as Chief Martial Law Administrator. Taher expected Rahman to implement radical reforms, including abolishing officer ranks and redistributing land. Instead, Rahman consolidated his own power, imposed martial law, and arrested Taher in November 1976. A military tribunal sentenced Taher to death in July 1976 for conspiring to overthrow the government, the same government he had just installed. The execution was carried out before dawn. Rahman went on to serve as president until his own assassination in 1981.