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Fifty-two years after the 9-month broadcast of the Radio Free Bangladesh, a critical phase in the Bengalees' all-out armed struggle in 1971, the memories still remain strong with the nation. It was a heroic chapter, which couldn't be erased from the national history. Without its direct backing, the Liberation War might not have been that all-out which it had eventually turned into. Many of the people behind this radio-in-exile, widely known as Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, have reached their old age. Their saying bye to this world has already started, casting a pall of gloom among their living comrades. Many others who were at the radio have met their premature deaths caused by illness of various types. As part of this universal process, the nation has lost over a dozen Swadhin Bangla Betar figures in the past years. Of late, the deaths of two personalities, Ashfaqur Rahman Khan (81) and Bulbul Mahalanobish (70) have revived the memories of the heroic, fiery days once again. Ashfaqur Rahman was a founding organiser of the Radio Free Bangladesh, and Bulbul then an emerging singer.
Beginning in a messy state at the remote Kalurghat Transmitter Centre under Chattogram Radio station and amid fears of Pakistan Army's attack, the ragtag radio station was initially called Swadhin Bangla Biplabi Betar Kendra. Its duration lasted for three days (March 26-March 28, 1971). The hunches of the programme officials and engineers, most of them from Chattogram, and then working at the improvised trasmitter station proved true. They had to desert the place carrying the small transmitter amid sudden bombings by the Pakistani Air Force planes. Two months later, Radio Free Bangladesh began broadcasting their programmes one evening from the border area using a 50 kilowatt transmitter. The historic day was May 25. Later, the recordings of the programme items for a daily short-length session used to be carried out at a residence at Baliganj Circular Road in Kolkata, to be sent to the border before every evening. By that time dozens of radio people including producers, different grades of artistes, newscasters, script-writers and scores of interested youths had arrived in Kolkata from the occupied Bangladesh.
Although the transmission time of the Radio Free Bangladesh in the initial days was short, its length was radically lengthened after the authorities were given an independent Kolkata building for space to do the recordings. Thanks to poor manpower and technical limitations, the first day's broadcast comprised recitation from the Holy Quran; Ognishikha (special programme for the Freedom Fighters); Bangla News: Rokto Swakkhar (progamme on progressive literature); Bojrokontho (excerpts from Bangabandhu's speech); Jagoroni; English News; Charampatro; Patriotic Songs.
As days wore on and feedbacks began pouring in from the occupied Bangladesh, the Mujibnagar-based Provisional Bangladesh Government felt the necessity to bring variety to the programmes. Eventually, dozens of new programmes like drama serials, inspirational plays and satires, freshly written and composed patriotic songs, prepared talks, poetry recitations were added to the programme list. Meanwhile, scores of writers, journalists, teachers, radio and stage-based and independent singers, both senior and younger, had reached Kolkata. All of them were welcomed, many given the responsibility of conceptualising new types of programmes. In fact, Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra veritably emerged as an outlet for expression of long suppressed creativity. Following the swearing-in ceremony of the Provisional Government of Bangladesh at the then Meherpur inside the country on 17 April, 1971, the start of transmission from the Radio Free Bangladesh was recognised as the second-most major event in the history of the birth of Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, back in the occupied Bangladesh, people from all walks of life had started tuning in to the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra. Listening to the sessions of the Radio Free Bangladesh began soon after the start of the broadcasts, first in the border areas. With the strengthening of transmission capacity, the programmes started becoming accessible to almost all parts of the country. The areas included the capital Dhaka and the other urban areas. The vast rural areas of the country eventually came under the coverage of the Betar programmes. The broadened coverage of the broadcast-range eventually helped the Freedom Fighters inside Bangladesh to have access to the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra. Besides, the urban people in Dhaka, Chattogram and the remote cities and towns found their easy accessibility to the Betar programmes. However, since the whole Bangladesh was then under the brutal occupation of the Pakistan Army, listening to the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra was fraught with life-threatening risks. It led the urban people to arrange secret places, where they could listen to the Radio safely. The capital Dhaka in July-August emerged as a place filled with panic. The reign of terror was prompted mainly by the killings and brutalities let loose by the occupation forces, which started on the 25th March, 1971. In the following nine months, Dhaka became virtually an alien place, with army check-posts covering all the major roads of the city. Soldiers manning those were in charge of frisking the suspicious pedestrians walking along the roads or footpaths. Many were in charge of checking vehicles.
Listening to Free Bangladesh Radio in such a veritably besieged city was a job that could invite instant deaths or 'disappearances'. As a safety measure, the city dwellers opted for secret places at their residences to avoid being detected. Listening to radio in front of a 'paan-biri' kiosk even in sparsely populated areas would then be dismissed as an absurd idea. It was because despite these areas being free of sudden appearance of army patrols, there were fears of 'Razakars', the military's armed collaborators, as well as spies. These dreadful possibilities prompted the Dhaka-dwellers to tune in to 'Swadhin Bangla' upon hiding themselves in a room deep inside the house. The scenario would comprise males and females of the residence, as well as the close neighbours, listening to the radio programmes, their heads put together, and the volume lowered. The village areas were relatively free of panic. The Freedom Fighters and the general people considered the open space of the croplands, areas under large trees, boats in the river, and even small markets as their own domains. Thanks to the fighters' strong presence, many rural areas emerged as being completely free of the Razakars.
During the Liberation War, scores of people became regular listeners of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) Bangla broadcasts. It was because of the London-based radio's wide coverage of the events centring round the Liberation War, the Freedom Fighters' ambushes, and the regional and worldwide diplomatic and civil society activities to expedite the independence of Bangladesh. For the same reason, the Indian radio Akashbani, Kolkata, became a popular radio channel to the Bangladesh listeners. Its regular commentator Debdulal Bandyopadhay became a household name among the Bengalee listeners in the occupied Bangladesh. Therefore, it was natural that BBC and Akashbani would also earn the wrath of the Pakistani army in the occupied Bangladesh.
The persecution of innocent Bengalees for the crime of tuning in to Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra and the other two, thus, became commonplace in the country under siege. At the start of an armed struggle in the 1971 Liberation War's early days, the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra didn't waste time in its evolvement into an all-out revolutionary radio service. Thanks to the spontaneous participation of both professional and amateur radio people, it could stay on course to finally grow into a full-fledged national radio service in independent Bangladesh. Radio Free Bangladesh comprises one of the cores of today's Bangladesh Betar.