# Agartala Conspiracy Case (January 1968 – February 1969)

URL: https://allhistories.com/pakistan/timeline/1968-agartala-conspiracy-case
Location: Dhaka Cantonment, East Pakistan
Themes: East Pakistan, Trials

The Agartala Conspiracy Case was a 1968 sedition prosecution against the Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and 34 others, charged with conspiring with India to break Pakistan apart. The alleged plot was said to have been hatched in Agartala, Tripura. Mujib was implicated in January 1968 and arrested that May. The trial opened in June before a special tribunal in Dhaka Cantonment. Around 1,500 Bengalis were arrested in connection with the wider plot in 1967. The prosecution relied on 227 witnesses and seven approvers, who later said their testimony was coerced. Evidence of a secessionist conspiracy was never convincingly established. The case began as a court-martial matter and was moved to a civil trial. On 15 February 1969, Sergeant Zahurul Haq, one of the accused, was shot dead in his cell, sparking protests and arson in Dhaka. The government withdrew the case on 22 February 1969 and the accused were released the next day. The affair is widely seen as a factor in the ruler's downfall and in the growth of Bengali nationalism. At this point in the timeline (1968), President Ayub Khan (8 June 1962 – 25 March 1969) headed the state of Pakistan. The main location of this event lay in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

## Why it matters
The case made Mujib the leading figure of Bengali politics and showed the central government's distrust of East Pakistan.

Ruler at the Time: [Ayub Khan (second term)](https://allhistories.com/pakistan/rulers/ayub-khan-second-term)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Agartala Conspiracy Case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agartala_Conspiracy_Case)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Mujibur Rahman](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mujibur-Rahman)