DACCA: Awami League Chief Mujibur Rahman today [March 3] urged the authorities to withdraw the forces from the city and hand over power to the elected representatives of the people. The authorities must realise that the people wanted self-rule and if they were resisted by force they would not hesitate to sacrifice their life, the Awami League Chief said while addressing a massive public meeting at Paltan Maidan.... He also issued directives to the people of Bangla Desh not to pay taxes until and unless power was transferred to the people’s representatives.

[Meanwhile, as reported by agencies in Karachi] President Yahya Khan yesterday [March 2] invited 12 elected leaders of parliamentary groups in the National Assembly to meet at Dacca to solve the present constitutional crisis. The meeting is scheduled to be held on March 10. [However], in Dacca, the Awami League Chief Sheikh Mujibur Rahman rejected the President’s invitation saying that “we are being called upon to sit with certain elements whose devious machinations are responsible for the death of innocent unarmed peasants, workers and students”. ...[The] invitation had been accepted by Mr. Z.A. Bhutto, Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan, Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani and Mr Abdul Gafoor Ahmad of Jamaat-i-Islami.

Published in Dawn, March 4th, 2021