The 1958 Coup: Pakistan's First Military Takeover in Bengal

In October 1958, Pakistan's army chief Ayub Khan staged the country's first military coup, dissolving the Constituent Assembly and declaring martial law. For East Bengal, the coup was not just a distant political event — it marked the end of the fragile democratic experiment that had begun with the 1954 United Front election and the Language Movement. This episode looks at how Ayub's seizure of power reshaped politics in the east wing, sidelined Bengali leaders like Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and A.K. Fazlul Huq, and set the stage for the grievances that would fuel the independence movement a decade later. We trace the chain from the 1956 constitution to the coup, the role of President Iskander Mirza, the arrest of political leaders, and the quiet rise of military bureaucracy that pushed Bengali voices to the margins. With echoes of earlier episodes on the 1950 land reforms and the 1954 election, this episode shows how a coup in Islamabad changed the course of Dhaka's history.

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