BANGLADESH: Coups and Chaos

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The reshuffling had barely begun. Soon after being sworn in as President, Sayem addressed the nation, promising a return to parliamentary rule by February 1977. A few hours later, Radio Bangladesh crackled with news that General Zia had returned to power, as chief of staff of the Bangladesh army but retaining the newly appointed Sayem as President. By this time, nobody knew which of the recent actors in this bloody drama were dead and which were alive. Khondakar was alive, because he broadcast an appeal for support for his successor. But the short-lived Chief of Staff Khalid was reported killed only a few hours after he had come to power. All over Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest, most overcrowded and most mismanaged nations, there were fearful signs of rising disorder.