Agencies NEW DELHI

Bangladesh’s new regime has altered its history in its school textbooks. According to the new narrative,  Ziaur Rahman, the deceased husband of Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief Khaleda Zia, declared the country's independence in 1971.

Now, the new textbooks for the 2025 academic session will replace the existing ones crediting Awami League founder with the declaration, Bangladesh's The Daily Star reported.

Since 2010, the textbooks under Sheikh Hasina's rule had stated that her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, declared independence via wireless message before being arrested by the Pakistan Army on February 26, 1971. According to the report, the new textbooks have also removed the title "Father of the Nation" for Mujibur Rahman.

Prof AKM Reazul Hassan, chairman of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board, said that the new textbooks will state that “on March 26, 1971, Ziaur Rahman declared the independence of Bangladesh, and on March 27, he made another declaration of independence on behalf of Bangabandhu”.

The information has been included in the free textbooks where the matter of the declaration was mentioned, he added.

According to the paper, writer and researcher Rakhal Raha, who was involved in the process of making changes in the textbooks, said they tried to free the textbooks from "exaggerated, imposed history".