The historic March 7, 1971, speech, delivered by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is considered to be the ‘Magnacarta’ of freedom-seeking Bengalis, as well as an inspiration for the country to break free from the shackles of Pakistan.

“Today, I have appeared before you with a heavy heart. You know everything and understand as well. We tried with our lives. But the painful matter is that today, in Dhaka, Chattogram, Khulna, Rajshahi and Rangpur, the streets are dyed red with the blood of our brethren. Today the people of Bengal want freedom, the people of Bengal want to survive, the people of Bengal want to have their rights. What wrong did we do?” Bangabandhu said while addressing over 1,000,000 people on that day at the Ramna Race Course in Dhaka.

The speech was delivered during a period of escalating tensions between East Pakistan and the political and military establishment of West Pakistan. The then Pakistan military ruler did not give permission to broadcast the speech live on either radio or television.

AHM Salahuddin, who was the then chairman of Pakistan International Film Corporation and M Abul Khayer, a member of the National Assembly from East Pakistan, made arrangements to record the video and audio of the speech. The audio was developed and archived by Dhaka Record, owned by Abul Khayer. Later, a copy of the audio and video recording was handed over to Bangabandhu and another was sent to India.