Headed by prime minister Tajuddin Ahmad, it was the supreme leadership of the Bangladeshi liberation movement, comprising a cabinet, a diplomatic corps, an assembly, an armed force, and a radio service.

[6] Its public relations strategy featured a widely popular radio station known as Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra.

It also undertook an international campaign to garner support for Bangladesh's independence, calling for stopping the genocide and preventing a refugee crisis.

[11] On 7 March, however, in a speech in front of a massive gathering, Sheikh Mujib called for an indefinite general strike, asking his people to be prepared for any emergency and issued an ultimatum to the junta.

At Yahya's insistence, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, leader of the West Pakistani opposition party (PPP), joined them from 21 March.

The Awami League leadership expected that on 24 March final negotiations would take place,[14] however, that day passed with no meeting.

On 25 March they learned that Yahya's delegation had secretly left Dhaka, leaving the discussions unfinished, killing any hope for a peaceful settlement.

[15] On 25 March, the night Yahya secretly left Dhaka and the Pakistan Army cracked down on the Bangladeshi population there, killing thousands of people.

Like the entire nation, the Awami League's leadership was taken by surprise; they scattered, each busy finding their own path to safety, and losing contact with one another for a few days.

There, on the night of 30 March and the next day, Tajuddin and Amir had discussions with BSF chief Khusro Faramurz Rustamji, who had come from Delhi after learning of their arrival.

Many of them, notably the youth and student leaders, viewed Tajuddin's meeting with the Indian prime minister as an outrageous act side-lining them.

[27] On 10 April, Tajuddin, Amir-ul Islam, Sheikh Mani and others boarded an old Dakota plane borrowed from the Indian government and set off in search of other cabinet members scattered around the borders.

[29] After picking up cabinet members Muhammad Mansur Ali, Abdul Mannan, and Syed Nazrul Islam from various places on the way, on 11 April, the entourage arrived in Agartala, capital of the Indian state of Tripura, where many other Awami League leaders had taken refuge, including Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad and Colonel M. A. G.

[35] Professor Muhammad Yusuf Ali read the proclamation of independence,[35] drafted by Amir-ul Islam, an Awami League MNA-elect and barrister of the Dacca High Court, with the help of Subrata Roy Chowdhury, a barrister of the Calcutta High Court,[36] retroactively in effect from 10 April.

[40] The proclamation of independence issued on 10 April served as the interim constitution of Bangladesh until 1972 and provided the legal basis of the provisional government.

Rebel commanders of these battalions, mostly junior officers, unaware of the establishment of a provisional government, met along with Colonel Osmani on 4 April.

Unable to overcome the Pakistan forces' onslaught, owing mainly to lack of heavy arms and manpower, both resistances soon retreated into Indian territory.

In the mid-July (11 to 17) conference of the BDF sector commanders at the Bangladesh Government's headquarters on Theatre Road in Kolkata, the regular force, comprising the rebel Bengali soldiers from the Pakistan Army and the EPR, was named "Regular Force" (popularly called Mukti Fouj) and the irregular guerrilla warriors were named Gono Bahini (popularly called Muktijoddha or "Freedom Fighter").

[52] On 21 November, it joined Indian forces as part of a combined Bangladesh-Indian allied offensive against Pakistan, which resulted in victory.

On 15 April, before the Mujibnagar Cabinet took oath, Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmed secretly met Hossain Ali, the Deputy High Commissioner of Pakistan in Kolkata.

Tajuddin persuaded Ali, along with his Bengali staff, to switch allegiance to the Bangladesh government the day after the cabinet took their oaths.

[57] In early April, Tajuddin commissioned economist Rehman Sobhan to stop the economic advisor to Yahya Khan, economist Mirza Muzaffar Ahmad, from acquiring fresh foreign aid for Pakistan and persuade Bangladeshi officials serving at Pakistani foreign missions to switch allegiance to Bangladesh.

[58] In late May, Tajuddin charged journalist Muyeedul Hasan with communicating with the Indian political groups and also establishing liaison with the USSR.

From late June, the first batch of trained BD Forces guerrillas, a few hundred in number, entered and began operating within occupied Bangladesh.

[65] From late August, besides limited training and supplying the BDF, the Eastern Command of the Indian Army, headquartered in Kolkata, got involved in setting their monthly 'ops target'.

BDF guerrillas kept attacking government headquarters, military check posts, bridges, railways, and power stations.

In September, 40 members of the national and provincial assemblies of the South Zone, headquartered in Barasat, issued a statement expressing dissatisfaction on the provisional government's performance.

[71] They asked for revocation of the prime minister's Zonal Administrative Council order (GA/810/345) and instead forming a committee consisting of Awami League members.

By August, Minister of Foreign Affairs Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad and his cohorts at his ministry secretly established a liaison with the United States, a key ally of Pakistan, without the Government's knowledge.

[78] Indian intelligence agencies had discovered the fact just before Mostaq was scheduled to lead the Bangladesh delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.