[2] Sheikh Mujibur Rahman took charge as the Prime Minister within a month of Bangladesh's winning freedom from Pakistan after one of the deadliest wars.

To attain the ideas of socialism, Bangladesh nationalized all the major industries and imposed a ceiling for private investments that significantly impacted the growth of enterprises and slowed down the economic activities inside the country.

[6] The slowing down of economic activities, politicized rent management[7] and a devastating flood resulted in a deadly famine in 1974 that took the lives of hundreds and thousands of people.

[9] A special paramilitary unit similar to Gestapo of Hitler, Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini, loyal to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was formed to crush dissidents.

[14] All political parties but BAKSAL, a new form of Awami League, were banned and all but four newspapers were allowed to run with four state-appointed editors, under his Second Revolution theory.

In his absence, a group of the elected lawmakers from the Awami League rallied behind Tajuddin Ahmed and Syed Nazrul Islam, who formed Bangladesh’s provisional government with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the President.

Latifur Rahman, the founder of Transcom Group, who used to own a jute mill which was taken away in 1972, even had to bring a ceiling fan from his home and hire furniture to start his office after the wholesale nationalization of industries.

[26] The United States, despite their role in supporting Pakistan during the liberation war, provided a sizeable amount of food grains[27] and aid equivalent to USD 824 million.

USAID provided funds for the coastal embankment project and the repair and overhaul of the Siddhirganj Power Plant which was damaged during the war.

[28] The World Bank agreed to sponsor the development of the Ashuganj Fertilizer Factory, a project that was partially supported by the United States.

After the war, when Bangladesh adopted secularism as state principle, an independent commission was founded under prominent scientist Dr. Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda.

[32] The policy of nationalization centralized the economic activities and the government had the ultimate authority to give away the permits and licenses for different supplies, which included fertilizer, pumps, food grains etc.

The government decided to impose a ceiling of 2.5 million BDT on private investment and introduced strict conditions for foreign investors.

The Annual Plan published by the government of Bangladesh argued that the shortfalls in the economy and the high prices are largely the result of inefficient management, which included a lack of coordination labour-management problems and the creation of multiple middlemen in the market.

In this circumstance, to reduce crime and utilize the trained freedom fighters for the greater good of the nation, Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini was established in 1972.

Jasad and some leftist parties who were opposing the Sheikh Mujib government claimed to have lost thousands of their supporters and activists in the anti-terrorism drive of Rakkhi Bahini.

[37] Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini or JRB in short opted for brutal measures to oppress the opposition party men, irrespective of their gender.

[39] The government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman soon made an amendment in the Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini Act that endowed them with very wide powers of arrest and detention, and its members were allowed immunity for their actions from scrutiny by the courts.

Mujib’s other brother-in-law ATM Syed Hossain, who was just a section officer before independence, was promoted to Additional Secretary of the government after the war.

[42] Among others, his nephew Sheikh Mani, a former student leader and a young journalist, established a media empire after the independence thanks to the government advertisements.

An article in Far Eastern Economic Review read, Bangladeshis had by this time, begun to consider that the corruption and malpractices and plunder of national wealth had reached “unprecedented” levels.

In addition to nepotism and favouritism, the nationalization of the industrial sector and distribution channels of key resources created scope for massive corruption.

Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen in his article claimed that 80 to 100 thousands persons died of starvation and malnutrition in 2 to 3 months in the Rangpur district alone.

[48] One key reason of the famine was the fall of rice exchange rate, a major source of income for the farmers and agricultural workers, after the flood.

[50]Bangladesh in 1974 was a socialist economy and the market was controlled by the state, through the people close to the government, mostly Awami League leaders, who owned the crucial permits of food grains trade.

Besides, Bangladesh's Red Cross operations were led by a corrupt individual and a key leader of Awami League, Gazi Golam Mostafa.

[51] During the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's premiership, press freedom in Bangladesh was seriously disrupted on a number of occasions and some prominent journalists were detained for publishing news.

[52] Abdus Salam, the editor of The Observer, lost his job after writing an editorial titled "The supreme test" with a call to form a unity government in the post-independence Bangladesh, in 1972.

[54] In 1974, after the Ramna massacre that claimed around fifty lives, police arrested the editor of Gonokontho, Al Mahmud from his home in the midnight and blocked the circulation of the newspaper as it was sympathetic to Jasad.

[56] In an editorial written after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's take over of Presidency, The New York Times termed Bangladesh as One Man's Basket Case and opined, The corruption, incompetence and indifference which the former Prime Minister and newly proclaimed President assails, and which have driven foreign relief officials to despair, are centered in the Sheik's own party, to which he has assigned an exclusive role in a one‐party state.