Shwadhin Bangla Betar Kendro

(Radio Station of Independent Bangla)

The role of Shwadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, the Radio Centre of Independent Bangla, was crucial to inspire the spirit of liberation among the Bangalees from the spells of Islamic colonisation imposed by the dictatorial Pakistani government for economic exploitation and bolster the morale of Bangalee freedom fighters against Pakistani occupation army.

Like all other key state organisations, Tajuddin personally patronized the foundation of this centre. Given the scarcity of resources and facilities at the disposal of the provisional government, Tajuddin proposed to install the radio station at the residence of the acting president and the members of the ministry at Baliganj Circular Road, Kolkata. To the members of the newly formed ministry of information Tajuddin said “You can use this house as the recording station of the Radio center. The crew of the radio center and their associates can stay here. I’ll organize that. Within a couple of days we’ll move to CIT Ave and Theatre Road”. As usual, Tajuddin kept his words and thus was founded the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra.

Ministry of Information

Minister	Prime Minister Taj Uddin Ahmed
Minister’s Rep	Abdul Mannan MMA
Secretary	Anwarul Haque Khan
Director, Arts & Design	Kamrul Hasan
Director, Information & Publicity	MR Akhter Mukul
Director, Films	Abdul Jabbar Khan
Director, Radio	Nil

Schedule of the First Session of SBBK

SBBK commenced its program on Tuesday, 25 May 1971.

First music: Joy Bangla, Banglar Joy.

0659	Opening announcement
0700	Koran recitation and Bangla translation
0710	Program schedule
0715	Bangla news
0725	English news
0735	The Ultimatum (Charam patra)
0745	Message from Bangabandhu
0750	Jagarani-patriotic songs
0800	Closing announcement

Crew of the First Session of SBBK

Opening announcement	Ashfaqur Rahman (Radio staff)
Koran recitation	Mohd Ullah Chowdhury (journalist)
Program announcement	Ashfaqur Rahman (Radio staff)
Bangla News composition	Kamal Lohani, Subrata Barua
Bangla News presenter	Hasan Imam, Babul Akhter
English news composition	Ali Zaker (actor), AK Jalal Uddin (J)
English news presenter	Mrs T Hossain (housewife)
Ultimatum	MR Akhter Mukul
Reading from Bangabandhu’s message	Ashfakur Rahman

Program Directors of SBBK

Bangla news	Kamal Lohani
English news	Ali Zaker
English news review	Alamgir Kabir
Urdu program	Zahed Siddiqui, Shahidul Huq
Program direction	Ashfakur Rahman, Shahidul Islam, TH Shikder, Taher Sultan, Belal Mohammad
Music direction	Samar Das and Ajit Ray
Play direction	Hasan Imam, Ranen Kushari & Mustafa Anwar
Interview	Ashraful Alam
Engineering	Abdus Shakur and Reshedul Hasan

Artists

Core Artists

Abdul Jabbar	Ajit Ray	Sardar Alauddin
Moksed Ali Sain	Kaderi Kibria	Rathindra Nath Ray
Apel Mahamud	Hara Lal Ray	Arup Ratan Chowdhury
Tapan Bhattacharya	Shwapna Ray	Shah Ali Sirker
Torab Ali Shah	Laki Akhanda	Muktar Ahmad
Kalyani Ghosh	Gopi Nath	Rupa Khan, Mala Khan
Azam Khan

Second Stream

Nasim Chowdhury	Nurunnahar Majahar	Ummey Kulsum
Nasrin Ahmed	Mujib Bin Huq	Newajish Hossain
Nurul Islam	Ganesh Bhaumik	Gaziul Hasan
Mohd Farooq	Mustafijur Rahman	Abu Yunus
Yaar Mahmud	Manotosh Dey	Habibullah Chowdhury
Mahasin Reza	AK Shamsuddin	Anu Islam
Mesbah Uddin	Mominul Huq	Motahar Hossain

Theatre

Hasan Imam	Subhash Datta	Sumita Debi
Raju Ahmed	Narayan Ghosh	Madhuri Chatarjee
Mahmuda Akhter Reba	Syed Mohd Chand	Kalyan Mitra
Ashraful Alam	Mamunur Rashid	Mithu, Bulbul

Academics

Prof Shawkat Osman	Dr Majharul Islam	Dr Anisuz Zaman
Prof Abdul Hafiz	Prof Badrul Hasan

Poets

Sikander Abu Zafar

Asad Chowdhury

Nirmalendu Goun

Journalists

Fayez Ahmed	A Gaffar Chowdhury	Ranesh Dasgupta
Zahir Ryhan	Maha Deb Saha	Towab Khan
Abdur Razzak Chow	Haziul Hasan Khan	Aminul Huq Badsha
Salimullah	Sadekin

Mujibnagar Publication