Inaugural Stamps of Independent Bangladesh
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Please click here to view the above stamps in full size
The Provisional Bangladesh Government issued a set of 8 stamps with different motifs during the liberation war 1971. The stamps were printed in London 1971 from the Format International Security Printers Ltd. The motifs were Dacca University Massacre 20P, 75 Million People 50P, Flag of Independence 1R, Ballot Box 2R, Broken Chain 5R, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman 5R, Support Bangladesh 10R and the Map of Bangladesh 10P designed by Biman Mullik. A British politician and MP, John Stonehouse actively worked for printing and auctioning the stamps from London. A large sum of money was raised after the auction as was planned by Stonehouse in London, on the inaugural selling of the stamps and the FDC. A meagre amount, however, reached the Provisional Government of Bangladesh but the rest of the money fell into the hands of John Stonehouse and several other functionaries of the Bangladesh Government ! Involvement of ex-President of Bangladesh Abu Sayeed Chaudhury the then London based Ambassador of Bangladesh Government and Maudud Ahmed a functionary of the Bangladesh Government was first revealed in the different newspapers of UK, is still a question, which needs to be answered. John Stonehouse later became a scandalous figure in the British politics. Remained fugitive in Australia untill Interpol intervened. The inaugural stamps splitted the name BANGLADESH into BANGLA DESH both in
Bangla and English. After 16th December 1971 the stamps were sold in auction in
London with the text on the stamps: Bangladesh Liberated. These stamps (Please see the scanned picture of the stamps) never reached Bangladesh and was not accepted by the new government of Bangladesh led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Of unknown reason, since then, many stamps of Bangladesh were printed from India with bad printing and poor paper quality.
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This page is dedicated to the Martyrs of the war of Liberation of Bangladesh in 1971
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