Khan, Sheikh Mujibeven toyed with the idea of independence. The collapse of the Ayub regime ten years later gave him the glimmer of hope that revival of democracy in Pakistan was within reach. But when his party, the Awami League, won an absolute majority in the National Parliament, it soon became evident that the military had no intention of relinquishing power. Mujib was arrested, and the Pakistan Army resorted to a blood bath in a vain attempt to crush Bengali nationalism.
