The first Hijrat in Islam took place during the fifth year of the Prophet's announcement of his prophethood. West Bengali Muslims who migrated to East Pakistan must have had little difficulty in assimilating in the local community; they just blended into the community because they spoke Bengali. They tried to maintain their Urdu-speaking mohajir identity during 1947-1970. According to Kazi Akber, Ayub Khan believed that the Basic Democracies voters in rural Sindh could be controlled through the bureaucrats and could be manipulated into voting for Ayub Khan. According to Akber, an important factor that contributed to the development of the rift between the Sindhis and the mohajirs was a feeling of frustration and alienation among the Sindhis because of an inefficient operation of the one-unit scheme. According to Akber, the factor that contributed to the growth of the Sindhi-non-Sindhi rift was the role played by certain political leaders of the area.