It is said that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's 1966 Six point movement began in Sandwip. During the 1970 Pakistani general election campaign, Mohammad Shah Bangali of Sandwip was the folk singer mascot for the Awami League. The area was heavily affected during the 1970 Bhola cyclone and as a response, the Government of Pakistan sent three gunboats and a hospital ship carrying medical personnel and supplies. The Government of Singapore sent a military medical mission to the country, which was then deployed to Sandwip where they treated nearly 27,000 people and carried out a smallpox vaccination effort. During the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, Sandwip was included in Sector 1. On 10 May, many civilians were murdered including Jahedur Rahman, a lawyer in Sandwip town killed in Kargil Bridge. On the same day, Jasim Uddin, a student at the Chittagong College, was arrested in Sandwip and taken to Chittagong to be imprisoned. He was later released but continued as a Bengali freedom fighter, leading to his execution on 10 December.