On 5 December 1941 the Italians in agreement with the Chetnik commander Sergej Mihailović gave the city of Foča under Chetnik control, the Bosniak populated parts of the town started organizing their own "Muslim Defense Force". The poorly armed defense units couldn't prevent the massacres of Bosniaks in the Podrinje area of Bosnia. After several attacks and massacres mainly against the civilians of that area, the prominent Bosniak leaders held a conference in Sarajevo on 28 August 1942 at which it was made clear that the NDH government was not doing anything in the defense of the Bosniak population in Bosnia and Herzegovina. That's why the prominent Bosniak leader Muhamed ef. Pandža made a statement where an immediate action of the NDH government is needed. They founded and proclaimed the "People's Committee of the National Salvation of Bosniaks" and the first tasks of the committee were to found the first Bosniak defense force after the fall of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Some of the members of the conference led by Topčić went to Berlin to request from the Germans the establishment of an autonomous Bosnia and Herzegovina. Another two meetings were held but didn't get any successful result and the situation of the Bosniak population in NDH remained desperate.