The nation mourns for our country’s founding president and Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman today marking his 38th death anniversary with a vow to bring back the six fugitive killers to implement the court verdict.
On the fateful night of August 15 in 1975, some disgruntled and overambitious army officers assassinated Bangabandhu and most of his family members at his Dhanmondi Road 32 residence in a military putsch.
The 18 members of Bangabandhu’s family and his close ones massacred in the August 15 tragedy included his wife Bangamata Fazilatunnessa Mujib, his brother Sheikh Naser, brother-in-law Abdur Rab Serniabat, sons Sheikh Kamal, Sheikh Jamal and 10-year-old Sheikh Russell, daughters-in-law Sultana Kamal and Rosy Jamal, nephew Sheikh Fazlul Huq Moni and his pregnant wife Arzoo Moni. Bangabandhu’s military secretary Bir Uttam Colonel Jamil (promoted to Brigadier General posthumously), who rushed to the spot of the massacre on receiving an SOS from Bangabandhu Bhaban early in the morning was also among the martyrs.
Bangabandhu’s two daughters Sheikh Hasina, the incumbent Prime Minister and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana escaped the carnage as they were abroad.
The day is a public holiday. The government as well as the ruling Awami League have chalked out nationwide programmes to observe the day. President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave separate messages marking the day. Sheikh Hasina will visit her father’s grave at Tungipara today.
The day’s programme started with the hoisting of the national flag at halfmast and the raising of black flags atop all public and private buildings including Bangabandhu Bhaban in the morning as a mark of respect to the martyrs of the August 15 carnage.
Bangabandhu united the people of this land to break free from the shackles of Pakistani oppression and steered them towards independence. His stirring speech on March 7, 1971, before a crowd of millions ready to stake everything for freedom, left an indelible imprint on the nation’s collective memory.
After taking office in 1996, the Awami League government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina initiated the trial of the self confessed killers of Bangabandhu in a traditional court and the court awarded them with capital punishment, which was upheld by the country’s apex court. The court’s verdict for five of the self-confessed killers was executed on January 27, 2010. The government has taken steps to bring back the remaining absconding killers from abroad and finally free the nation from a stigma.
Marking the day, President Abdul Hamid said though the conspirators may have killed the Father of the Nation they could never wipe out Bangabandhu’s ideals and beliefs. “Bangabandhu will remain ever imprinted in the mind of crores of Bangalees so long the country and its people are alive,” he said in his message.
The president said the government should take all-out initiatives to bring the fugitives back in order to carry out the court’s verdict so that the nation knows that the killers cannot hide in any corner in the world.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in her message, vowed to implement the verdicts of the war crimes tribunals, saying her government was committed to establishing democracy and the rule of law. “We must win the struggle to establish an economically solvent, democratic and non-communal Bangladesh which will be free from hunger, illiteracy and poverty. Inshallah, the victory is ours,” she stated in her message.
Marking the day, Awami League took up various programmes including placing wreaths at Bangabandhu’s portrait at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in Dhanmondi in the city at 6:30am and at his mausoleum in Tungipara, Gopalganj at 10am.
Prayers will be offered and milad and doa mahfils organised in both places. Family members of the father of the nation and the martyrs’ families will place wreaths at the Banani graves of the martyrs at 7:30am.