On this day in 1975, our country experienced a terrible massacre which, till today, lives on in our national consciousness -- and so, 45 years later, we still mourn, and solemnly observe, Jail Killing Day.
This was the day when four of Bangladesh’s founding leaders were mercilessly assassinated. It was an act of barbarity that left an indelible stain on Bangladesh.
The slain were: Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Mansur Ali, and AHM Qamruzzaman. All four had played greatly important roles as our people struggled for independence against the brutal Pakistan regime. They were among the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s most trusted insiders.
The four were assassinated as they were left vulnerable and alone within Dhaka Central Jail on that fateful day on November 3, 1975, making the crime all the more heinous, all the more tragic.
To this day, some of the parties behind those killings, as well as the assassination of the Father of the Nation earlier in August that year, evade justice, exploiting loopholes to take refuge in foreign shores.
We hope that, one day, every single individual involved in the jail killings will be made to face the music, for this is a wound that does not heal easy.
Today, let us mourn these four men who were so violently taken away from us, and remember the contributions they made to the nation in its early days -- and in helping realize the dream of a sovereign Bangladesh in the first place.