Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said history virtually repeated the Karbala tragedy in Bangladesh on August 15, 1975 with Ziaur Rahman being the key shadow man behind the sinister plot.
“There is a strange similarity between the August 15 massacre and the Karbala tragedy. . . The August 15 carnage always reminds us of the Karbala incident,” she told a National Mourning Day discussion on Sunday that coincided with the Ashura tragedy of Muharram 10 in Arabic calendar.
She said assassins had killed Prophet Mohammad’s (PBUH) grandson and Imam of the Muslim community Hazrat Hossain (RA) in Karbala while “another Karbala tragedy happened in Bangladesh through brutal killing of Bangabandhu and most of his family members in 1975.”
Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League president, however, mentioned that women and children were not killed in the Karbala incident but in Bangladesh the assassins did not spare the women and children.
She said children and women were gunned down in Bangabandhu’s Dhanmondi 32 house and the abodes of his political aides and relatives in Minto Road on the fateful night of August 15.
The prime minister said the killers – Faruk, Rashid, Noor, Huda, Shahriar, Mosleuddin, Rashed, Pasha, Khairuzzaman – and some other army officers brutally killed Bangabandhu on August 15 in 1975.
“I don’t know what joy they [the killers] got from killing the Father of the Nation …what did they get through this assassination and from whom did they get the courage to commit such a heinous act?” she said.
The prime minister also asked what Bangabandhu could have done to deserve such a fate.
"Was his crime giving the nation independence and identity? Was it a crime that he wanted to give the people economic freedom and a better life?" she said, adding that Bangabandhu made many sacrifices, even going to jail multiple times, for the people of Bangladesh.
Sheikh Hasina pointed out that Bangabandhu joined processions for people who were starving and was expelled from Dhaka University while going to join a movement for its class four employees.
“But he didn’t look at himself nor compromise his principles and ideology, as he continued working for the people and their welfare,” she said.
She also highlighted Bangabandhu's placing of the historic six-point demands and directives to the nation through the March 7 speech.
The prime minister made the comments as she addressed a discussion through a videoconference from her official Ganabhaban residence on Sunday morning while Dhaka north and south city units jointly organized the function followed by special prayers.
Also Read- OP-ED: Bangabandhu: The luminary of our nation
Secretaries concerned to the premier accompanied Sheikh Hasina as she joined the event through virtual media from Ganabhaban.
National Mourning Day discussion
Awami League’s central leaders and leaders and workers of two Dhaka city units joined the discussion on the 45th martyrdom anniversary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the central office of the party in Bangabandhu Avenue.
The premier paid her rich tributes to Imam Hossain as well saying “on that day (of 10th Muharram in 680 AD) Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA), the grandson of our great Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH), was brutally killed in the Karbala Maidan because he was in the path of just.”
Dhaka North City Awami League President Sheikh Bazlur Rahman presided over the discussion, while Dhaka South City Awami League General Secretary Humayun Kabir moderated the function.
At the outset of the meeting, a minute’s silence was observed as a mark of profound respect to the memories of Bangabandhu and other martyrs of the August 15 carnage.
Sheikh Hasina said the Father of the Nation’s killers in their words and in media interviews confessed that they drew Ziaur Rahman’s blessings and all kinds of support in carrying out the carnage.
She said Bangabandhu cabinet’s senior member and the then commerce minister Khandaker Moshtaq as well was completely involved in the plot to be remembered in history as a betrayer as he Moshtaq declared himself as the president of Bangladesh soon after the carnage.
The premier said Zia had earned Khandaker Moshtaq’s trust and that is why he made him the army chief removing General Safiullah.
“As long as Khandaker Moshtaq was in Bangabhaban, Zia frequently visited there and maintained contact and held meetings with Bangabandhu’s killers . . . the involvement of Zia in Bangabandhu’s killing is now clear before the people with these evidences,” she said.
