The first commission set up in London in 1980 to enquire into the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family and the national four leaders was denied entry to Bangladesh during President General Ziaur Rahman’s regime in January 1981.
This was mentioned in the commission’s report published in November 1982 by the Radical Asia Publications, London. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, then President of Awami League, wrote the foreword in the report.
The Commission of Enquiry was set up on September 18, 1980 with Sir Thomas Williams, QC, MP, Sean MacBride SC, Jeffrey Thomas QC, MP and Aubrey Rose, Solicitor, as its members.
Thomas Williams took the initiative “in response to an appeal made by Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, surviving daughters of late Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and by M Selim and Sayed Ashraf-ul-Islam, sons of murdered Prime Minister (Monsur Ali) and Vice-President (Syed Nazrul Islam).”
Syed Nazrul Islam, Monsur Ali, Tajuddin Ahmed, and Qamruzzaman were killed under detention without trial in the Dhaka Central Jail on November 3, 1975.
“This appeal (forming commission) had been widely supported in public meetings held in Bangladesh as well as abroad,” Thomas Williams wrote in the preliminary report of the enquiry dated March 20, 1982.
Sheikh Hasina in the foreword wrote about the members of the Commission that: “Their names and reputations are a guarantee that the inquiry will conform to the highest standards of judicial propriety. Their findings will, we hope, arouse the world's conscience to these acts of terror and to the abuses of the rule of law that have disfigured the political and social life of Bangladesh these past seven years.”
Bangabandu was assassinated along with most of his family members on the fateful night of August 15, 1975. His daughters, Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, survived as they were abroad at the time.
Following the assassination, the military government of the country issued an indemnity ordinance that prevented the killers from facing legal action and even provided them with jobs in the foreign ministry.
After assuming power in 1996, Bangabandhu's party, the Awami League, repealed the ordinance and initiated the trial of the assassins.
After a lengthy trial, the court convicted 12 suspects and sentenced them to death in 2010.
Of the self-proclaimed killers, five were hanged on January 28, 2010. They were Syed Faruque Rahman, Sultan Shahariar Rashid Khan, Bazlul Huda, Mohiuddin Ahmed and AKM Mohiuddin. Another of the killers, Aziz Pasha, died while on the loose.
Abdul Mazed, a fugitive convict, was arrested in Dhaka’s Gabtoli on April 7, 2020 and later executed following legal procedures.
Rashed Chowdhury is currently living in the US, while Noor Chowdhury is in Canada. The whereabouts of Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim and Risaldar Moslemuddin are unknown.
The first meeting of the commission was held in one of the Committee Rooms of the House of Commons on September 18, 1980, under the Chairmanship of Sir Thomas Williams.
After the meeting, a statement announcing the setting up of the commission and its terms of reference was issued at a press conference held on the same day.
The commission, with the available facts and circumstances, decided that one of their members should go to Dhaka to inquire on the spot as to what was impeding the processes of law and justice from taking their course in relation to the murders referred to above.
“It was decided that one of the Members, Jeffrey Thomas, QC, should visit Dacca on January 13, 1981, for such an on-the spot investigation, accompanied by an aide.An application was made by the Secretary of the Commission, Aubrey Rose, Solicitor, for visas, to enable Jeffrey Thomas and his aide to visit Bangladesh,” the report says.
“The Bangladesh High Commission kept the matter pending indicating that the visas would be issued in due time to enable the members to visit Bangladesh.”
“On the morning of January 13, 1981, when an urgent request was made to enable the members to take the British Airways flight in the same evening, the Bangladesh High Commission in London indicated that passports and visas would be returned on that afternoon.
“When these were called for, it was said that the Consular Section was closed. Subsequently, the Bangladesh High Commission confirmed that they could not issue a visa for Jeffrey Thomas to travel to Dacca,” the report says.
“The secretary to the commission confirmed that despite letters, telephone calls, and personal visits to the Bangladesh High Commission in London, no letter of refusal to grant a visa or of explanation, or of any kind, has been received by the secretary from the High Commission.”
With the available facts, the commission reached preliminary conclusions on March 20, 1982: a) The processes of law and justice have not been permitted to take their course. b) It would appear that the Government has duly been responsible for impeding their process. c) These impediments should be removed and law and justice should be allowed to take their course.
About her appeal to form a commission, Sheikh Hasina wrote: “Unable to get satisfaction from the Bangladesh authorities, the families of the victims and their democratic minded supporters in Britain, determined that the matter must not be allowed to rest, persuaded a number of distinguished jurists to set up a commission to inquire into the murder of Bangabandhu and his family and of the four national leaders while under detention without trial in the Dacca Central Jail.”
She wrote: “It is the right and duty of governments and peoples, who cherish democratic values, to support the democratic rights of peoples in all parts of the world. And when such norms are violated, they should express their abhorrence in every manner open to them.”
“The Dacca junta is critically dependent on the largess of foreign governments and peoples. International opinion can, therefore, play an important part in helping to bring the murderers to trial as a first step towards restoration of the rule of law and democratic life in Bangladesh,” she wrote.
