Execution of five killers of Bangabandhu: Flashback

Execution of five killers of Bangabandhu

e-News® | The NEWS Company…DHAKA, August 15, 2015 :  The nation was freed from an age-old stigma following the execution of the verdict of five among the death sentence awarded accused in the murder case of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on January 28, 2010 at Dhaka Central Jail. On the night, the process of execution began at 12.01 am. At first, former Lieutenant Colonel of Army Mohiuddin Ahmed (Artillery) and former Major Bazlul Huda were executed. Few minutes later, sacked Lieutenant Colonel Faruk Rahman was executed. At last, former Lieutenant Colonel Shahriar Rashid Khan and AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed (Lancer) had been executed.

The entire process to execute the verdict was completed within 40 minutes. After the execution, prison officials told the waiting reporters about the expectations of five killers. Hundreds of people from all walks of life took to the streets surrounding Dhaka Central Jail. Five ambulances were readied to carry the bodies to the relatives of the executed Army officials. Besides, a police van carrying five coffins made from wood and another private vehicle carrying two beds were kept in front of the prison gate.

The beds were used to bathe the bodies after execution. Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Armed Police Battalion and plain-clothes policemen were patrolling the streets surrounding the jail and they stopped vehicular movement on the streets for several hours. Dhaka District Magistrate and Deputy Commissioner Jilar Rahman, Civil Surgeon Dr Mushfiqur Rahman and additional district magistrate Abhijit Sarker along with director general of Prisons Brigadier General Ashraful Islam entered the prison to see the execution. The then home secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder and the then DMP commissioner AKM Shahidul Haque were also present on the occasion.

Earlier, some 61 relatives of the accused met them for the last time. Of them, two detained sons of Mohiuddin Amhed were taken from Kashimpur Prison to Dhaka Central Jail to meet their father. In 1998, a court handed down capital punishment against 15 former Army officers for killing Bangabandhu and most of his family members. Later, the High Court, in a verdict, released three of them. Among 12 accused of the case, five were executed, six are fugitives and one died in Zimbabwe.

Kissinger’s visit to Bangladesh was ominous

Henry Kissinger #thenewscompany  #bangabandhu

Henry Kissinger #thenewscompany #bangabandhu

Before the brutal murder of Bangabandhu on August 15, 1975 the visit of the US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, was quite significant. On October 30, 1974 Kissinger made a 19-hour stopover in Bangladesh. During the visit he met Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib for a couple of hours at the “Gonobhavan.”

According to US journalist Lawrence Lifschultz, “A month after Kissinger left Dhaka the conspirators at the US Embassy became active.” Prof Abu Sayeed in his book Bangabandhu: Facts and Documents and Lifschultz in his Bangladesh: The Unfinished Revolution writes about it elaborately. After talking to Bangabandhu, Kissinger addressed a press conference where he described Bangabandhu “as a man of vast conception”. When asked why he had sent the Seventh Fleet against such a man, Kissinger avoided a direct response and hurriedly left the conference room.

According to Lifschultz those who were aware of Kissinger’s plans at that time felt that Kissinger’s comments were a form of ridicule. Besides, when Bangabandhu went to New York to attend the UN session the Bangladesh Mission could not find a schedule for Bangabandhu with the US president, although that is the norm for first-time visiting heads of government. Later when Bangabandhu decided to visit Washington D C on his own the Americans hurriedly arranged a 15-minute appointment with the president. But the atmosphere was very cold.

However, Kissinger met Bangabandhu at New York where he was photographed with Bangabandhu. Apart from the US visit a number of other incidents also preceded Bangabandhu’s killings. In June 1974 Pakistan’s Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto visited Bangladesh and the media publicized the killings and barbarism of the Pak army in 1971 extensively. Later, on May 1, 1975 Vietnam was liberated. Bangladesh’s quick recognition of the socialist country from where the US had fled left a deep impression on the Americans. Besides, the visit of Khondoker Mushtaque Ahmed to Iran that year was also significant.

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He (Bangabandhu) was more of father figure than a legislator: Indira

INDIA RECOGNISES BANGLADESH

Former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi saw Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman closely and made some candid remarks about him from political and personal points of view. In one of the remarks Gandhi made in her biographical book, “My Truth”, reflected that she was also overwhelmed in seeing the caring father figure of Bangabandhu, which overshadowed all other amazing characteristics of the Father of the Nation.

“He was a very sentimental, warm-hearted person, more of a father figure than a legislator,” Gandhi wrote in the book, in which she also noted some historical truths while talking about her unequivocal support to the people of this country during the War of Independence in 1971.

Gandhi was aware about the deteriorating political situation in the erstwhile East Pakistan, but did not have the updated information in detail about the fast changing situation in Dhaka. “At first, the only thing we knew was that the Pakistanis were fighting instead of accepting Mujib (Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) as the elected Prime Minister,” she wrote. However, as days passed by and updated information started to come up, the world came to know that people of the then East Pakistan began war for independence in the name of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Referring to this history, the former Indian premier wrote in her book, “Whatever they (people of Bangladesh) did, they did in his name and for him.”

Gandhi realized that something extraordinary was going to happen in the then East Pakistan as she described in her book that the war in 71 was not an ordinary war and it was a political matter rather than a religious one.

However, she wrote, “We kept out of it as long as we possibly could” though “there was a persistent demand for action and some people felt that we should have moved our troops there.”

Gandhi recalled in the book that she was elected the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party and the prime minister of India for the third time in succession merely a week before the black night of March 25.

In September 1971, Gandhi visited Moscow followed by a three-week official tour in October to European countries “to tell people there that if they had any influence on the Pakistanis, they should try and get them to act more reasonably.”

From the very beginning of the war, Gandhi was confident about the independence of Bangladesh: “I had no doubt in my mind that the Bangladeshis would win their freedom. Not the slightest doubt.”

The political and personal role of Indira Gandhi in the War of Liberation in 1971 has been highly appreciated by the people of this country. But her role was officially recognised by the government of Sheikh Hasina when the country celebrated its 40th independence anniversary in 2012.

The government conferred the Bangladesh Swadhinata Sammanona on Indira Gandhi posthumously for her “outstanding contribution” to the country’s independence from Pakistan. Gandhi was, in fact, the first foreigner who was given the highest state honour.

“Sheikh Mujib stands higher than George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi”

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“In a sense, Sheikh Mujib (Father of the Bengali nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) is a great leader than George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi and De Valera,” leader of the British humanist movement late Lord Fenner Brockway once remarked. There are many other great personalities, who have also made the similar remarks about Bangladesh’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. One of them is Ved Marwah, former governor of Manipur and Jharkhand, India’s two states.

He wrote in his remark while recounting his memory with Bangabandhu “”I have met many charismatic personalities during my service career, including Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and many world leaders, but I must say that among them he (Sheikh Mujib) was the most charismatic personality I had ever met.”

Recalling Bangabandhu’s historic meeting with late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in New Delhi Airport, Marwah also wrote, “Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by nature was a very reserved person. But this occasion was an exception. I had not seen a bigger smile on her face. She was smiling and prancing like a young girl. One could see an immediate personal rapport had developed between the two.”

Like Fenner and Marwah, many others like these globally renowned personalities became fans of the all time best Bangalee, born on the alluvial soil of this part of the world in 1920. They spoke out words of praises beyond limit about Sheikh Mujib, his charismatic leadership, sky-high personality, indomitable courage and unconditional respect and commitment for the nation. Many of them described Bangabandhu as an institution, a movement, a revolution, an upsurge and above all the main architect of the Bengali nation’s freedom from a long subjugation. His March 7 (1971) historic speech is being regarded as the essence of an epic poem, like a few such speeches delivered by the world leaders of Bangabandhu’s status.

During his first ever meeting with Bangabandhu at the Algiers Non- Aligned Summit in 1973, Cuba’s unparalleled leader Fidel Castro at once hugged Bangladesh’s Father of the Nation and spoke out in an utter emotional expression, “I have not seen the Himalayas. But I have seen Sheikh Mujib. In personality and in courage, this man is the Himalayas. I have thus had the experience of witnessing the Himalayas.”

Upon hearing the news of Bangabandhu’s assassination, former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson wrote to a Bengali journalist, “This is surely a supreme national tragedy for you. For me, it is a personal tragedy of immense dimensions.”

Journalist Cyril Dunn once said of him, “In the thousand- year history of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujib is the only leader who has, in terms of blood, race, language, culture and birth, been a full-blooded Bengali. His physical stature was immense. His voice was redolent of thunder. His charisma worked magic on people. The courage and charm that flowed from him made him a unique superman in these times.

Famous British journalist Sir Mark Tully, who had the opportunity to meet Bangabandhu from a point blank, discovered the greatest charisma of a human being in the good person of a Bangalee. “I attended several public meetings addressed by Sheikh Saheb. He had a wonderful voice that could mesmerize the crowd. I could feel that from the reaction of the people, when Sheikh Saheb used to address public meetings.” The greatest journalist of New Egypt, Hasnein Heikal (former Editor of The Al Ahram and a close associate of late President Nasser) said, “Nasser is not simply of Egypt and the Arab world. His Arab nationalism is the message of freedom for the Arab people. In similar fashion, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman does not belong to Bangladesh alone. He is the harbinger of freedom for all
Bangalis. His Bengali nationalism is the new emergence of the Bengali civilization and culture. Mujib is the hero of the Bengalis, in the past and in the times that are.”

Father of the Nation’ is an honorific bestowed on individuals, considered the most important in the process of establishment of a country instrumental in liberating a nation from colonial or other occupation. George Washington of United States, Peter I of Russia, Sun Yat-sen of China, Sir Henry Parkes of Australia, Miguel Hidalgo of Mexico, Sam Nujoma of Namibia, William the Silent of the Netherlands, Einar Gerhardsm of Norway, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Carlos Mannel of Cuba, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk of Turkey, Dr Ahmed Sukarno of Indonesia, Tunku Abdul Rahman of Malaysia, Mahatma Gandhi of India and Don Stephen Senanayake of Sri Lanka are the Father of the Nations. So is Bangabandhu, Father of the Nation of Bangladesh.

An Article By Asraful Huq and Mahmudul Hasan Raju.

US to help repatriation of Bangabandhu murder convict

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United States Secretary of State John F Kerry pledged Bangladesh to help in repatriation of the most-wanted fugitive Rashed Chowdhury, one of the convicted killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who is living in the USA illegally. The information came from the report on Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali’s visit to the US in last December.

Cabinet secretary Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan after the cabinet meeting on Monday briefed media about the report. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina presided over the meeting. The report said the US secretary of state is impressed at the steps has been taken by Bangladesh government to contain terrorism.

The cabinet approved the draft of International Finance Corporation Act (amended)-2015 and Bangladesh Palli Unnayan Board Act 2015 (amended)-2015. The secretary said both the acts are already in practice. After incorporating some additions and deletions, both the acts will be translated in Bangla, the secretary added.