Aug 15 tragedy: A big blow to humanity

The month of August is the month of mourning. On the 15th of this month in 1975 the greatest Bengali of all time and the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was brutally killed along with most of his family members by some disgruntled army personnel on that fateful night. The self-confessed killers even did not spare 10-year-old Sheikh Russel on the darkest night in Bangladesh's history.

Bangabandhu had an enormous love for his country. The people were his strength and source of power. His charisma was as high as the Himalayas. He was the embodiment of the Bengali nation. But the love for the people was his greatest weakness, for which he was killed at the hands of his own people. During a 1972 interview, British journalist David Frost asked Bangabandhu, "What was your greatest strength?" Bangabandhu replied, "The love for my people." When Frost asked him about his greatest weakness, Bangabandhu replied, "I love them too much."

He was a strong voice not only of Bangladesh but of the deprived and oppressed freedom-loving people all over the world. The whole world was horrified to learn about the massacre. It remained a mystery to them why a popular leader would be killed, a leader who became the idol of the freedom-seekers of the world, a leader whose main aim was political, social and economic freedom of the people. They were astonished to see that the man who can only be compared with the independence leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela had to die at the hands of his people for whom he fought for 23 long years. Many world leaders strongly protested and condemned such a heinous and dastardly killing. They were so hurt that some of them termed Bengalis "traitors". Nobel Laureate and Chancellor of Germany Willy Brandt said, "Bengalis can no longer be trusted after the killing of Sheikh Mujib." Eminent writer Nirod C Chowdhury termed Bengalis "insidious".

Bangabandhu was a charismatic leader. Cuba's renaissance leader Fidel Castro has rightly described Bangabandhu's charisma. Embracing Bangabandhu at the Non-Align Summit in Algiers in 1973 he said, "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."

Now the question is: why the conspirators killed Bangabandhu? The answers are not very difficult to guess. If we analyse the events after the killing of Bangabandhu, we can easily find that it was a deep-rooted conspiracy hatched by Pakistan and their foreign mentors. The Pakistani rulers identified Bangabandhu as their number one enemy due to his movement against exploitation and repression of the people of the then East Pakistan. Sheikh Mujib was aware of their conspiracy. In his book "The Unfinished Memoirs", he said, "As soon as Pakistan was created, political conspiracy became rife."

In 1948, six months after the creation of Pakistan, they announced Urdu and Urdu shall be the only state language of Pakistan. They attacked the Bengali language and culture. The young Sheikh Mujib along with other students vehemently protested against the decision. At one stage of the Language Movement, he was arrested on Mar 11, 1948. After his release from jail, he worked to raise support for the movement against the Pakistani rulers. Bangabandhu transformed the 23-year movement into an armed struggle. He was never able or willing to accept the systematic repression, exploitation and deprivation exercised by Pakistani ruling clique on the people of East Bengal. He spent 14 long years in jail. They tried to hang him in Agartala Conspiracy Case lodged in 1969. The united power of the students and mass upsurge put tremendous pressure on the Pakistani military junta to withdraw the case. Even president Yahiya Khan could not implement their plan to kill Bangabandhu through a secret trial at a military tribunal while he was in jail in West Pakistan because of the pressure of the international community.

Bangladesh won the Liberation War on Dec 16, 1971, with the surrender of the Pakistan army. After his release from Pakistan jail, Bangabandhu returned to independent Bangladesh on Jan 10, 1972. He put his best endeavour to rebuild the war-ravaged country and take it to a new height. But the domestic and international conspirators could not accept such a humiliating defeat. They continued to hatch one conspiracy after another to harm the development of the newly independent Bangladesh. They created a ground by creating an unrest-like situation in the country. They launched vile propaganda against Bangabandhu's government. Both domestic and international conspirators finally succeeded to implement their evil design to kill Bangabandhu on the dark night of Aug 15, 1975.

The Aug 15 tragedy is a big blow to humanity. In fact, by killing Bangabandhu they slaughtered humanity. The question is who were the masterminds and beneficiaries of the killing of the founding father of Bangladesh.

Just 41 days into the gruesome killings, an Indemnity Ordinance was promulgated by Khandakar Mushtaque Ahmed, who occupied power immediately after the death of Bangabandhu. The only aim of this dark ordinance issued on Sep 26, 1975, was to prohibit the legal proceedings against the killers of Bangabandhu and those who were involved in proclaiming martial law. Later, General Ziaur Rahman took over and made legalised all measures taken by the government between Aug 15, 1975 (the date of the killing of Bangabandhu and his family members) and Apr 9, 1979 (the date martial law was lifted) through the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. His government rehabilitated the killers of Bangabandhu by giving lucrative jobs in foreign mission and allowed the anti-liberation forces to do politics on the soil of Bangladesh. It's not very difficult to understand who were the masterminds and the beneficiaries of the killing of Bangabandhu.

The assassination of Bangabandhu was not an ordinary killing. There were many reasons to kill this legendary leader. Some of those I would like to mention here. Firstly, the domestic and the international conspirators could not accept their defeat in the war of 1971; secondly, they could not accept the fact that Bangladesh was becoming a secular country; thirdly, they could not accept the rejection of religion-based constitution; and fourthly, they could not accept the emergence of a nationalist leader like Sheikh Mujib in South Asia. Since the Indo-Soviet axis aided the creation of Bangladesh, the newly independent country became a target of international conspirators.

Bangladesh is lucky to have a popular and prudent leader like Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu who after coming to power in 1996 and then in 2009 has brought back the country to the right track and revive the spirit of the War of Liberation. Her government in 1996 scrapped the Indemnity Ordinance paving the way to try the killers of Bangabandhu. After 35 long years, the trial of Bangabandhu's assassins was held and partially executed. Some of the killers have fled to different countries.

We urge the government of the United States and Canada to repatriate Rashed Chowdhury and Nur Chowdhury, fugitive convicts in Bangabandhu murder case.

And I urge the citizens of the United States and Canada to urge their governments to bring to justice those murderers who are now hiding in the name of political asylum in those countries.

We also urge the expatriate citizens of Bangladesh to raise demands to the governments of all countries, including the United States and Canada, to bring these convicted criminals back to Bangladesh and execute the verdict.

The conspirators have killed Bangabandhu. But they could not erase his name. He will be written about forever, for it is an epic that will have no end. Bangabandhu will remain in the heart of every Bengali as long as the world exists.