The verdict to be hanged of thee twelve killers of Mujib was retained even after 35 yearsSix rulers who were in power in Bangladesh following the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, including Khandaker Mostaque Ahmed, Gen. Ziaur Rahman, Jusatice Abdus Sattar, Gen. H.M.Ershad, Begum khaleda Zia and Chief Justice A.M. Sayem shielded the killers or failed to investigate the crime. It was during the tenure of Sheikh Hasina that the trial began nearly 22nyears after the assassination.
Red salute to Frontline (vol-15, no-24) and its writer Haroon Habib of Dhaka for unearthing the whole story and offered to the readers.Historic verdict In Bangladesh
The assaassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ( and his entire family those who were present)had been brought to justice 23 years after he was murdered and his Govt.was overthrown in a military coup. A historic wrong had thus been set right.
Nov8, 1998 was the date that Kazi Gulam Rasul, a District and session court judge of Dhaka, sentenced to death by firing squad in public 15 former army officers, "the self confessed killers" of Sheikh mujibur Rahman, 23 years after the country's founding father was assassinated in a military coupthat overthrew Bangladesh's first govt. Mujibur rahman was brutally murdered along with 26 others, including his wife, three sons (one of 10 years old), two daughter's in law, brother, close relatives, political associatesand securoty menin a pre-dawn attack on August 15, 1975.
The historic verdict which was delivered after 17 months of hearings,came at the end of an agonising trial. The "Bangabandhu Murder Case"- as it was called - was filed in Oct, 1996, more than 21 years after the incident.
Following the award of the death sentence to 15 former Army Officers who were found guilty of the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and others on 15th Aug, 1975, a march in Dhaka on Nov 8 , 1996, remembering the father of the Nation.Mujibur Rahman was assassinated three and and a half years after he led East Pakistan to Independence from West Pakistan through a bloody war of Liberation, unconfirming the "Two Nation Theory."
Mujibur Rahman's daughter and Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, was weeping while answering the newspersons' questions on the historic verdict.
This is to be noted that sheikh Hasina filed against 19 persons in oct,1996.
At the district and session court, Dhaka, retired Lieutenant-colnels Mahiuddin ahmed and Shahriar Rashid khan, two of those who were sentenced to death.
Lt. Col. Syed Farooq (right), who was found guilty, and Abdul wahab Joarder, who was acaquitted.
