Aug 15 plot perpetrators will be unmasked: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Sunday said the perpetrators behind the conspiracy in assassinating Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would be unmasked one day.

Addressing a programme virtually from her official Ganabhaban residence, Sheikh Hasina also renewed her vow to materialise Bangabandhu’s unfinished dream of building a hunger- and-poverty-free 'Sonar Bangla' (Golden Bengal) by presenting a better and beautiful life to the countrymen.

“We've held trial of the August 15, 1975 carnage. But the perpetrators behind the plot are yet to be unmasked ... it'll definitely come to the light one day,” she said while inaugurating the voluntary blood and plasma donation programme.

Bangladesh Krishak League (BKL), the peasants’ wing of the AL, organized the function in front of Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi-32 here this morning as part of Bangladesh Awami League and its associate bodies' month-long programme marking the 46th martyrdom anniversary of Bangabandhu and the National Mourning Day.

Recalling the August 15, 1975 carnage, Sheikh Hasina, also the AL president, said, “I have lost everything -- father, mother and brothers. Now I'm working with an ideology which is my power."

She continued, saying on, "I've to materialize the dream of my father which I heard from my childhood. I've nothing to want beyond it.”    

The prime minister said that she wanted to see as a victorious nation, Bangladesh moves around the world with keeping its head high and due dignity.

Pointing out that her government is working relentlessly to implement Bangabandhu’s ideology since assuming office in 2009, Sheikh Hasina said the aim of her government is to present a beautiful life to the people by ensuring their basic needs.

“We’re continuing our endeavours so that the people get food, education, healthcare services as well as a place to live,” she said.

Sheikh Hasina said the month of mourning begins through hosting a voluntary blood and plasma donation programme by the BKL and thanked the organisation for arranging the programme in memory of the Father of the Nation to save the life of the critical patients.

The prime minister also thanked the leaders and workers of AL and its associate bodies including BKL, Chhatra League, Jubo League, Sechchhasebak League to help the farmers harvest paddy and distribute relief materials among the distressed people, and for burial of those who died from coronavirus.

AL Presidium members Begum Matia Chowdhury, MP, and Advocate Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Joint General Secretary Krishibid AFM Bahauddin Nasim, Agriculture and Cooperatives Affairs Secretary Faridunnahar Laily and Office Secretary Barrister Biplab Barua also addressed the function, among others.

BKL President Krishibid Samir Chanda chaired the function and its General Secretary Advocate Umme Kulsum Smiriti, MP, spoke.

The prime minister said that when the country was celebrating the 101th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation and the golden jubilee of the country’s independence, at that time Bangladesh has been graduated to a developing nation thanks to government’s timely efforts in line with the “Vision 2041” to become a developed and prosperous nation by 2041.

She said the trend of Bangladesh's development would have continued had the Covid-19 pandemic not hit hard the world economies, lives and livelihoods.

"The coronavirus wreaked havoc worldwide, and the economy of the entire globe got stagnant due to the deadly virus. Bangladesh was not spared from the Covid-19 onslaught,” she said.

Referring to the historic March 7 speech of Bangabandhu which was recognised by UNESCO as a documentary heritage being one of the most inspirational speeches in the globe, Sheikh Hasina said that Bangabandhu who uttered in his speech that if required more blood would be given and he had given his blood for the country.

She added: “The elements, who didn’t want the Bangladesh's independence and victory, killed him (Bangabandhu) as he had liberated the country.”

After the Liberation War, many Pakistanis and their Bangladeshi collaborators used to say that the then East Pakistan was a burden for Pakistan and it would never stand keeping its head high, the prime minister said, adding that Bangabandhu was killed as part of the plan.   

"We've to repay the debt of the blood of the Father of the Nation by standing beside the distressed and needy people at the time of any disaster as the aim of establishing Awami League is to serve the people.

Sheikh Hasina asked the BKL leaders and workers to continue work to implement Bangabandhu’s ideology by building a hunger-and-poverty-free prosperous and developed Bangladesh.

Accusing again Ziaur Rahman of his involvement in the killing of Bangabandhu, she said the August 15 massacre was aimed to foil independence and the ideology for which Bangladesh was born.

“The 15th August massacre was not only for murdering a president, it was an evil design to foil the victory of independence and the ideology for which Bangladesh was liberated in 1971 … those who couldn’t accept Bangladesh’s victory brutally assassinated Bangabandhu,” she said.

Noting that the carnage that happened in Karbala was repeated in Bangladesh in this month (August) in 1975, the premier said, “The aim of the assassination of Bangabandhu was not only to kill the President of Bangladesh, but also to destroy an ideology and the victory (against the Pakistani occupation forces in the Liberation War in 1971).”

Referring to the interviews of two self-proclaimed murderers of Bangagandhu -- Faruk and Rashid -- to BBC, she said there is no doubt that Ziaur Rahman was involved in the killing of Bangabandhu.

Ziaur Rahman later rewarded them by giving postings to different Bangladesh missions abroad and scopes of doing business, while passed the indemnity bill to stop trial of the Bangabandhu killing case, she said, adding that HM Ershad and Zia’s wife Khaleda Zia followed the footsteps of Zia to patronize the killers of Bangabandhu.

To some extent, Sheikh Hasina said, Khaleda Zia surpassed her husband Ziaur Rahman as she took Bangabandhu's killer Rashid to parliament as the opposition leader through the February 15, 1996 farcical election and made another killer a parliament member.

At the outset of the programme, a one-minute silence was observed to pay respect to the memory of August 15, 1975 martyrs, while a special munajat was offered later seeking eternal peace of their departed souls.