Fifteenth of August marks the 44th anniversary of the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Father of the Nation and many members of his immediate family. The day of mourning gives us an opportunity to acknowledge the historic role that he played as the master helmsman in the creation of an independent country called Bangladesh. We also need to remember how he subsequently safely guided our ship through troubled waters amidst a devastated post war scenario.
No allusion to Bangabandhu, our charismatic leader, will be complete without referring to his vision as outlined in his remarks at Palam Airport, New Delhi on 10 January, 1972. He described his journey to a free Bangladesh as ‘a journey from darkness to light, from captivity to freedom, from desolation to hope’. He also reiterated that he was going back to his independent country ‘not with hatred in my heart for anyone, but with the satisfaction that truth has at last triumphed over falsehood, sanity over insanity, courage over cowardice, justice over injustice and good over ill’.
We must not forget in this context the efforts undertaken by him in successfully providing relief and rehabilitation to more than ten million displaced persons and in the undertaking of measures for restoring order and stability within a war-ravaged economy. This effort and approach on his part was consistent with the courage and determination that Bangabandhu had demonstrated in the political arena between 1948 and 1971. He had welcomed incarceration on several occasions, stuck to his task and his conviction and disagreed to compromises and half-way solutions. This transformed him into the symbol of freedom and independence.
The August putsch was carried out by certain sections of the armed forces and a group of disgruntled politicians. They roamed the streets of Dhaka and swept aside innocence, their eyes showing as much charity as glass. The voice of liberty was snuffed out by the very men trained to save, rather than maim.
Murder was bad enough but what followed was even worse. On September 26, 1975 through an Extraordinary Bangladesh Gazette Notification, the usurper President Khandker Moshtaque Ahmed and his compliant Secretary of the Ministry of Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Justice informed the nation that under ‘The Indemnity Ordinance, 1975 (Ordinance No. XIX)’ restrictions had been put in place with regard to ‘taking any legal or other proceedings in respect of certain acts or things done in connection with, or in preparation or execution of any plan for, or steps necessitating the historical change and the proclamation of Martial Law on the morning of the 15th August, 1975’. What an abuse of the English language!
The consequence of such lack of accountability was only natural. Murderers did not hesitate to commit another crime. That is exactly what happened on 3 November, 1975. Four prominent leaders of the Awami League, formerly Ministers, including the Acting President and the Prime Minister during our War of Liberation were brutally killed within the Dhaka Central Jail. A three member Judicial Commission, as expected, was immediately constituted to investigate the matter, but that was the end of that story. Nothing happened.
The BNP leadership however forgot that what goes round usually comes around. Their espousal of lack of accountability for murder of innocent people came back to haunt the BNP through the assassination of President Ziaur Rahman in May 1981.
Subsequently, it took 21 years before the crime committed on 15 August could be addressed. The Awami League government sworn into Office in 1996 took two important steps- the overturning of the iniquitous Indemnity provision and the initiation of a normal judicial process (not through a Special Tribunal) for trying those guilty of the crimes committed on 15 August. This measure commendably reiterated the belief of the aggrieved victims in the fairness of our Judiciary. The government also declared that day as the National Mourning Day and a public holiday.
Unfortunately, the new BNP Alliance government (elected to office in 2001) cast basic civility out of the window and on 28 July 2002 cancelled the observance of the National Mourning Day. This was politics of hatred at its worst. The judicial process pertaining to the alleged killers of Bangabandhu was also more or less suspended through machinations between the politicized Judiciary and the government in power. It was amazing to see how the virus of ‘embarrassment’ spread within the echelons of the judicial hierarchy. Fortunately for the people, due process of law and the principles of natural justice were upheld on July 27, 2008 when the High Court declared illegal the cancellation of this significant Mourning Day. I believe that the observance of this day as the National Mourning Day has reaffirmed the establishment of the rule of law.
Since then the country has witnessed the completion of the trial and the execution of the judgment pertaining to some of those who were directly involved in the murders that took place on 15th August. There are still some others who were involved in the killing. One can only hope that this cycle is eventually completed.
Muhammad Zamir, a former Ambassador, is an analyst specialized in foreign affairs, right to information and good governance
