Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founder president of Bangladesh, and most of his family members, were killed while his government was overthrown by a disgruntled section of the Bangladesh Army officers 50 years ago on this day.
The Sheikh鈥檚 two daughters -- Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana -- who were abroad, survived the bloody political changeover.
In the politically divided Bangladesh, the Awami League, whenever in power since 1996, used to observe the day as 鈥榥ational mourning day鈥�, while most others passed the day with calculated political indifference.
This year, after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 authoritarian regime in the face of a bloodied student-mass uprising on August 5 past year, the interim government of the Peace Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus suspended in May the political activities of the League and its affiliated organisations until the trial of League leaders responsible for mass-killing in the July-August uprising.
The interim government also scrapped the 鈥榩ublic holiday鈥� on August 15 as the day was observed during the Awami League regime.听
There is no sign yet to observe the day in any manner by any political quarter this time.
Sheikh Mujib, who grew up to be the prime Bengali politician in the Pakistani era and the president of the Awami League, he emerged as the leader of the majority party in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in the country鈥檚 first-ever general elections in late 1970.
However, when the West-based Pakistani ruling class refused to honour the popular electoral verdict and its Army began one of the most heinous genocides of human history in the East on March 25, 1971, the Sheikh embraced arrest and was detained in a Pakistani prison.
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Police are deployed on the Road 32 of Dhanmondi while people roam near the demolished house of the country鈥檚 founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on Thursday on the eve of his assassination anniversary today. 鈥� 抖阴精品 photo
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The rest of the League leaders crossed over to neighbouring India to lead Bangladesh鈥檚 war of national independence from there.
They formed a government-in-exile, keeping the detained Shiekh at the top, and politically presided over the war of independence, participated by all the political parties and groups, excepting a few, including the Jamaat-e-Islam.
Bangladesh emerged independent on December 16 the same year and the Sheikh returned to the independent Bangladesh on January 10, 1972 and took over power.
The Sheikh, who fought for multiparty parliamentary democracy his whole life, however, switched over to one-party rule in 1975, and shut down all the daily newspapers, excepting only four -- controlled by the government.
The one-party rule, and the repressive regime that came with it, made both the Sheikh and his party extremely unpopular.
Under the circumstances, he was assassinated the same year that went unprotested.听 Then, AL leader and one of Sheikh鈥檚 close associate, Khandaker Mushtaque Ahmed, installed a new League government that promulgated an ordinance indemnifying those involved in the Sheikh鈥檚 gruesome murder, which was later ratified in Parliament during General Ziaur Rahman鈥檚 regime in 1979.
The Awami League, under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina, returned to power in 1996 and scrapped the indemnity ordinance to try those engaged in the assassination.
Finally, through a long process of judicial trial, the League managed to punish almost all the accused in the Sheikh鈥檚 murder case.