Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is not just a name. He is the creator of the Bengali nation-state. Sheikh Mujib is often referred to as the “Father of the Nation” in Bangladesh and is also popularly dubbed with the title of Bangabandhu (Friend of Bengal). Unfortunately, on 15 August 1975, a group of junior Army officers invaded the presidential residence with tanks and killed him, his family, and personal staff. By assassinating Bangabandhu, the country was brought back to the Pakistani style of authoritarianism.
The assassination of Bangabandhu brought back the memories of the horrors of the killing of three million martyrs of 1971, and the killing of martyrs in all movements since 1952. During the liberation war, the United States, China and Saudi Arabia sided against Bangladesh. China recognised Bangladesh only after the assassination of Bangabandhu. So did the Saudi Arabia. Henry Kissinger, the then Secretary of State of the United States, ridiculed Bangladesh as a “bottomless basket”.
Henry Kissinger in his book White House Years wrote, “I see the defeat of Pakistan in the liberation war of Bangladesh as a personal defeat.” He conceded how he personally hated Dr Sukorn of Indonesia, Pattis Lubumba, leader of the Congo Liberation movement, Allende of Chile, Dien Bien Fu of Vietnam, and Sheikh Mujib of Bangladesh. Then of course there are claims about CIA’s involvement with the assassination of Allende, Pattis Lubumba, and Bangabandhu. The then US ambassador to Bangladesh, Booster, allegedly made a blueprint for the assassination of Bangabandhu after meeting Ziaur Rahman, the mastermind behind the plot.
Lorenz Litschulz writes in his book The Unfinished Revolution in Bangladesh, “In early 1975 at the businessman’s home in Dhaka, CIA Station Chief Philip Cherry had an hour-long meeting with then Army Deputy Chief Ziaur Rahman and his wife Khaleda Zia. There was no doubt that the meeting was about how Bangabandhu could be killed. After that Khaleda Zia used to visit Bangabandhu’s house almost regularly on various excuses.”
Even after Bangladesh became independent, Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ghulam Azam formed the East Pakistan Reconstruction Committee. Saudi Arabia used to help Ghulam Azam with money. In early 1975, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, visited Bangladesh and re-established relations with old Pakistani friends in Bangladesh, and offered the Pakistani military intelligence agency, ISI, the opportunity to work on the plot of assassinating of Bangabandhu. Returning from Bangladesh, Bhutto said in a speech at a ceremony at the Pakistan Military Academy that “a major change is about to take place in the region”.
In 1955, at a council session of the Awami Muslim League, a proposal was raised to remove the word ‘Muslim’ from the name of the organisation and turn the party into a secular party. About 800 councillors voted in favour of the proposal. Khandaker Mushtaq Ahmed and Abdus Salam Khan of Gopalganj openly opposed. Also, on a personal level, Khandaker Mushtaq was jealous of Bangabandhu’s rise within the party and considered him an enemy.
Al Khatib, a Sri Lankan journalist who has worked in Bangladesh for a long time and has done extensive research on the Bangabandhu assassination, wrote in his book Who Killed Mujib that Barrister Moinul Hossain, the president of Ittefaq’s editorial board, was trying to support Mushtaq behind the scenes, because he was politically close to Mushtaq. Khatib also wrote that Anwar Hossain Monju, a young journalist from Ittefaq, told him, “In the last week of July, I was asked by a diplomat whether it would be a right-wing or left-wing coup d’etat.”
K.M. Obaidur Rahman of Faridpur was the social welfare secretary of the Awami League. He was expelled from the party in 1972 for embezzling party funds. Again, Bangabandhu made him the state minister of the government. Similarly, Nurul Islam Manju of Pirojpur was expelled from the party in 1973 and was removed from the post of state minister. Taheruddin Tagore had hoped to become a full-fledged minister, but he too was disappointed as also he was made a state minister. Shah Moazzem Hossain of Munshiganj spent a long time in jail for protesting. He also hoped that Bangabandhu would make him a minister but he was disappointed because he was given a cheap whip. All four of them were allegedly involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Bangabandhu.
Several people in Bangladesh participated, overtly and covertly, in the assassination of Bangabandhu. Some of them are already dead, some are alive. If all these behind-the-scenes assassins of Bangabandhu are not brought to justice, the trial of Bangabandhu will remain incomplete.