The nation is mourning the assassination of its founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members four decades ago.
Published : 15 Aug 2015, 10:48 AM
On this day in 1975, a group of junior army officers brutally murdered the man, who led the movement for an independent Bangladesh, at his house in Dhanmondi Road 32.
The day began with President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paying their homage at the house.
They placed floral wreaths at the portrait of Bangabandhu followed by a state salute of an army contingent.
The president and the prime minister, also the eldest daughter of Bangabandhu, stood in solemn silence in front of the portrait for some time.
Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, Deputy Leader of House Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Bangabandhu's other daughter Sheikh Rehana, Cabinet members, advisors to the prime minister, parliament members, Cabinet secretary, chiefs of armed forces were present on the occasion.
Flanked by senior leaders, Sheikh Hasina, who also heads the Awami League, placed another wreath at the portrait of Bangabandhu on behalf of the party.
Later, the Prime Minister along with her sister Sheikh Rehana went to the Banani Graveyard and paid respect to their mother Fazilatunnesa Mujib, brothers Sheikh Kamal, Sheikh Jamal and Sheikh Russell and other martyrs of Aug 15 carnage.
Bangladesh has so far hanged five of the 12 convicted killers.
But the nation had to wait for 21 years for progress in the case that happened only after the Awami League came to power in 1996.
The killers could not be tried earlier because Bangladesh’s first military ruler Gen Ziaur Rahman indemnified the self-proclaimed killers.
President Abdul Hamid in a message said the group of killers was ‘in connivance with anti-liberation forces’.
“The aims of the killers were not only to kill Bangabandhu but also to annihilate the ideals of the War of Independence and reinstate the defeated forces," the president said.
But they could not wipe out the principles and ideals that Bangabandhu stood for , he added.
Hasina in her message said the killers wanted to ‘destroy the non-communal democratic fabric of Bangladesh’.
She also renewed the call for turning the 'national grief into national strength.'