It was on the evening of Aug 15, 1975, a dark chapter in Bangladesh's history unfolded at the house when a group of rogue army soldiers assassinated Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family.
Forty-five years after the carnage, the house, now a museum on the leafy Road No. 32 in Dhanmondi, still evokes the memories of the morbid day. The carnage shaped up into one of the bloodiest political assassinations in the world.
Bangladesh observes the day as National Mourning Day in memory of the victims of the military putsch.
“We’re not observing Aug 15 like the way we did every year in the past, but we can nurture it mentally — which means we can nurture the ideology of Bangabandhu within us and work hard to revive the economy amid the pandemic to ensure the employment of the working class,” Nazrul Islam Khan, curator of Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, told bdnews24.com.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman began to live in the house at Dhanmondi in 1961. It became the hub of the country’s struggle for independence. Bangabandhu laid down his vision for an independent Bangladesh in this house. He showed the Bengalis the path towards the most coveted freedom from oppression. The nation acknowledged its architect as the greatest Bengali of all time.
With its premises filled with banners and festoons, the house is being prepared for the observance of National Mourning Day.
Abdul Motaleb, a resident of Shanir Akhra, came to pay his tribute to the mural of Bangabandhu in front of the museum on the eve of National Mourning Day.
Although the number of visitors to the museum has decreased during the epidemic, some people still visit the place to reminisce.
“I have innumerable memories related to this house. I came to Dhaka for the first time with my father in January 1975. I was 8 or 9 years old. We lived near Rayerbazar. My father used to point to the house saying— ‘See, this is Bangabandhu’s house,’ whenever we passed it,” said Salahuddin, a businessman.
“When Bangabandhu and his family were assassinated on Aug 15, my father refused to stay in Dhaka anymore, saying, ‘We had killed the man who brought us freedom’.”
A group of college students made their way to Bangabandhu’s mural after answering questions from security guards.
“We used to hang out here before the pandemic broke out. We bought the books ‘Karagarer Rojnamcha’ and ‘The Unfinished Memoir of Bangabandhu’ from this museum. We were unaware of so many facts in Bangabandhu’s life. We want to know more about him,” said Khaled Mahmud, one of the students.
“Attempts were made to distort the history after Bangabandhu and his family were killed in 1975. Changing the facts in the textbooks was one of them. Even now the young generation is confused about Bangabandhu,” said Nazrul Islam, the curator of the museum.
“The Awami League government has been working to uphold the real history by correcting the distortion after they came to power.”
The museum has arranged a virtual showcase of different historical documents to the young generation.
The biggest challenge is to spread the ideology of Bangabandhu among the new generation, according to Khan.
The nation should follow the teachings of Bangabandhu to overcome the crisis during the ongoing pandemic, he said.
“In his historic speech on March 7, Bangabandhu called for everyone to come forward and combat the enemy with whatever they had. Just like the Pakistan army regime back then, the coronavirus is our enemy too. As our economy has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic, we must get inspired once again by the call for action as made by Bangabandhu and work sincerely and honestly. Only then we’ll be able to get rid of this coronavirus.”