Prime Minister and Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina today said the real revenge of the August 15, 1975 carnage would be taken only at that time when every Bangladeshi would be endowed with a developed and beautiful life as she simultaneously vowed to hold trials of the perpetrators and those who prepared the ground for killing Bangabandhu.
“We can take the real revenge of the killing (of the Father of the Nation along with his most of the family members in August 15, 1975) on that day when we can ensure a developed and beautiful life to the people of Bangladesh with giving them necessary food, cloth, accommodation, education and treatment,” she told a virtual discussion marking the National Mourning Day and the 46th martyrdom anniversary of Bangabandhu.
The AL organized the discussion at the party’s Bangabandhu Avenue central office in the city.
Presiding over the discussion, the Prime Minister described the perpetrators and those who prepared the ground for killing the Father of the Nation as similarly guilty, saying that the day is not so far when the names of those people would be unfolded and they would face trials.
In this connection, she said “It was really crucial to hold the trials of the killings first which had been done. The people who were involved in the conspiracy will be unearthed one day.”
General Secretary of the AL and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader gave the welcome address.
AL Presidium Members, Begum Matia Chowdhury, MP, Agriculture Minister Dr Muhammad Abdur Razzaque, MP, Advocate Jahangir Kabir Nanak, and Abdur Rahman, Joint General Secretaries Mahbubul-Alam Hanif,MP, and AFM Bahauddin Nasim, Religious Affairs Secretary Advocate Sirajul Mostafa, Office Secretary Barrister Biplab Barua, Dhaka North and South City Awami League General Secretaries, SM Mannan Kachi and Humayun Kabir, among others, spoke on the occasion.
Publicity and Publication Secretary of the AL Dr Abdus Sobhan Golap, MP, conducted the discussion.
At the outset of the programme, a one-minute silence was observed in respect to the memories of the martyrs of the August 15, 1975 carnage.
Sheikh Hasina said that anti-liberation elements had killed Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with most of his family members on August 15 in 1975 as they had failed to separate Bangabandhu from the masses despite conducting massive propaganda against him soon after the country’s independence.
Another reason behind the killing of Bangabandhu was his efforts to take Bangladesh towards prosperity despite facing the challenges of rebuilding a war-ravaged country within only three and a half years, which was contrary to thoughts of the Pakistanis and their local collaborators, she said.
The Prime Minister said that you can find the people who stayed beside the killers and prepared the ground for killing Bangabandhu if you would go through the newspapers of that time.
She continued: “Without having patience, they started criticism and cooked up stories. Who had written those? Whom they wanted to satisfy? Who prepared the ground for the killings?”
The Premier said that the perpetrators didn’t give Bangabandhu even a year as it required years after years to rebuild a war-ravaged country and started criticism instead soon after the independence.
Referring to the interviews of the self-proclaimed killers of Bangabandhu–Farooq and Rashid—she said it was clear that who were involved in the August 1975 carnage.
The Prime Minister reminded her party leaders and activists that the conspiracy was started since the Father of the Nation returned to the independent country on January 10 in 1972, saying, “Division was created among the freedom fighters. Jasod was created. The local collaborators of Pakistani occupation forces mingled with the country’s underground parties.”
Sheikh Hasina, also President of the AL, said her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman dedicated his entire life to change the lot of the people of Bangladesh with giving them food, cloth, accommodation, education and treatment.
The Prime Minister said she had nothing to achieve for her personal gain rather to pursue the ideal of her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who wanted that the people of Bangladesh would get rid of exploitations and poverty and to give them a beautiful and developed life.
Noting that her mother and brothers alongside her father gave bloods for the country and its people, she said, “The bloods will not go in vain and we will not let it to happen. I want to bring smiles on the faces of the country’s distressed people to give peace to the departed souls of my father, mother and brothers.”
She mentioned that she never dares to embrace death despite she had faced several death attempts on her life, saying, “I am ready to die as I know I have to go anytime. But I want to serve the country whatever time I will get to give peace to the soul of my father.”
The Prime Minister reiterated her call to the countrymen to follow the health guidelines properly to get protection from the deadly Coronavirus that has been rattling the country since it’s outbreak from March last year.