Bangladesh remembers death of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Bangladesh remembers death of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
DHAKA (Reuter): While India and Pakistan celebrated yesterday the end of the British Raj 50 years ago, a major witness to that triumph, Bangladesh, silently mourned the death of independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the hands of power-greedy army officers.
Bangladesh was part of Moslem-dominated Pakistan created on Aug. 14, 1947, a day before India was formally declared an independent republic. But Pakistan's eastern flank seceded in 1971 through a nine-month war which claimed three million lives.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, led East Pakistan to independence but was assassinated four years later.
Mujib, along with most of his family, was killed in the nation's first army coup on Aug. 15, 1975, while he was serving as prime minister.
The death of Mujib, a towering personality and firebrand politician, paved the way for a succession of army generals to grab power up until 1991, when a general's wife, Begum Khaleda Zia, won office in the country's first free elections.
The election was held under a caretaker government, headed by current President Shahabuddin Ahmed.
Khaleda's husband, former president Ziaur Rahman, was killed in an abortive coup in 1981.
But Khaleda and Hasina, who led Mujib's Awami League to power in June 1996, have remained bitter political rivals.
Both women greeted Pakistani and Indian leaders yesterday. But neither Khaleda nor her opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had any words for Mujib.
After assuming power, Hasina declared Aug. 15 a national mourning day, which is also a public holiday. The BNP matches the occasion by celebrating Khaleda's birthday.
Hasina called yesterday the assassination of her father the "most unfortunate event that wrote the blackest chapter" in the country's 26-year history.
"It's an irony that when our two neighbors are all smiles at the anniversary of the fall of British India, we in Bangladesh, which also shared the glorious moment in 1947, now bleed in our hearts over the unfortunate death of our independence leader," said Shahidul Islam, a Dhaka University student and an avowed follower of Mujib.
Hasina, along with government and political leaders, placed wreaths at the portrait of Mujib at his home in Dhaka's Dhanmandi area. Then she offered prayers at the graves of her mother, three brothers and other relatives.
The prime minister was due to fly to northern Tungipara district, Mujib's ancestral home, to offer prayers at his grave.
The founder of Bangladesh, called Bangabandhu (friend of Bengal) by his followers, was unceremoniously buried by his killers at his family graveyard.
Young activists of the ruling Awami League, their faces covered with black clothes, marched in the capital yesterday demanding quick trial and execution of Mujib's killers.