SAN-Feature Service
SOUTH ASIAN NEWS-FEATURE SERVICE
September 13,2004
 
The jail killing Case 
Let us hear the verdict
Dr. Shabbir Ahmed
 
SAN-Feature Service : Bangladesh emerged as a promising secular country in 1971 through a bloody war that was fought against the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.  The founding fathers of Bangladesh had a vision for Bangladesh as a dynamic modern country steeped in secularism and democracy.  They had no inkling to declare Bangladesh as an Islamic Republic a la Pakistan although majority of the population were Muslims. 
 
The founders of Bangladesh under the great leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman formulated the principles based on which the constitution of Bangladesh was drawn.  One of the most important aspects of the constitution was acceptability of all religious and ethnic groups on equal footings.  Unfortunately, the religion traders of Bangladesh and their supporters in Pakistan and  elsewhere  did not accept the steps taken to build a modern Bangladesh.  Before the bloodstain could be removed from the killing ground, a vile conspiracy was hatched to eliminate the founders of the nascent Bangladesh.  Bangabandhu, his wife, even his nine-year old son, and almost all his family members were brutally murdered in cold blood only after three and a half years of the independence of Bangladesh. 
 
The killers did not even spare pregnant women and under-aged children of Bangabandhu’s family.  After all these killings in the wee hours of the night of August 15, 1975, the killers did not stop there.  Their agenda was to kill more associates of Bangabandhu for smooth transitioning of Bangladesh into a Pakistan-type state where the religion traders would grow and ultimately takeover power someday.  To materialize their long-term agenda, they brought four national leaders  Taj Uddin Ahmed,  Syed Nazrul Islam,  Quamruzzaman, and Captain Mansur Ali into jail.  They were the close associates of Bangabandhu; therefore, they needed to be eliminated from the deltaic land.  Finally, they killed them in the dark of the night of November 3, 1975 in Dhaka’s central jail.
 
Who opened the gate of the central jail, who did show the prison chamber to the murderers are not known but suffice it to say that the web of conspiracy was wide and it was well planned.  A disgraceful crime committed by the criminals in the history of Bangladesh marked the end of a bloody chapter while it ushered in another black chapter right away.  The cast and characters of this vile plot were very familiar face some who are no longer alive.
 
The beneficiaries of the brutal killings of all the founding leaders of Bangladesh never bothered to investigate and punish the criminals.  The main beneficiary of the gruesome killings was undoubted a military man who was waiting in the wing looking for the opportune moment to grab the power.  General Ziaur Rahman was the  man who would consolidate his power in the aftermath of the jail killing with ease.  His  wife, Begum  Khaleda Zia, is now ruling Bangladesh in cooperation with the fundamentalist Jamaat-i-Islami and Islami Oykio Jote. 
 
General Ziaur Rahman had a dream to wipe out the vestiges of secularism from the nation and to protect the killers who went to Bangabandhu’s house and central jail to help him materialize his dream of making Banglastan patterning after Pakistan.  He thus rewarded the killers by appointing them under foreign services.  Some of the killers were even made ambassadors to represent Bangladesh!  What a chutzpa!  Ziaur Rahman even gave indemnity to the killers through constitutional amendments.  Thanks to late Barrister Ishtiaque Ahmed who helped the man in uniform to come up with a “brilliant” piece of legal instrument call ‘Indemnity Bill.’  The same barrister again helped the party of late dictator into power in 2001.  The present Prime Minister  Khaleda Zia helped one of the killers named Col. Rashid to be elected in the highly forged parliament election in February 1996. 
 
Such were the web of conspiracies back in the dark days.  Violence begets violence.  The iron man of Bangladesh was brutally murdered by some jealous military men, the dictator’s close circle, in early 1981.  That helped close a dark chapter of intrigue in Bangladesh.  However, the damage was already done.  Bangladesh’s current problem of rising violent crime and political murders could be traced back to the events of 1975 through 1981.  What no one could do this in our deltaic land the Ray-Ban clad army General did just that single-handedly.     
 
The fundamentalist and semi-fundamentalist beneficiaries of the gruesome killings never bothered about trying the killers in an open court.  The idea probably abhorred them.  The investigation and trial began only after the victory of Awami League in 1996.  But first, the ‘Indemnity Bill’  had to be annulled.  That paved the way for the trial of the killings of Bangabandhu and his family.  The trial was a simple one and was over within a very short period of time.  However, very strange as it may sound, the seven judges of Supreme Court felt embarrassed to hear the case of the killings of Bangabandhu and his family !   The peace-loving and civil law-abiding people do not have any other way but to wait patiently for getting proper justice.
 
While the case of the killings of Bangabandhu and his family was put into the cold storage of the Supreme Court, the verdict on the case of the killings of four national leaders was supposed to be given a few days ago.  This time around, the judge suddenly fell ill one day before the day of the judgment !  The verdict has been postponed.  Maybe, the judge really became ill.  However, the conscious people of Bangladesh get suspicious . Because  the government now in power is the direct beneficiary of the killings of Bangabandhu and his close associates. 
 
Despite the conspiracy of the beneficiaries to protect the killers, we all hope that the Judges will work based on their conscious to uphold the rule of law and mete out punishment to the criminals who killed not only the four national leaders but also help kill the principles of secular Bangladesh based on which the people of all religion fought against the communal regime of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
 
The eye of the nation is now transfixed on the date, September 21,which is set by the Judge, when the verdict will be given.  According to newspaper reports, the presiding Judges blood pressure went up a day before the day of the verdict.  In most probability, the Judge feared for his life.  Only the Judge could bring a closure to this dark episode.  The sooner a judgment is passed the better.  The nation of Bangladesh should finally come to terms with the gruesome killing.  Never again, the nation should go through a similar episode of killing.  Violence engenders violence and this nation has seen a plenty of political murders.  Now the time has come to condemn the men who killed four of the founding fathers in the dead of the night on November 3, 1975.  Let us not have any more delay in the due process.-SAN-Feature Service
 
Dr. Shabbir Ahmed, a research engineer, writes from Jacksonville, Florida, USA