The arrest and subsequent execution of Abdul Majed, the sacked army captain and one of the convicted killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s first president and father of the nation, brought jubilation in Bangladesh. Majed was one of the army officers who assassinated Bangabandhu along with most of his family members on 15 August 1975. Majed along with 11 others of his accomplices were sentenced to death for the crime by a Dhaka Court in 1998. However, Majed left the country before the verdict was pronounced and claimed was hiding in West Bengal in neighbouring India for around 23 years.
Majed returned to Bangladesh in the middle of March this year and security forces arrested him from Dhaka in early April. Given Majed’s arrest and execution coinciding with the birth centenary year of Bangabandhu is a befitting honour to the illustrious leader. The development has given rise to the optimism of unfolding of the actual truth about the conspiracy behind the killing of Bangabandhu, a fact that is wrapped in mystery until date.
Putting forward the actual truth behind the conspiracy is important for healing the wounds of the people that is still fresh in many minds even after 45 years of the incident. People perceive the incident as an attack on the core foundational values of the country and its liberation. In 1971, Bangladesh fought for liberation from Pakistan for values including democracy, secularism and prosperity of the people. Bangabandhu represented the spirit and people’s aspirations for liberation.
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Another reason for popular anxiety is involvement of the army officers in murder of all four key lieutenants of Bangabandhu a few months after his assassination. The four leaders — Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, M. Mansur Ali and AHM Quaruzzaman — were killed brutally inside the Dhaka jail in November 1975. People of Bangladesh are still riddled with the fact of serving officers of Bangladesh army, an institution born out of the liberation war, killing the foremost leaders of the country’s independence.
The death of Bangabandhu changed the course of politics of the country. Soon after the assassination of Bangabandhu, military took over the reins of the country that continued for around 15 years, giving democratic process an unexpected halt within the country. Also, the regime distorted some the core values of liberation. Secularism, which was one of the core pillars of the constitution — adopted just after independence in 1972, was abandoned.
The regime encouraged growth of the religious parties in the politics of the country and allowed parties like Jamaat-e-Islami, notorious for opposing the country’s independence and torturing the people in alliance with the Pakistani army in 1971 War, to join politics. The regime also altered the foreign policy roadmap enunciated by Bangabandhu and distanced the country from India, the country which Bangabandhu recognised as a friend and emphasised on maintaining a special relationship. India had given diplomatic and military support to the country’s freedom struggle and its army fought on the side of the freedom fighters in the 1971 war.
It is also an irony that the military regime instead of punishing the killers of Bangabandhu rewarded them with lucrative positions in the civil administration after they left the army. Many of the conspirators were given postings in foreign missions in countries including Libya, China, Rhodesia and Canada. Majed after leaving the army joined the civil administration as a deputy secretary and worked in key positions in the government of Bangladesh and became the director of the National Savings Department. Majed also served in the Bangladesh embassy in Senegal. Additionally, an indemnity act was passed to protect the culprits from facing any trial.
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The fortunes of Majed and his collaborators changed after Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Bangabandhu, became Prime Minister following Awami League’s victory in the parliamentary election in 1996. Soon after forming the government, Awami League repealed the indemnity act thus paving the way for judicial trial of the culprits. However, Majed along with other conspirators fled the country in 1997 anticipating trouble. In 1998, the first verdict was passed by a Dhaka court that ordered death penalty to Majed and 11 of his accomplices for assassinating Bangabandhu. The verdict could not be executed after five of the convicts sought to file appeal in the higher court. The decision in the Supreme Court lingered due to lack of consensus among the judges hearing the case. According to the law of the country, appointment of a third judge became necessary given the division of opinion of the justices; but none of the justice were willing to hear the case. Hearing resumed after a convict was extradited from United States after several failed attempts to attain asylum or permanent residency in 2007. The appellate court of the Supreme Court upheld the verdict of the lower court hence clearing way for the implementation of the verdict.
In 2010, five of the convicts were executed while one died in Zimbabwe much earlier in 2001. Despite execution of the five conspirators, people felt that justice was partly delivered and complete satisfaction would be attained once all the convicts were nabbed. Majed was one of the six surviving convicts and most of the remaining are absconding and Bangladesh government is trying to locate their whereabouts. Arrest of all the convicts is important to attain a comprehensive understanding of the conspiracy and closure of the horrific incident.
The unravelling of the mystery about Bangabandhu’s assassination is crucial for the future stability of the country. The incident had left a feeling of insecurity and concern about the stability of the country that still dominate popular imagination. Inspite of the rapid strides that Bangladesh has made in terms of economic progress and social cohesion, a fear continues to persist about the country slipping into a realm of uncertainty as it experienced during the assassination of Bangabandhu. Identifying the agents of distortion is necessary to prevent such incidences in future and the key lies in unfolding the truth about the conspiracy.
Joyeeta Bhattacharjee is a Senior Fellow with ORF’s Neighbourhood Regional Studies Initiative. Views are personal.
The article first appeared on the Observer Research Foundation website.