After 34 years 12 to be hanged for Bangabondhu murder

By Jahangir Alam Akash, The nation has waited 34 years for the verdict in Bangabondhu murder case. But, on 19th November has ended of our disgraceful. The Supreme Court on that day upheld a High Court verdict that handed down the death sentence to 12 former army officers in the Bangabandhu murder case, sealing the grueling and long-disrupted proceedings of 21 years. A five-strong bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Justice Mohammed Tafazzal Islam, rejected the appeals of the five jailed convicts to have their sentences commuted.The five convicts are Syed Faruk Rahman, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Bazlul Huda, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan.

Bangabondhu's personal assistant Mohitul Islam, who had survived the attack by a gang of army officers on the night in August 15 of 1975, filed the case for the killings on October 2, 1996. On January 15, 1997, the charge sheet was filed against 20 living and four dead persons--Khandakar Moshtaque, Mahbubul Alam Chashi, Capt Mustafa and Risalder Sarwar. As all except the dead were brought to trial, the court examined 61 witnesses and heard submissions for 151 days. On November 8, 1998, the trial court handed death sentence to 15 of the 20 accused. On December 14, 2000, a two-member High Court bench gave a split verdict on the trial court's judgment: one judge upheld the death sentences of all 15 convicts while the other upheld that of 10. The judges were also divided on which section of the Code of Criminal Procedure to be followed for the death sentence of one convict. On April 30, 2001, a third judge of the High Court resolved the matter and finally gave death sentence to 12 killers. Of them, the following are now in jail: Lt Col Syed Farooq Rahman, Lt Col Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Maj Bazlul Huda, Maj (Lancer) AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Lt Col (Artillery) Mohiuddin Ahmed, who appealed with the Supreme Court against the High Court verdict.

The six absconding are: Lt Col Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Lt Col Shariful Haque Dalim, Lt Col SHMB Nur Chowdhury, Lt Col AM Rashed Chowdhury, Capt Abdul Mazed and Risaldar Mosleuddin Khan. The other convict Lt Col Abdul Aziz Pasha died in Zimbabwe in June 2001 where he took political asylum. Of the jailed convicts, Huda was brought to Dhaka from Bangkok in 1998 while AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed was brought from USA during the last caretaker government's rule. The other three were arrested in Dhaka. Soon the convicts in jail filed leave-to-appeal petitions with the Supreme Court against the High Court verdict.

But its hearing was stalled with the change in government in October 2001. After the BNP-led alliance government came to power, the Supreme Court did not hear the case even for a single day. The hearing of the leave-to-appeal petitions finally took place on August 7, 2007, and the appeals were granted on September 23 the same year.The hearing of the appeals against the High Court verdict began on October 5, 2009.

The killers murdered Bangabondhu and seven of his family members and three security personnel at his Dhanmondi residence on August 15, 1975. Soon after the killing, their accomplice Khandaker Moshtaque took over power as president and framed an indemnity ordinance to protect the killers. Later, subsequent military governments led by General Ziaur Rahman and General HM Ershad had rewarded the killers with various diplomatic posts.

The High Court on December 14, 2000 delivered a split verdict in the case. Justice M Ruhul Amin, the senior judge of the High Court bench, upheld the death sentences of 10 convicts while the other judge, ABM Khairul Haque, retained the death sentences for all the 15. Justice Fazlul Karim in the final High Court verdict in the case on April 30, 2001 upheld death sentences for 12 and acquitted three.

The Appellate Division bench of Justice Tafazzul Islam, Justice Joynul Abedin and Justice M Hassan Ameen on September 23, 2007 allowed the five death-row convicts to appeal against the High Court verdict, delivered in 2001, on five points. The army men sentenced by the sessions judge to death are Syed Faruque Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Chowdhury, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Bazlul Huda, Shariful Huq Dalim, Ahmed Shaful Hossain also named as Shariful Islam, Rashed Chowdhury, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, Nur Chowdhury, Md Aziz Pasha, who died after he had been sentenced, Md Kismat Hashem, Nazmul Hossain Anseri, Abdul Mazed and Moslemuddin. Shariful, Kismat and Nazmul were acquitted of the charges by the final High Court verdict.

The government, however, did not file any appeal against the acquittal.

Faruque, Shahriar, Muhiuddin Ahmed and Bazlul, who were in jail at the time, filed petitions with the Appellate Division seeking permission to appeal against the verdict. AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed filed a similar petition after the US government had deported him to Bangladesh from Los Angeles on June 17, 2007.

We should demand trial to General Zia and General Ershad. These two General has responsible for their activity after the killings of Bangabondhu to given prizes and promotion to the killers of Bangabondhu. Now nation is waiting to see the trial of war criminals.

Bangabondhu and Bangladesh
The life of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is the saga of a great leader turning peoplepower into an armed struggle that liberated a nation and created the world's ninth most populous state. The birth of the sovereign state of Bangladesh in December 1971, after a heroic war of nine months against the Pakistani colonial rule, was the triumph of his faith in the destiny of his people. Sheikh Mujib, endearingly called Bangabandhu or friend of Bangladesh, rose from the people, molded their hopes and aspirations into a dream and staked his life in the long battle for making it real. He was a true democrat, and he employed in his struggle for securing justice and fairplay for the Bengalees only democratic and constitutional weapons until the last moment. It is no accident of history that in an age of military coup d'etat and 'strong men', Sheikh Mujib attained power through elections and mass movement and that in an age of decline of democracy he firmly established democracy in one of the least developed countries of Asia.

Declaration of independence: The violence unleashed by the Pakistani forces on 25 March 1971, proved the last straw to the efforts to negotiate a settlement. Following these outrages, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman signed an official declaration that read:

Today Bangladesh is a sovereign and independent country. On Thursday night, West Pakistani armed forces suddenly attacked the police barracks at Razarbagh and the EPR headquarters at Pilkhana in Dhaka. Many innocent and unarmed have been killed in Dhaka city and other places of Bangladesh. Violent clashes between E.P.R. and Police on the one hand and the armed forces of Pakistan on the other are going on. The Bengalis are fighting the enemy with great courage for an independent Bangladesh. May Allah aid us in our fight for freedom? Joy Bangla.

Sheikh Mujib also called upon the people to resist the occupation forces through a radio message.Mujib was arrested on the night of 25–26 March 1971 at about 1:30 a.m. (as per Radio Pakistans news on 29 March 1971). A telegram containing the text of Sheikh Mujibur Rahmans declaration reached some students in Chittagong. The message was translated to Bangla by Dr. Manjula Anwar. The students failed to secure permission from higher authorities to broadcast the message from the nearby Agrabad Station of Radio Pakistan. They crossed Kalurghat Bridge into an area controlled by an East Bengal Regiment under Major Ziaur Rahman. Bengali soldiers guarded the station as engineers prepared for transmission. At 19:45 hrs on 27 March 1971, Major Ziaur Rahman broadcast another announcement of the declaration of independence on behalf of our great national leader Sheikh Mujibur which is as follows.

This is Shadhin Bangla Betar Kendro. I, Major Ziaur Rahman, at the direction of Bangobondhu sheikh Mujibur Rahman, hereby declare that the independent Peoples Republic of Bangladesh has been established. At his direction, I have taken command as the temporary Head of the Republic. In the name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, I call upon all Bengalis to rise against the attack by the West Pakistani Army. We shall fight to the last to free our Motherland. By the grace of Allah, victory is ours. Joy Bangla.

The Kalurghat Radio Stations transmission capability was limited. The message was picked up by a Japanese ship in Bay of Bengal. It was then re-transmitted by Radio Australia and later by the British Broadcasting Corporation. M A Hannan, an Awami League leader from Chittagong, is said to have made the first announcement of the declaration of independence over the radio on 26 March 1971[40]. There is controversy now as to when Major Zia gave his speech. BNP sources maintain that it was 26 March, and there was no message regarding declaration of independence from Mujibur Rahman. Pakistani sources, like Siddiq Salik in Witness to Surrender had written that he heard about Mujibor Rahmans message on the Radio while Operation Searchlight was going on, and Maj. Gen. Hakeem A. Qureshi in his book The 1971 Indo-Pak War: a Soldiers Narrative, gives the date of Zias speech as 27 March 1971. 26 March 1971 is considered the official Independence Day of Bangladesh, and the name Bangladesh was in effect henceforth. In July 1971, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi openly referred to the former East Pakistan as Bangladesh. Some Pakistani and Indian officials continued to use the name "East Pakistan" until 16 December 1971.

Background: The Partition of India gave birth to two new states named India and PakistanIn August 1947. Areas containing the Muslim-majority became Pakistan while areas with Hindu majority states became India. The new nation of Pakistan included two geographically and culturally separate areas in the east and the west of India. The western zone was popularly (and for a period of time, also officially) termed West Pakistan and the eastern zone (modern-day Bangladesh) was initially termed East Bengal and later, East Pakistan. It was widely perceived that West Pakistan dominated politically and exploited the East economically, leading to many grievances. On the 25 March 1971, rising political discontent and cultural nationalism in East Pakistan was met by brutal suppressive force from the ruling elite of the West Pakistan establishment in what came to be termed Operation Searchlight.

The violent crackdown by West Pakistan forces led to East Pakistan declaring its independence as the state of Bangladesh and to the start of civil war. The war led to a sea of refugees (estimated at the time to be about 10 million) flooding into the eastern provinces of India. Facing a mounting humanitarian and economic crisis, India started actively aiding and organizing the Bangladeshi resistance army known as the Mukti Bahini.West Pakistan (consisting of four provinces: Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and North-West Frontier Province) dominated the divided country politically and received more money from the common budget than the more populous East.

Year Spending on West Pakistan (in crore Rupees) Spending on East Pakistan (in crore Rupees) Amount spent on East as percentage of West

1950–55 1,129 524 46.4
1955–60 1,655 524 31.7
1960–65 3,355 1,404 41.8
1965–70 5,195 2,141 41.2
Total 11,334 4,593 40.5
Source: Reports of the Advisory Panels for the Fourth Five Year Plan 1970-75, Vol. I, published by the planning commission of Pakistan (Quick reference: crore = 107, or 10 million) Continued    Source: Jahangir Alam Akash

More Headlines