With tears in his eyes, Golam Ahmed Tito – brother of eminent athlete Sultana Kamal who was married to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s eldest son Sheikh Kamal – recounted the traumatic ordeals of having to watch killers of his sister being embraced by the country’s first military ruler General Ziaur Rahman.
The profound silence on harbouring killers of the country’s founding father and state patronage – as provided by then BNP governments – to rehabilitate war criminals by allowing Jamaat to grow in the country should be held responsible for systematic executions of over 1,000 armed forces personnel, many of whom were war heroes, during the regime of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman and attacks on Bangabandhu’s daughter Sheikh Hasina, he was of the opinion.
A student of University of Dhaka, Sultana Kamal held national records in long jump, but her life met an abrupt end on August 15, 1975 when a group of disgruntled army officers stormed into Mujib’s residence in Dhaka’s Dhanmondi and gunned down as many as 19 family members including Sheikh Russel – who was just 10 at the time – Bangabandhu’s youngest offspring. Bangabandhu’s daughters Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana were the only members of the Mujib family who survived as they were abroad on that fateful night.
“…My sister and all members of the family [there that night] were brutally gunned down. What were their faults? Sheikh Mujib had to pay with his life for leading a nation to independence... Why did the rights groups never speak about the rights of so many killed that night?” – Ahmed asked at a recent event in Dhaka.
“In 1971, local collaborators with the Pakistani army picked up my brother from his home and later murdered him… We couldn’t even locate the remains of my brother to perform his burial,” said an inconsolable Ahmed.
The calls for justice from victim families like Ahmed’s and families of over 1,000 armed forces personnel executed under the Zia regime went unheeded and mocked during the BNP-Jamaat governments.
With a number of war criminals and killers of the Mujib family still evading justice – thanks to some western countries providing them shelter – is a lesson in double standards and hypocrisy, considering the governments of these countries often lecture countries like Bangladesh on human rights, facilitated by certain rights groups who selectively raise issues, Ahmed said.
Reports exposed Jamaat leader Mir Quasem Ali striking a $25 million deal in October 2010 with one of the most influential US lobby firms, Cassidy & Associates, for engaging with the US government and the Bangladesh government “to protect his interest”.
Though Jamaat actively opposed Bangladesh’s independence and took part in genocide and crimes against humanity during the Liberation War, BNP founder Zia facilitated it in making inroads into mainstream politics in the aftermath of the assassination of the country’s founding father. Jamaat leaders were made ministers after Khaleda Zia formed government, according to freedom fighter, noted researcher, and journalist Ajoy Das Gupta.
To protect killers of the Father of the Nation and his family members, including Ahmed’s sister Sultana Kamal, the Indemnity Ordinance was formed in 1975. In 1979, Ziaur Rahman amended the constitution to make it into law. Under successive BNP-Jamaat governments, till 1996, the murderers were offered jobs in foreign missions and they were sheltered by western countries.
BNP-Jamaat led coalition unleashed at least 19 assassination attempts on Sheikh Hasina with the most lethal one on August 21, 2004 at an Awami League rally. Orchestrated by militants, reportedly with help from Pakistan, the grenade attack changed Bangladesh’s political landscape forever. The attackers were ensured safe passage from the country to evade justice, according to media reports at the time.
Prime Minister’s ICT Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who is a surviving member of the Sheikh Mujib family, wrote: “Over a period of two decades, BNP in collaboration with its extremist ally Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir maintained a notorious political culture marked by homicidal assaults on law enforcement and innocent bystanders, premeditated vandalism and firebombing on transportation, arson attacks against minorities and other communities, and the assassination of political opponents in the name of ‘right to protest’.”
“Like before, they are resorting to outlawed extremist outfits like JMB and Harkat-Ul-Jihad to work out their agenda,” he wrote last year in a Facebook post.