BSS-36 Arefin suggests forming commission to unearth August 15 carnage plot entirely

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BSS-36

CARNAGE-AUGUST-AREFIN

Arefin suggests forming commission to unearth August 15 carnage plot entirely

By Maloy Kumar Dutta

DHAKA, Aug 14, 2020 (BSS) – Dhaka University former Vice-Chancellor Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique today suggested forming an independent commission to carry out a thorough study to unearth the behind the scene plot of the August 15, 1975 carnage in its entirety.

“Formation of a fact finding commission is crucial to unearth the detailed plot in totality,” Siddique told BSS in an interview on the eve of the National Mourning Day.

He said until now Bangladesh mostly remained dependent on the declassified secret foreign information to study the plot behind the assassination of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members.

“Now we need to explore the local sources as well to compile and tally with the information obtained through the external sources to unearth the entire episode of the carnage,” Siddique said.

He added: “The plot was hatched under a long drawn process in several phases and if we could focus on every phase, the entire episode could be backtracked, finding how one incident was linked to another.”

Siddique, also newly appointed chairman of the board of directors of national news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), said some of the behind the scene masterminds could have taken part in the process sitting in Washington or elsewhere while some others might have sent the assassins to kill Bangabandhu remaining behind the curtain, and the American CIA too might have a hand in the carnage.

“They also need to be unmasked for the sake of the history,” he said.

The former vice chancellor of the country’s premier university referred to the examples of the United States and India which constituted such fact finding missions after the assassinations of President John F Kennedy, Mahatma Gandhi, Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajib Gandhi as he reiterated his call to form an independent commission.

The academic said the then US President Lyndon B. Johnson had formed a commission on the assassination of President Kennedy, known unofficially as the Warren Commission, within seven days of the Kennedy killing on November 29, 1963 to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy that had taken place on November 22, 1963.

Siddique, also a communication expert, said the Warren Commission had submitted its report within the shortest possible time and it was later made open for all and kept at libraries to allow the people of the world to know about the facts centering the assassination.

He said Bangabandhu assassination is not a killing of an individual or any family rather it meant for complete collapse of the country’s security system.

He said the country has carried out trials in the assassination of Bangabandhu but the entire blue print behind the killing that had began many days ago before August 15, 1975 and also continued after the carnage for long should be unearthed through a commission.

In continuation of the August 15 carnage, the grenade attacks were carried out on the Awami League rally targeting to kill Bangabandhu’s daughter- the then Leader of the Opposition Sheikh Hasina- on August 21 in 2004, he said.

Siddique said the conspiracy is still going on, so it is now essential to form a commission to unmask the plotters and unearth the entire scenario centering the carnage to stop recurrence of such conspiracies in the days to come.

“This commission won’t be meant to punish anyone afresh as the perpetrators of the carnage have already been exposed to justice, the objective of the commission would be to preserve historical records . . . and being the owner of the republic, the people have the right to know who killed their father of the nation,” Siddique said.

He said retired judges, bureaucrats, military personnel with high integrity and efficiency could comprise the proposed commission.

He, however, said it was easy to identify and try those who directly took part in the killings, “but the behind the scene masterminds of the plotters must be identified as well.”

Referring to his own observations about the carnage, Siddique referred to several little talked about incidents with one being the extension of service of the then deputy army chief general Ziaur Rahman, who later emerged as a strongman of Bangladesh after the August 15 carnage.

He said one of the related references suggested that Zia had desperately pursued for his extension and Bangabandhu agreed to extend his service only for three months.

“Ziaur Rahman appeared very delighted (receiving the extension order) . . . within few days the August 15 carnage took place,” Siddique said quoting a published interview of then deputy minister for defence Nurul Islam several years ago when he castigated himself for his role in getting Zia the extension.

He said several reports suggested that the then Indian premier Indira Gandhi repeatedly sent him messages saying the Indian intelligence agencies gathered information about a possible assassination plot, which Bangabandhu took lightly saying “who is the man in Bangladesh to kill me”.

Siddique said Bangabandhu was farsighted and that was why he understood something was cooking up and “a plot was being hatched but he never blamed any Bengali for it as it is what Bangabandhu is”.

The communication expert said many things have been written in books or articles in a scattered way but a thorough study is a must to know who waged resistance after the carnage, who committed suicide and who took oaths in the cabinet after the assassination and how the November 3, 1975 incident took place to kill the four national leaders.

The people wanted to know about the entire episodes before and after the August 15 carnage and wanted to know who played which roles, so forming of an independent commission is essential to keep the official records on the massacre to let the people know about the conspiracy and all other related incidents, he added.

Paying homage to Bangabandhu on the occasion of his martyrdom anniversary and National Mourning Day, he said the day should be observed with due respect as none can carry out self-publicity through banners and posters centering the day which is very mournful for the nation.

The perpetrators of the August 15 carnage were protected under a now scrapped black law enacted by the subsequent government which also rewarded them with diplomatic assignments abroad and allowing some of them to float political parties at home.

Returning to power after the landmark 1996 general elections after 21 years of political wilderness, Awami League scrapped the so-called Indemnity Act to expose to justice the direct killers.

The delayed trial process began in 1996 and after a protracted legal procedure 12 former army officers were handed down death sentences and five them were eventually hanged on January 28, 2010 while the rests were tried in absentia.

One of the fugitive convicts died a natural death abroad while Abdul Majed, one of the convicts in the killing of Bangladesh’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was executed at the Dhaka Central Jail on April 12 this year after he was arrested in Dhaka on April 7.

Risaldar Moslem Uddin, another fugitive convicted killer of Bangabandhu, was reportedly arrested in India, according to reports of some Kolkata-based media while four others are still on the run.

The government said a process was underway to track them down and bring back home the way two of the executed convicts were repatriated from the United States and Thailand to be exposed to gallows.

BSS/SPL/MKD/KU/1835 HRS