He never helped us after Aug 15
Denouncing the inactive role of the then foreign minister Dr Kamal Hossain in protecting Bangabandhu's two daughters after his assassination in 1975, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said neither she nor her sister got any help from him during their difficult days in the erstwhile West Germany.
“When the Father of the Nation was assassinated, his foreign minister was also in West Germany, but he neither helped me nor my sister Sheikh Rehana after August 15, 1975,” she recalled.
Also the president of the ruling Awami League, Hasina said this while speaking at a programme at the Gono Bhaban marking her 33rd homecoming day.
Dr Kamal, now the president of Gonoforum, was the foreign minister of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's government in 1975.
“Even he [Dr Kamal] didn't respond to Rehana's repeated requests to arrange a press conference and condemn the activities of the then government,” mentioned the PM.
She lamented that no minister of the Bangabandhu government was there to help them after August 15, 1975.
At that time, she said, then Bangladesh ambassador to West Germany Humayun Rashid Chowdhury had helped the family members of the Father of the Nation.
The AL chief added that she and her sister were not allowed to enter their house on road 32 in Dhanmondi after their return home. “Even a milad and doa mahfil could not be arranged there. We had to arrange a milad and doa mahfil on the road seeking the eternal peace of the departed souls as the then military ruler Zia did not allow us to enter the house,” she noted.
Hasina remembered after the assassination of Bangabandhu, then Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi and president of Yugoslavia Marshal Tito offered political asylum to the family members of Bangabandhu in their countries.
On this day in 1981, Hasina had returned home after six years in exile following the brutal murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members on August 15, 1975.
Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana had been in West Germany at that time.
Recalling the moments of her homecoming, the PM said she returned home on a stormy day when thousands of people accorded her a hearty welcome at the airport.
“I was overwhelmed by the love and affection of thousands, but those were not there whose affection I was looking for,” she told her audience.
She sought all-out cooperation from all, including the leaders and workers of the the AL, in building a dignified nation through upholding the spirit of Liberation War.
“I've dedicated myself to the nation's welfare and materialising the dream of Bangabandhu who wanted to bring smile to the faces of the distressed people,” she mentioned.
The AL president said she saw the pro-liberation leaders were being killed one after another while the killers and the anti-liberation forces rewarded.
Ziaur Rahman, she added, had captured the state power illegally and became the president through staging a “Yes-No vote”. Besides, he rewarded the killers of Bangabandhu and anti-liberation forces by making them ministers and ambassadors, said the PM.
The AL had been the main enemy of the military dictators and their collaborators as the party struggled for establishing democracy and rule of law for long 24 years, noted Hasina.
Senior AL leaders Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Matia Chowdhury, Syed Ashraful Islam, Obaidul Quader and Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim were present, among others.
Earlier, leaders of the AL and its associate bodies greeted the PM with bouquets on the occasion of her homecoming day.
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