Of Judas, Brutus and Bangabandhu's killers

Every religion had its Judas and every country had its Brutus. Perhaps the history of human civilisation would not have been complete without them. These villains in the real life drama provide the needed intrigue, melodrama, violence, blood and tears. These characters mutate in the dark crevasses of society and stalk the perceived antagonist like a fiend. Then they lunge at an opportune moment.

The good must be annihilated. The Pharisees wanted to obliterate Jesus Christ from the face of the earth, so they used Judas Iscariot. Yes, there is a bizarre aura of inevitability about it. It has been happening since the time of Kane and Abel. Since then there was no stopping. One kills the other. But is it done from a sheer necessity to maintain a balance between good and evil? Do good things need to be struck down with absurd brutality when going begins to look great?

Well, Bangladesh had had its Brutus too. But unlike history's Marcus Junius Brutus, who had acted alone to murder Julius Caesar in broad daylight before a house full of Senators, the assassins of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had acted in a large group, under the cover of darkness, while the protagonist was asleep. Why did they fear the lone, unarmed man so terribly that they had to go at night and not at daytime? Was the personality of the man too strong for them to endure once standing before him, face to face?

It baffles one's faculty of reasoning to grasp that it took so many of them to gun him down! But, the noticeable part in the whole drama is that no matter how many rounds were fired at Sheiklh Mujib that night, the killers could not bring him down...literally speaking...bring him down to where they stood...at their feet! The lifeless body of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman did not tumble down all the way to where the killers stood. In defiance, even in death, Mujib stood his ground...his body remained suspended on the staircase...refusing to go down any farther. The staircase became his final podium from where he would address his countrymen for as long as the Padma and the Jamuna would flow along.

The massacre of so many members of Sheikh Mujib's family and the manner in which it was carried out following a predetermined plan of action I compare with only one thing --genocide. What the Pakistani occupied forces did in 1971 on a much larger scale, Mujib's killers did in a small scale. It was genocide alright, at least for me. And the extent and the enormity of brutality were the same in both the cases.

That sinister night, the frenzied killers had made it clear that Mujib was not their only target. They were so blinded by hatred and rage that they stopped only after annihilating the entire family. Such hatred could only generate in deranged minds and stone cold hearts. There was plenty of both that night.

The tragedy is comparable with the gunning down of the entire family of Tzar Nicholas II in post 1917 revolution in Russia. His wife and three daughters, some near relations and his only son and himself were fired upon from close range inside a room in Siberia. No one ever found the dead bodies. The only son of Nicholas was about the age of Sheikh Russel, the youngest son of Sheikh Mujib, who was also murdered on August 15, 1975.

What did the mentors and protectors of the killers achieve ultimately in life? Great wealth? Recognition as visionary politicians? Overwhelming popularity? Hero's reception? People's love? A coveted niche in history? Nothing. Nothing at all. Then was it worth killing so many people in one night? And ironic indeed that the direct beneficiaries never had the guts to proclaim that they had given the orders or they were directly involved in the killing. On the contrary, they had always denied any complicity in the ghastly killing.

So, why this denial? Why couldn't the beneficiaries say it in clear words if they thought they had done the country a world of good by killing Sheikh Mujib? While still holding on to their denial mode they quickly availed all the opportunities to enjoy state power. At least the young men who had pulled the triggers had taken the credit for it, and they told the whole world that they had killed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

The killers and the present day beneficiaries of the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman will keep denying till death. Some day, somewhere, in another realm perhaps, they will be face to face with the truth. It is only then that they will have to have their answers ready. But as long as they live, they will have to prowl in the shadows, away from sunlight, like a Dracula.

Death by hanging will only relieve the killers of all their earthly sufferings. It would be like doing a mercy to them. They should be thankful to us for this kindness.

Shahnoor Wahid is a Senior Assistant Editor of The Daily Star. E-mail: shahnoorwahid@yahoo.co.uk