Significance of Armed Forces Day

FIFTEEN years back in a rainy afternoon of August 1994 when I stood in silence in front of the Bangabandhu's Mazar in Tungipara, I wondered whether the nation would ever be able to dispense justice to Bangabandhu and his family in our lifetime for the brutal murder committed on the fateful morning of August 15, 1975 by a bunch of cold-blooded killers and lunatics in which the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib and his entire family were massacred. It was sheer stroke of luck that his two daughters were spared as they were not in the country during those fateful hours. I along with my friend Dr. Abu Yousuf (present VC of Chittagong University) traveled to Tungipara to pay respect to the Father of the Nation and speak in a public meeting to mark the National Mourning Day on August 15th. Bangabir Kader Siddiki organised a week long program in Tungipara to mark this auspicious day. In the evening we spoke for about two hours in the slushy play ground of Gima Danga High School. Thousands of people listened to us and at brief intervals chanted slogans demanding justice to the killers of Bangabandhu and his family.