Bangabandhu Killing: Where were AL leaders?
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said she was still looking for an answer as to where all Awami League leaders had been when Bangabandhu was assassinated and why none of them came forward to play a courageous role against the killing.
“It’s [Awami League] such a large organisation … so many leaders! Where had they been? Sometimes I want to know that; no one came forward with their courage. The mass people were always with Bangabandhu,” she said while addressing a discussion arranged to mark the 49th Victory Day.
The AL organised the event at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital with its President Hasina in the chair.
Hasina wondered why nobody took any step against the killing!
“That dead body was lying on the floor of the house on [Dhanmondi] Road-32, why? I didn’t get that answer even today,” she said.
The PM said the failure to protect Bangabandhu forced the nation to pay for the next decades. “Because there were repeated coups, there were 18-19 coups in this country after the assassination of the Father of the Nation … there had been oppression and torture on party leaders and activists.”
“Had anyone come forward with courage, then these oppression and torture might not have taken place, and there might not be repeated coups in the country … these repeated coups pushed the country towards destruction,” Hasina said.
After the country’s independence, she said Bangladesh got Bangabandhu to build the country, but there were some conspirators who with the help of Pakistan tried to make the country a failed one. “There were also some people who did not even think about protecting the Father of the Nation but took benefits from him.”
As a result, August 15 fell upon the whole nation as an era of darkness, Hasina said.
The PM said there were still some people who have affection for Pakistan, and their dream was to make Bangladesh a failed state.
“We liberated our country from Pakistan, and Bangladesh will always remain above Pakistan economically, politically, socially, culturally, and all other positive indices. The reality today is that we’re ahead of them,” she said, adding that this has to be maintained.
Hasina said the conspiracy by the admirers of Pakistan against Bangladesh would continue, no matter wherever they were -- abroad or in jail. “We have to thwart that conspiracy and we’ve to take our country forward.”
The AL government always engages in materialising the dream of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and that is to make the country a developed and prosperous one which will be free from hunger and poverty, she added.
AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader delivered the welcome address at the discussion which was addressed, among others, by AL leaders Amir Hossain Amu, Tofail Ahmed, Matia Chowdhury, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, and Jahangir Kabir Nanak.
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