National Mourning Day
We must put greater emphasis on implementing Bangabandhu’s ideal
Today is the 46th anniversary of the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Within less than four years of the birth of Bangladesh, the founder of the country, the Father of the Nation, was killed along with all his family members, save his two daughters—Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her sister, Sheikh Rehana. The killers did not even spare 10-year-old Russell and the newly wedded wives of Sheikh Kamal and Sheikh Jamal.
The brutality of the killing shocked the world, devastated our morale, and shook the very roots of our belief in ourselves. What the Pakistanis didn't do, or wouldn't dare to do, was done by fellow Bangladeshis, many of whom, making the tragedy more unbearable, were freedom fighters. What did not happen in colonised Bangladesh happened after our independence. The man who united us and gave us the courage to stand up to the ferocious genocidal Pakistan army, now lay slain in the hands of a handful of ambitious, misguided and arrogant members of our armed forces driven by hatred.
What the assassins wanted to achieve—a total collapse of the newly born state—has most forcefully been negated by the success that Bangladesh has achieved in the economic field, which is due largely to the leadership of Sheikh Hasina over the last decade.
However, the economic success, which very few both at home and abroad actually believed that we would be able to achieve—a success that has made us the talk of the development community—now needs to be added to by our attention on the social and humanitarian fields. The corruption and the massive rich-poor gap that we now see, would definitely have pained him.
Bangabandhu's humanity, his concern for the poor and the downtrodden, and especially his respect for freedom of speech and fundamental rights, are also his legacy. The time has come for us to put stronger focus on these areas.
We join the nation in mourning the assassination of Bangabandhu.