Jail killing day today

On this day 49 years ago, four national leaders, who played a pivotal role in the country’s independence struggle, were killed at the Dhaka Central Jail.
It has also been over 18 years since a trial court convicted 11 people for the crime they committed in 1975. But the sentences remain largely unimplemented.
The four leaders are Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Captain (retd) Mansur Ali, and AHM Quamruzzaman.
One of the convicts, Captain Abdul Majed, who was sentenced to life in prison, had been caught on April 7, 2020, after remaining absconding for decades. He was executed for killing Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Of the other convicts, who are reportedly hiding abroad, Rashed Chowdhury is in the US and Noor Chowdhury in Canada. The government could not trace eight others despite efforts made through diplomatic channels, intelligence agencies and the Interpol.
The government also failed to bring Rashed and Noor back.
On this day in 1975, five army personnel, wearing khaki uniforms and carrying rifles, went to Dhaka Central Jail around 4:00am.
One of them introduced himself as Captain Muslemuddin, who was attached to the Bangabhaban, entered the jail and shot the four leaders to death, says the complaint.
The slain leaders led the Liberation War 1971 after Bangabandhu’s detention by the Pakistan army. They were put behind bars soon after Bangabandhu and most of his family members were assassinated on August 15, 1975.
On November 4, Kazi Abdul Awal, the then deputy inspector general (prisons), filed the FIR with Lalbagh Police Station.
ABM Fazlul Karim, the then officer-in-charge of the station, was tasked with the investigation. He collected evidence from the scene after a magistrate made an inquest report of the bodies.
The Indemnity Ordinance, however, kept the investigation and trial halted for about 21 years until the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) resumed the probe on August 18, 1996.
In 2004, a trial court in Dhaka handed punishments to 11 perpetrators.
In the verdict by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, the then chief justice Surendra Kumar Sinha observed that the assassination of the four national leaders was part of a criminal conspiracy that involved very powerful state machinery.
The apex court on April 30, 2013 upheld the verdict that gave death sentences to Muslemuddin, Marfat Ali Shah and Abdul Hashem Mridha; and life imprisonment to Khondaker Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haq Dalim, Noor, Rashed, Ahmed Shariful Hossain, Abdul Majed, Kismat Hasem and Nazmul Hossain.
In another development, former state minister for home Tanjim Ahmad Sohel Taj, son of Bangladesh’s first prime minister Tajuddin Ahmad, is scheduled to submit a memorandum to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus today to press home his demand for observance of the Jail Killing Day by the state as the ‘National Mourning Day’ .
Sohel Taj wrote on his verified Facebook page, “November 3 is the disgraceful Jail Killing Day. It’s been 49 years, yet the four national heroes who successfully led the Liberation War and under whose leadership Bangladesh emerged as an independent sovereign state have not received any state recognition. This cannot be accepted!”
He also demands that the government declare April 10, the day the first Bangladesh government was formed, as the ‘Republic Day’ and include names, contributions and biographies of all civil and military organisers, directors, martyrs and freedom fighters in the textbooks.
“I believe these three demands are just and logical and reflect the heartfelt desires of everyone who supports independence and the Liberation War. In line with this, my next program will be to stage a sit-in in front of Hotel InterContinental on November 3 at 3:30 PM, followed by a march to submit the memorandum to the Chief Adviser,” he wrote yesterday.