Fresh oath needed to implement Liberation War spirit

August is the month of mourning for Bengalees. Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had to sacrifice his life in the hands of killers for the sake of independence of the country. So, the August is the lamenting month written with blood in the history. The Bengali nation stepped into a bloody war in 1971 under the direction of Bangabandhu and liberated the country from Pakistan after the nine-month bloody war. Then, we got red-green national flag.

Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had to sacrifice his life in the hands of some deviant army members of this country. The world witnessed this brutal assassination that took place on August 15 in 1975. On the day, the self-confessed killers of August 15 did not assassinate Bangabandhu alone, but also killed 16 other members of his family, friends and relatives. They include his wife Begum Fazilanunnessa Mujib, sons Sheikh Kamal, Sheikh Jamal and Sheikh Russell, daughters-in-law Sultana Kamal and Rosy Jamal, brother Sheikh Naser, brother-in-law Abdur Rab Serniabat, nephew and eminent journalist Sheikh Fazlul Huq Moni, his pregnant wife Arzoo Moni and Colonel Jamil.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the eldest daughter of Bangabandhu, escaped the planned assassination with her sister Sheikh Rehana as they were staying overseas then.

The killing of Bangabandhu, the greatest son of the soil in thousand years, descended a pall of gloom and spread a sense of deep sadness among the people in the country and across the globe. The world protested and condemned the killing saying it is an irreparable loss to millions of people of Bangladesh.

A vested quarter launched an attempt to efface the great ideology and spirit of the Liberation War through this massacre. But their attempt did not come out successful. So, we have to take fresh oath in this month and take the country forward upholding the spirit of the Liberation War. The nation will recall the most brutal killing in its history and renew the pledge to safeguard perpetually the country's independence and sovereignty.

An attempt to try Bangabandhu killers was stopped with an indemnity ordinance promulgated by the BNP-Jamaat government but the ordinance was scrapped after the Awami League came in power under the leadership of Bangabandhu's daughter Sheikh Hasina. Later, the trial of Bangabandhu killing began. Foiling various conspiracies, the verdict was delivered in the Bangabandhu killing in 2010. The nation has been freed from shame through execution of five Bangabandhu killers. But the nation is awaiting the execution of more six fugitive Bangabandhu killers. Efforts are on to bring back home the convicted killers of Bangabandhu and his family members to execute the punishment handed down to them.

The August is also black marked with another planned conspiracy of assassination that the nation cannot ever forget the heinous attempt of killing of Sheikh Hasina.

The vested quarter, who assassinated Bangabandhu in 1975, also tried to destroy Awami League by killing its president Sheikh Hasina with grenades at an anti-terrorism rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital on August 21 in 2004.

Sheikh Hasina narrowly escaped the grenade attack suffering splinter injuries when 24 of her party men including Awami League's women's affairs secretary Ivy Rahman were killed and 500 others injured.

Conspiracy is still underway. Democratic system is prevailing in the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The social and political setting in the country has changed.  Some of the convicted killers of Bangabandhu are still on the run. It is needed to strengthen the efforts to bring back home the convicted killers. We have to take fresh oath in this month and take the country forward through implementing the spirit of the Liberation War.

risingbd/Dhaka/August 1, 2017/Ali Nowsher/Amirul