 The curtain has at long last been drawn on the gruesome tragedy of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's assassination.He was the founder of Bangladesh. He was hailed as "Bangabandhu," (friend of Bengal). The tumultuous reception on his return from Pakistan's captivity in 1972 had convinced Sheikh Mujibur Rahman that "he was Bangladesh itself," (Lawrence Ziring, Bangladesh, from Mujib to Ershad; p.83) He would therefore repeat, "I love them; they love me," as a mantra before whoever was listening, to describe his relations with the masses.
Mujib started as prime minister, working under ceremonial presidents, but wielding near-absolute power. He rode the crest of his charisma, because, people saw him as the deliverer and the answer to all their woes. Yet, instead of answering to their woes and solving their problems, he changed from a champion of democracy who had fought for the rights of the people against the dictatorship of Generals Ayub and Yahya Khan, into an autocratic ruler
Barely three years after independence, Mujib abolished constitutional presidency and himself assumed the office of president on 25 January, 1975. At the same time he declared himself president for life through a constitutional amendment.
But, even before that, he had "authorized the establishment and deployment of a paramilitary organization that would act as the enforcer of the Awami League in some of the more vital areas of the country." This organization known as Lal bahini (Red Army) "was nothing more than an adventurous band of aggrandizers and bullies who, in the name of the government, imposed their brutal tactics on society." (ibid. p. 90)
He established a system of one-party rule, banned all newspapers except state publications. He dissolved the Awami League that had brought him to power and amalgamated it with the Krishak Sramik Party, to found a new party, by the name of Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (BAKSAL). He also created a militia under the title of Rakhi bahini, (security army) on whom he relied for his personal security. His eldest son, Kamal headed the Rakhi bahini.
He had alienated the armed forces by his neglect of their genuine needs. He even tried "to infiltrate the rank of the officer command," by placing "family members in high positions," like sending his second son Jamal to Sandhurst on a special course and then inducting him in the army as an officer.
 Add to these the perception about his ultra-secularism, his tilt towards India that looked like subservience. For example, Mujib ratified the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement with India, but the latter did not. (Hemayatuddin: A Neighbourly Affair; p.122)
The simmering pot boiled over in the wee hours of August 15, 1975, when a group of army officers assassinated Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. To say, brutally, would be an understatement. His whole family was mowed down. The dead, numbering thirty-one, included his wife, three sons, two daughters-in-law, a nephew and his spouse, his brother-in law, other members of the household, servants and guards. Only his two daughters, Hasina and Rehana, survived because at the time they were in West Germany.
The conspirators comprised twelve junior army officers. None was above the rank of Major. The ringleaders, Syed Faruque Rahman, Abdur Rashid, Sharful Haque Dalim, were also veterans of the mukti bahini, the guerrilla army that had played a critical role in the liberation of the country.
Historical evidence says that the conspirators were divided into three groups. "One group attacked Mujib's house on road number 32, Dhanmondi Residential Area in Dhaka. Mujib was killed on the stairs, and all the members of his family were also killed. Two other groups of soldiers killed Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni, Mujib's nephew and an influential leader of the Awami League, and Abdur Rab Serniabat, Mujib's brother-in-law, and a minister of the Government."
Three months later, four major leaders of the Awami League, Tajuddin Ahmed, Mansur Ali, Syed Nazrul Islam and A H M Kamruzzaman were arrested and jailed where they were murdered on November 4, 1975.
The assassins had no political ambitions. They installed Khondkar Mushtaq Ahmad, a veteran Awami Leaguer and an erstwhile minister in Mujib's cabinet, as president. Mushtaq signed an Indemnity Act to take the killers off the hook. He also elevated Faruque Rahman, Rashid, and the other army officers, involved in the killing, to the rank of lieutenant colonel. While most of them left the country, a few were given diplomatic assignments in Bangladeshi missions abroad. Faruque later returned and founded the Bangladesh Freedom Party.
BAKSAL died with its founder and Awami League revived. Hasina returned home via New Delhi, like her father, and took up the reins. On June 23, 1996 Awami League was back in power after 21 years of political wilderness, with Hasina Wajed as prime minister.
Sworn to avenge her father's murder, Hasina's first task was to go after the killers with all the force at her command. Three of the alleged assassins, - Lt. Cols. Syed Farook Rahman, Sultan Shahriar and Taheruddin Thakur, former state minister, were arrested on August 14, 1996. Rashid, however, escaped arrest as he was in Libya.
 The suspects were, initially, detained under Special Powers Act, the period being extended from time to time. A formal FIR was lodged in October 1996. Meanwhile, to clear the way for their trial, Hasina repealed the Indemnity Act. And the trial began in March 1997. Litigation on various objections went on in appellate courts till April 2001 after which the case went into hibernation on some technical issues.
Hearings resumed in 2007, and in October 1998 the judge awarded death sentence to 15 ex-army officers.
The accused went in appeal before the Supreme Court. The appeal was rejected and the death sentence for 12 of the accused military officers was confirmed on November 19, 2009. The five ex-officers who are actually in custody now face execution for their crime of 34 years ago.
The others have been sentenced in absentia while the Bangladesh government is making frantic efforts to have them extradited from their foreign sanctuaries. Jail officials say that four of the five convicts will seek the presidential pardon. But, the result is foretold, because, President Zillur Rahman is an Awami Leaguer and a creation of Sheikh Hasina. As to Amnesty International's appeal to Bangladesh not to execute the convicts, it may fall on deaf ears, because AI is known to be against death sentence.
However, lawyers for the five have sought a review of the Supreme Court verdict. But it would be absurd to expect it to overturn the death sentence. The best hope lies in commutation of the death sentence to life in prison. In a way that would be a more effective punishment as the offenders are left to rot away haunted by the ghosts of their victims. Execution would release them of the agony of remorse.
Hasina is fully justified to seek revenge. Her entire family including her youngest brother, a mere lad of10, was massacred in cold blood. The culprits deserve the penalty they have been awarded.
Yet, there is another aspect to it. There is a saying, "Revenge, at first though sweet, bitter, ere long, back on itself recoils." Who can predict the long term fallout of the revenge?
Syed Jawaid Iqbal is the Editor-in-Chief of Southasia Magazine. He is also the Founding Chairman of Moderates - a private sector think tank committed to strengthening tolerance, interfaith, harmony and democracy.
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