DHAKA, 16 August 2007 — Bangladesh yesterday paid rich tributes to its independence hero, slain former President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, with Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed calling him “a shining star in the sky of the nation,” but stopped short of formally declaring him the father of the nation.
Mujib led an independence struggle in former East Pakistan until March 25, 1971, when Pakistani troops whisked him away to then West Pakistan.
He was interned there for nine months while his followers led the country, now Bangladesh, to independence in December of that year after a nine-month guerrilla war aided by India. Mujib came back home in January 1972 and took the reins of the war-ravaged, south Asian country.
But he was killed along with most members of his family by rebel army officers on Aug. 15, 1975, setting the country on a long course of military rule.
Hasina Wajed, one of Mujib’s two daughters who survived the family’s massacre because they were abroad at the time, returned home in 1981, took charge of his Awami League party and became prime minister in 1996.
Hasina’s government honored Mujib as the father of Bangladeshi nation and declared Aug. 15 as a national day of mourning and holiday.
But her rival Khaleda Zia, the most recent prime minister, canceled the holiday, despite protests by Mujib’s followers.
The rivalry between the two women simmered anew after the Awami League accused Khaleda’s husband, the late President Ziaur Rahman, of being the beneficiary of Mujib’s killing. Zia was also killed in an abortive military coup on May 30, 1981.
Now, with Bangladesh being run by an army-backed interim government headed by former central bank Gov. Fakhruddin Ahmed, the demand for declaring Mujib father of the nation has gathered fresh momentum.
Army chief Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed said publicly that Mujib should be given his due honor as the top independence leader.
