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Nation mourns Bangabandhu today

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
The nation today pays tribute to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of the nation, amid a lingering uncertainty over the trial of his killers.
At the crack of dawn on August 15, 1975, Bangabandhu and his
family members, excepting two daughters -- Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana --who were fortunately abroad at the time, were massacred by a group splintered off the country's armed forces.
The August 1975 assassinations were followed by the killings in prison of four national leaders three months later.
In November 1998, the trial court sentenced to death 15 people for the August 15 killings, but the High Court later spared three of them.
Since then, the case is pending with the Appellate Division of the
Supreme Court, which is two judges shy of a three-member division bench required to hear the leave to appeal petition.
The government can correct the situation by appointing two judges
Nation mourns
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to the Appellate Division on ad hoc basis. But, according to informed quarters, such a move is highly improbable. The case is unlikely to resume before March 2007, when the present chief justice will retire making way for a new judge to be appointed in the Appellate Division.
A taskforce to bring the convicted killers back from abroad was set up during the previous AL regime. But it was dissolved after the BNP-led coalition came to office in 2001. Even special public prosecutors in the case had been terminated, starting from December 19, 2002.
For 21 long years, the trial of Bangabandhu's killers had been barred by Indemnity ordinance, which was later legitimised through parliament. The infamous ordinance was finally repealed in 1996, paving the way for holding trial of the case. The murder case was filed on october 2, 1996.
Sheikh Mujib, the architect of independent Bangladesh, was born on March 17, 1920 in Tungipara of Gopalganj district. His highly emotive final call on March 7, 1971 -- 'Ebarer songram - amader muktir songram; ebarer songram - swadhinotar songram' (The struggle this time is for freedom! The struggle this time is for independence!) -- inspired and united the entire nation for the Liberation War.
The way he turned a non-violent non-co-operation movement of unarmed masses into an armed struggle, liberating the nation from Pakistani occupation and oppression, and creating a new state in barely nine months, will remain a wonder of history.
He was born in a middle class Bangalee family and his political ideals arose out of the aims and aspirations of the commoners. He was inseparably linked with the hopes and aspirations, the joys and sorrows, the travails and triumphs of these ordinary people. He spoke their language. He gave voice to their hopes and aspirations. Year after year he spent the best days of his youth behind bars.
THE VICTIMS
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the following members of his family were assassinated in three separate attacks: his wife Begum Fazilatunnessa, sons Sheikh Kamal, Sheikh Jamal and nine-year-old Sheikh Russel, daughters-in-law Sultana Kamal, Parveen Jamal, Bangabandhu's brother Sheikh Naser, brother-inlaw Abdur Rab Serniabat, 13-year-old Baby Serniabat, Serniabat's son Arif, four-year-old grand son Babu,three guests, four servants, Bangabandhu's nephew Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni, Moni's wife Begum Arju Moni, and
Bangabandhu's security chief Colonel Jamil Uddin Ahmed.
PROGRAMMES
Today the national and the party flags will be flown at half-mast at all offices of the AL and its front organisations. The party will also hoist black flags everywhere in observance of the day, which used to be a national mourning day during the AL's stay in power from 1996 to 2001. But the BNP-led coalition government, after coming to power in october 2001, scrapped the day's official status.
AL President Sheikh Hasina, also the leader of the opposition in parliament, along with her party colleagues will place wreaths at Bangabandhu's portrait at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in Dhanmondi at 12:15pm. From there, they will go to Banani graveyard and offer Fatiha.
Similar programmes will be held at Bangabandhu's grave in Tungipara.
The AL, its front organisations and various socio-cultural organisations will hold milad mahfil, destitute feeding, blood donation and mourning processions.
Hasina will go to Tungipara tomorrow to attend a programme there.
Besides AL, different political parties excepting the components of ruling four-party alliance have taken up different programmes to mark the death anniversary of Bangabandhu. THE GRUESOME KILLING The deafening sound of gunshots broke the stillness of the dawn on August 15, 1971 on road No 32 of Dhanmondi . In less than an hour, the darkest chapter in the political history of Bangladesh was written on that fateful morning.
A group of disgruntled army officers in conjunction with some fiercely ambitious political elements led the attack to usurp power by killing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Without provocation, they opened fire on the private household of the then president. With army jeeps, tanks, and heavy trucks they ensured that the sudden attack and the element of surprise smother all resistance.
Another group of killers went to the residence of Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni. They attacked from all directions the sleeping household situated about two hundred meters off Bangabandhu's residence. They killed Sheikh Moni and did not spare even Begum Arju Moni, who was in the advanced stage of pregnancy.
A third group of the assassins rushed to the residence of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's brother-in-law Abdur Rab Serniabat. Armed with automatic weapons, they broke into the house, dragged the frightened inmates to the drawing room, and shot dead nine people.