Appending two letters from my friend, Dr. Enayet Rahim. They are self-explanatory. They tell the eye-witness story not to be found in history pages: How the freedom fights were hijacked by masked enemies of Bangladesh? Send yr.feedback to Dr. Enayet thru this blog. Thanks. Israr Hasan
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August
15th: a day of Destiny
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Oct 31 (2 days ago)
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Dear Friends :
August 15, 1975 was a crisp, pleasant morning...the summer heat
and humidity of the rainy months had subsided. I was up at 4am in the
morning studying. I was in the 3rd year of medical school, and I always liked
to study for an hour or so in the morning, before going to my classes. Wrapping
up my studies at about 5:30, I got out to have a morning sprint ( would
run for about 20 minutes ) before showering and eating breakfast. Daylight was
breaking, people were returning from their Fajr prayers from the mosques. As I
reached the gates of our home in Ispahani Colony, gunfire broke out. Rapid
bursts of automatic rifles , coming from the Mintoo road area. I ran back home.
Found my father agitated and up. He had received a phone call from Bangabandhu
himself yelling on the phone, somebody is shooting in my house, and the lines
went dead.
Visibly shaken, my dad called the Rakkhi Bahini ( paramilitary
guards) headquarters; no reply. Then he called Brigadier Mash-hurul Huq, the
military secretary to the President. Luckily he answered. My dad told him what
happened. Mashhurul said, "I am going" and hung up. My dad also
quickly got dressed. As the Principal Secretary to the President, he deemed his
duty to rush there too. He also called the Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Shafiullah.
Again , no answer. I saw my dad, pick up his revolver and put it in his pocket.
He had not done this since he left the police service a couple of years
earlier. He told me to call the driver to bring the car. As luck would have it,
the driver couldnot be found.
The firing had stopped by then. My father was about to get out of
the house, when my mom suddenly came and grabbed my dad " Don't go",
she said. I guess, women have a sixth sense, which we men don't. My dad stopped
in his tracks and sat down.
A few minutes later, Mr Taheruddin Thakur, one of Bangabandhu's
cabinet ministers called :" Rahim Saheb, he said, listen to the
Radio."
We turned on the Radio to hear , a certain Major Dalim declaring
that the military has seized power, Shaikh Mujib has been removed, and a new
government will be announced soon. Martial law was proclaimed. Very brief
announcement and no further explanations.
We all sat around dumb-founded and in shock. About 30 minutes or
so later, Mr Mesbahauddin, who was a neighbor and Director of the National
Security Intelligence at the time walked to our house in his Lungi and with a
shawl covering his head and face so nobody might recognize him, and told us
that the whole Shaikh family has been killed. Another hour or two passed, and
then the Radio became alive again , announcing that Khandaker Mushtaq Ahmad,
another Cabinet minister has been proclaimed the new President and soon a new
government would be announced. One by one , the Chiefs of the Army, Navy, Air
Force, the Police and the Rakkhi Bahini came on the Radio and announced their
allegiance to the new government . Their voices betrayed their shock. Evidently
none of them knew what had happened and what was going to happen.
Poor Brigadier Mashhurul Huq rushed to the Presdents house on Rd
#32, Dhannmondi. He was stopped by the soldiers there, roughed up, and one of
the guys cocked his gun and was about to shoot him. Luckily another military
jeep arrived, and the driver jumped out and shouted, keep this "bastard "
for me, I will kill him myself. Saying so, he pulled Brig. Huq into his jeep
and sped away. On the way, he told him to take off his shirt and dropped him
off in front of New Market, and said, I am sorry Sir, please run away and hide.
Brigadier Huq survived to tell us the story later.
Anyways, a couple of hours later, Khandaker Mushtaq went on the
Radio Bangladesh and announced his new cabinet. Most of Mujib's companions were
in the new cabinet....many of them were already vying for their posts and
couldnot wait to start their new jobs.
This was while their leader's dead body lay on the staircase, and
the whole family remained dead and rotting on the floors. It was 3 days before
anybody even thought about doing something with these stinking dead bodies.
I went out into the streets at about noon. Dhaka seemed to be
in a festive mood. Loud music played, restaurants were open and doing brisk
business. I heard, I did not see, people were distributing sweets on the
occasion of the leaders' death. Going toward the Medical College , I noted
commotion near the morgue. Peeking thru, I saw dead bodies lying all over,
which I heard were , Shaikh Fazlul Huq (Moni), Mujib's nephew, and his wife,
and Abdur Rab Sarniabat, Mujib' s brother in law and his family; both members
of his cabinet. One Major Noor, his uniform soaked in blood, had brought these
bodies in a military truck.
Will continue
Caesar
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A day
of Destiny : Continue
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9:59 pm (2 days ago)
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Dear Bro. Israr:
The happenings of 15th Aug 1975 has remained a mystery. The
killings and the coup d' etat was carried out by a handful of soldiers and
officers, and strangest part of it was, many of the soldiers were really
ex-soldiers having been retired or fired from the services. The commissioned
officers included only one who was in active duty : Col. Farook Rahman of the
Bengal Lancers. His comrades, Col Rashid, Major Noor, Major Dalim were
all forcibly retired several months ago. How they commanded the small platoon
of soldiers is strange to say the least.
Who really fired the shots and killed all these people is also a
mystery. Major Dalim who made the announcements on the Radio and became
infamous denied any responsibility. In interviews given to reporters, he denied
any plans to kill. He said, their plan was to force Mujib out of power, but not
to kill him. That seems too naïve; all who knew Shaikh Mujib , knew also that
he couldnot be threatened to give up power; he needed to be killed. But who
killed or gave orders to murder all the women and children, and kill his other
relatives in Serniabat's or Moni's house is not known.
Col.Farook, Col Rashid, Major Noor all gave interviews to Libyan
TV and declined any involvement in the killing of women and children.
They also denied any knowledge of who did the killings. A certain Lieutenant
Muslemuddin ( who was commissioned from a Junior commissioned officer) is said
to have done the killings at Mujib's house. But this person was never seen in
public and disappeared into the thin air. Nobody heard of him again. But who
did the killings in the other houses ?
Four of Mujib's closest associates ( Cabinet Ministers) : Syed
Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Capt. Mansour Ali, Quamruzzaman were picked up
from their homes in Mintoo road by a detachment of soldiers and put in Dhaka
Central Jail. All others of his cabinet joined the new government under
Khandaker Mushtaq immediately. Two months later in Novemeber 1975, 3 or 4 armed
men in military uniform arrived in Dhaka Jail in the middle of the night and
forced themselves into the Warden's office and demanded to see the above
prisoners. The Warden woke up the IG Prisons, who refused the demand. The armed
men forced him on gun-point to call the President's office . Reportedly, the
then President Khandaker Mushtaq himself spoke and told the IG Prisons to let
these people in. The IG vainly protested that it was against all regulations
dating back from British times. But apparently the President over-rode his
protests, and the gun-toting soldiers forced their way in. They went to the
prison cells and shot the above four point-blank and killed them.
Again, nobody knows who did all this. I have talked to several
people. My father who still worked as Secretary to the President was shocked by
news next morning like the rest of the country.
A couple of days after this incident, another group of Army
officers under Gen Khaled Musharraf staged a coup. But the officers and
soldiers of the August incidents managed to negotiate with Gen Khaled and
obtain a airplane and fly out of the country to Libya. They have forever
disappeared, except Col.Farook ( the only active duty soldier), who returned to
the country. he was arrested and sentenced to death by the present regime, and
was hanged two years ago.
Call it Divine Providence or the Decree of Allah...call it what
you will, but the fact remains that strange things did happen. Col Farouk drove
3 tanks out of the cantonement and went to the Rakkhi Bahini Headquarters in
PeelKhana. The Rakkhi Bahini was the National Guards , raised by Mjib , as a counter
balance to the army, basically for his protection. The tanks had no ammunition.
But it didn't matter.....not one soul came out of the barracks of Rakkhi
Bahini. The Army, Navy,Air-force did not move, despite Shaikh Mujib's desperate
phone calls to all the Chiefs. Mujib did make several phone calls that morning
as per records of the phone company. Nobody responded.
What do you call this?
Please comment
Caesar
