Posted on 15 August 2007 by Mashuqur Rahman
Bangladesh: Murder and Consequence
Photo: Dhanmondi 32, August 15, 1975.
[Mashuqur Rahman, USA.]
On a Friday evening more than three decades ago a man named Khondker Mushtaque Ahmed, with blood on his hands, addressed the nation of Bangladesh over television and radio. He declared that he was now President of Bangladesh. He said the Bangladesh military had taken over power under his leadership in the “greater national interest” in response to “the historical necessity.” It was August 15, 1975.
Earlier in the day the founding leader of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was brutally murdered along with nearly his entire family by junior officers of the Bangladesh military. Bangladesh had committed fratricide and has been struggling since to come to terms with the crime.
The Bangladesh Observer, the leading English language newspaper in Bangladesh at the time, editorialized the day after the carnage:
Corruption and nepotism inevitably led to continuously increasing prices and the economic misery of the masses that left no alternative for them but to languish and perish. In this suffocating situation the Armed Forces could not be true to their conscience and the nation except by coming forward to bring about a change in the corrupt and oppressive government.
…
From all accounts the people are convinced of the government’s crusading determination to obliterate the last traces of corruption, nepotism, and all other social vices and therefore they are ready to co-operate with the government in facing the great challenge thrown by history. With the infinite mercy of Allah the Government and the nation will overcome all obstacles and resolutely march towards the cherished goal.
Thus the doctrine of “historical necessity” entered the Bangladeshi lexicon and military intervention found its rationale.
Soon the figurehead civilian leader of the country, Khondker Mushtaque Ahmed, began to promulgate regulations and ordinances for the “greater good” of the country. On August 20, 1975 Ahmed promulgated martial law regulations providing for “penalty of death or transportation for life, rigorous imprisonment, fine and confiscation of property for offenses such as corruption, criminal misconduct, illegal possession of arms and ammunition and illegally acquired properties.” The regulations he promulgated also provided for “setting up of Special Martial Law Courts, Summary Martial Law Courts and Appellate Tribunals for the trial and hearing of offenses specified by the regulations.”
A few days later “life sketches” of three military officers appeared on the front page of the Bangladesh Observer. Two of the men, recently promoted Chief of Staff of the Bangladesh Army Major General Ziaur Rahman and the Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Hossain Mohammad Ershad, would rule Bangladesh for the next sixteen years.
