by Senior Correspondent in bdnews24.com, May 18, 2017
The daughter of Bangladesh’s founding father says many in the party were involved in the conspiracy along with minister Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad, just four years after independence.
“Actually the enemies were disguised in our own house. No one gets the chance to do any harm without the help of an insider. They (the enemies in Awami League) gave them (the killers of Bangabandhu) the opportunity,” she said on Wednesday.
She was speaking at a meeting with leaders and activists of the ruling party at the Ganabhaban to mark her homecoming after the killing of Bangabandhu and most other members of the family.
Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana were abroad when Bangabandhu and the others were killed on Aug 15, 1975 by a group of rogue army officers.
She returned in 1981 and took the helm of the Awami League. Now she is serving a third term as prime minister.
The ruling party leaders have always said the conspirators of the Bangabandhu assassination have not been brought to justice.
They have also been claiming that ‘a foreign power’ was involved in the conspiracy.
Five convicted of murdering Bangabandhu were hanged in 2010. They are Syed Faruque Rahman, Sultan Shahariar Rashid Khan, Bazlul Huda, Mohiuddin Ahmed and AKM Mohiuddin.
Another, Abdul Aziz Pasha, who was hiding in Zimbabwe, died there in 2001, police said.
The authorities say they were not sure about whereabouts of convict Risaldar Moslehuddin (Khan).
The other five are Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim, M Rashed Chowdhury, AHMB Noor Chowdhury and Abdul Mazed.
Hasina earlier said Rashid had gone to Pakistan from Libya while Dalim was in Pakistan. The four others are either in the US or Canada.
The Awami League chief told the Ganabhaban meeting that she could not even imagine that Bangabandhu would have been killed.
“Many alerted him that something like this could happen. Father said: “No. They are like my sons. Why will they kill me?”,” recalled Hasina.
She said the killers of Bangabandhu were actually collaborators of the Pakistan Army.
According to her, many of those involved with the Aug 15 massacre had access to Bangabandhu’s house at Dhanmondi’s Road No. 32.
“Dalim, his mother-in-law, wife, sister-in-law were frequent visitors and used to spend hours in our house,” Hasina said.
She also mentioned that Noor Chowdhury, along with her brother Sheikh Kamal, worked as ADC of MAG Ataul Gani Osmani, commander-in-chief of the Bangladesh Forces during the war.
“These were familiar faces,” she said.
Another killer, Faruque Rahman, was a nephew of AR Mollick, the financed minister in Bangabandhu’s Cabinet.
“They were rather close people. But they conspired (to kill Bangabandhu),” Hasina said.
She also alleged BNP founder and slain president Ziaur Rahman had links with the killers of Bangabandhu.
Twelve army officers involved in Bangabandhu assassination had been rewarded with jobs in diplomatic missions abroad in 1977 when Zia ‘captured’ power through a military coup.http://bdnews24.com/politics/2017/05/18/hasina-says-conspirators-of-bangabandhu-killing-were-in-awami-league
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