The Hindu : International : Mujib ignored in official Bangladesh event

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 29, 2005

International

International

Mujib ignored in official Bangladesh event

By Haroon Habib

DHAKA, MARCH 28. Bangladesh's Founding Father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and his contributions to the country were completely ignored in the official programmes and in the state media on the country's 34th Independence anniversary observed on Saturday.

The Independence Day messages of the President, and the Prime Minister also ignored Mujib, who led the nation to freedom from the then West Pakistan (now Pakistan) through a nine-month-long bloody war with assistance from India.

The messages only recalled the services of the slain President Ziaur Rahman, the Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia's husband and founder of the ruling BNP.

During the march past at the National Parade Ground, the commentators, who gave a brief history of Bangladesh's struggle for independence, described Ziaur Rahman, then a Major in the East Bengal Regiment, as the "proclaimer" of independence.

The parade ground was decorated with portraits of Ziaur Rahman and Ms. Khaleda Zia but that of Mujib was missing.

The Jamaat-e-Islami, one of the partners of the ruling alliance, had opposed Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan and fought against Bengali freedom fighters in the 1971 war. It had earlier undertaken a series of measures to undermine Mujib. The assassins of the nationalist leader, killed in 1975, have been convicted by the High Court but are yet to be punished as the case has not made any progress after the present alliance came to power in 2001.

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