Abdul Aziz Pasha | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Native name | আবদুল আজিজ পাশা |
| Died | 2 June 2001 Harare, Zimbabwe |
| Allegiance |  Pakistan (Before 1971) Bangladesh |
| Service/ |  Pakistan Army  Bangladesh Army |
| Years of service | 1969–1996 |
| Rank |  Lieutenant Colonel |
| Unit | Regiment of Artillery |
| Commands held |
|
| Known for | Assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman |
Abdul Aziz Pasha (died 2 June 2001) was a Bangladesh army officer who was convicted for involvement in the 1975 assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. [1]
Pasha had fought for the Independence of Bangladesh during Bangladesh Liberation war in 1971. [2] He was the commanding officer of the first artillery battery raised, which was known as the Mujib Battery. [3] Pasha's companions from the war described him as "an easy going and laid-back" person. [4]
On 15 August 1975 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the president of Bangladesh was assassinated during a military coup. Pasha was one of the 12 self-confessed assassins. [5] He and Risaldar Moslemuddin gunned down Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's wife Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib, Sheikh Jamal and his wife Rosy, and Sheikh Kamal's wife Sultana. [6]
After the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the new government headed by Lieutenant General Ziaur Rahman, appointed Aziz as the first secretary to the Bangladesh embassy in Rome. He was arrested in Dhaka for his role in the 17 June 1980 attempted coup in Bangladesh. He was freed after agreeing to turn state witness. He was then posted to Nairobi, Kenya. He was in Zimbabwe when the Bangladesh Awami League government recalled him to Dhaka. He refused to return and as a result was dismissed from the foreign service. He applied for and received political asylum in Zimbabwe. [7] [8] [9]
On 8 November 1998 Pasha, along with 15 other defendants, was sentenced to death for his role in the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. On 14 December 2000, the Bangladesh High Court confirmed his death sentence. [10]
Pasha died on 2 June 2001 in Zimbabwe. [11]
The Awami League government which came to power in 1996 dismissed him from government service. When Bangladesh Nationalist Party came to power in 2001 they changed the government decision to show that he retired from service. This entitled his widow, Mahfuza Pasha, to his government pension. [1]
After the assassination of President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Pasha purchased the house of Jitendra Lal Basu in Sreebari, Ghior upazila, Manikganj. His house was seized by police in 1997 when an arrest warrant was issued for him. His house was bought by his brother in 2001 after he died. On 31 January 2010 the house was vandalized and burned down by activists of Bangladesh Awami League. [12]
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, popularly known by the honorific prefix Bangabandhu, was a Bangladeshi politician, revolutionary, statesman, activist and diarist. As a politician, Mujib had held continuous positions either as Bangladesh's president or as its prime minister from April 1971 until his assassination in August 1975. Mujib successfully led the Bangladeshi independence movement and restored Bengali sovereignty after over two centuries following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, for which he is honoured as the 'Father of the Nation' in Bangladesh. In 2011, the fifteenth constitutional amendment in Bangladesh referred to Sheikh Mujib as the Father of the Nation who declared independence; these references were enshrined in the fifth, sixth, and seventh schedules of the constitution. His Bengali nationalist ideology, socio-political theories, and political doctrines are sometimes called Mujibism.
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