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 |
|
| 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 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, also known by the honorific Bangabandhu, was a Bangladeshi politician, revolutionary, statesman, activist and diarist, who was the founding president of Bangladesh. As one of the founding leader of Bangladesh, he had held continuous positions Initially, he served as the President of the Awami League, later as the President of Bangladesh, and then as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh until his assassination in August 1975. His nationalist ideology, socio-political theories, and political doctrines are collectively known as Mujibism.
Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad was a Bangladeshi politician. He was the Minister of Commerce in the third Mujib Rahman ministry under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and assumed the presidency of Bangladesh after the Assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975. He praised the assassins as "sons of the sun" and put cabinet ministers loyal to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in jail. He was himself deposed by another coup, less than three months later on November 3, 1975.
Sayed Farooq Rahman was the chief organizer involved in toppling the Sheikh Mujib regime in Bangladesh. He was convicted and hanged on 28 January 2010 along with co-conspirators Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, A.K.M. Mohiuddin Ahmed, Mohiuddin Ahmed, and Mohammad Bazlul Huda in Dhaka Central Jail, Old Dhaka, for the murder of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding leader and the first president of Bangladesh. Sayed Farooq Rahman and his close ally Khondaker Abdur Rashid were the chief organisers of the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 15 August 1975. He was 2IC of the 1st Bengal Lancers Regiment of the Bangladesh Army who led a group of junior army officers in order to overthrow the regime of Sheikh Mujib and install Khondaker Mushtaque Ahmed as president of Bangladesh.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh, was assassinated along with most of his family members during the early hours of 15 August 1975 by a group of Bangladesh Army personnel who invaded his residence as part of a coup d'état. The Minister of Commerce, Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad, immediately took control and proclaimed himself head of an interim government from 15 August to 6 November 1975; he was in turn succeeded by Chief Justice Abu Sayem. The assassination marked the first direct military intervention in Bangladesh's civilian administration. Lawrence Lifschultz characterized this incident as an outcome of the Cold War between the United States-influenced Pakistan and the Soviet Union-influenced India. 15 August is annually observed as National Mourning Day, a commemorative day in Bangladesh.
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A.K.M. Mohiuddin Ahmed was a Bangladesh Army officer who was convicted in absentia and executed for the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. On 28 January 2010, Ahmed was hanged along with Syed Faruque Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Mohiuddin Ahmed, and Mohammad Bazlul Huda in Old Dhaka Central Jail.
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