After the liberation war against Pakistan and the declaration of Bangladesh as a sovereign and independent state, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was sworn in as the Prime Minister of the newly independent country, later premieredBangladesh as the President in 1975 for a few months till his assassination by disgruntled army officers led by Sayed Farooq Rahman, Khandakar Abdur Rashid, Bazlul Huda, Shariful Haque Dalim, Abdul Majed and others with the backing of to-be president Khandakar Mushtaq Ahmed. The situation of Bangladesh had deteriorated greatly both politically and economically to a point of desperation, along with occurrence of The Famine of 1974. The dismay of army majors with the ruling Awami League government was sparked when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had switched the governance system of Bangladesh to replicate the American government led by an executive president, he had proclaimed himself as president in a bid for more power. Along with this, Mujib had proclaimed using the desperate situation of the state, a 'state of emergency' on 28 December 1974, suspending law courts of their power to intervene in his actions. Sheikh Mujib had then rammed through the Assembly a series of amendments to the Constitution which reduced the National Parliament to an advisory status, hence legitimizing his own absolute grip on absolute power.[2][3] One of these amendments put forth to the constitution of Bangladesh in January 1974 was the following:
(a) In case he is a member of Parliament on the date the National Party is formed, cease to be such member, and his seat in Parliament shall become vacant if he does not become a member of the National Party within the time fixed by the President.
(b) Not be qualified for election as President or as a member of Parliament if he is not nominated as a candidate for such election by the National Party.
(c) Have no right of form, or to be a member or otherwise take part in the activities of any political party other than the National Party.[2]
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had ultimately created an authoritarian and autocratic regime where his party, the Bangladesh Awami League and a few allies comprising the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League had absolute power, a one-party rule.[4][2][5] Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had also passed the Special Powers Act 1974 that provided the law enforcement agencies, especially the JRB an absolute power to detain and torture any citizen without any charge or trial for an indefinite time.[6][7][8]Sayed Farooq Rahman and other army officers were highly resentful about the state of the country which they had fought against Pakistan for. This anti-Mujib sentiment in Sayed Farooq Rahman had gone to its highest point when members of Awami League had committed the following crime as stated in Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood by Anthony Mascarenhas:
"One day during a combing operation in the Tongi area north of Dhaka, Major Nasser who was commanding another squadron of the Bengal Lancers, arrested three smalltime thugs. In the course of interrogation one of the men broke down and told the army officers a story about a particularly gruesome triple murder which had rocked Tongi the previous winter. It transpired that a newly married couple travelling to their home in a taxi had been waylaid on the outskirts of the town. The bridegroom and the taxi driver were hacked to death and their bodies thrown in the river. The bride, who was carried off to an isolated cottage, was repeatedly raped by her abductors. Three days later her mutilated body was found on the road near a bridge. Confessing to his part in the crime, the thug told the army men the police investigation was called off when they found that the ring-leader of the gang was his boss, Muzamil, chairman of the Tongi Awami League. According to Farook the confession so infuriated the interrogating officer, a boyish lieu-tenant named Ishtiaq who has since resigned and left the country, that 'he started kicking the chap so hard that he died of internal injuries.' Muzamil himself was taken by Major Nasser to Dhaka for prosecution after he had confirmed from police records that the thug had been telling the truth. According to Farook, Muzamil offered Nasser 300,000 Takkas for his release. 'Don't make it a public affair,' the Awami Leaguer advised him. 'You will anyway have to let me go, either today or tomorrow. So why not take the money and forget about it?' Nasser, who was affronted by this blatant attempt to bribe him, swore he would bring Muzamil to trial and make him hang for his crime. He handed him over to the civil authorities. Farook said they were all astonished a few days later to find that Muzamil had been released on Sheikh Mujib's direct intervention. 'I told you to take the money.' Muzamil crowed. 'You would have been the gainers. Now I have been released anyway and you get nothing.' "[2]
Farooq Rahman had desired to kill Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from the day of Sheikh Mujib's intervention.
Sayed Farooq Rahman said; "It seemed as if we were living in a society headed by a criminal organization. It was as if the Mafia had taken over Bangladesh. We were totally disillusioned. Here was the head of government abetting murder and other extreme things from which he was supposed to protect us. This was not acceptable. We decided he must go."[2]
Colonel Farooq had started discussing the ever-worsening state of Bangladesh, the brutality and corruption of the Awami League government led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with his fellow army officers, also talking with the Army Chief and future President of Bangladesh, Ziaur Rahman, as recounted in Bangladesh: A legacy of Blood by Anthony Mascarenhas:
"It was a Thursday and when he reported to General Zia's bungalow at 7.30 pm he found Col. Moin, the Adjutant General, about to leave. Farook said he broached the subject of his mission very cautiously. 'I was meeting the Deputy Chief of Army Staff and a Major General. If I bluntly told him that I wanted to overthrow the President of the country straightaway like that there was a very good chance that he would have arrested me with his own guards, there and then, and put me in jail. I had to go about it in a round-about way'. Farook continued: 'Actually we came around to it by discussing the corruption and everything that was going wrong. I said the country required a change. Zia said "Yes, Yes. Let's go outside and talk" and then he took me on the lawn.' 'As we walked on the lawn I told him that we were professional soldiers who served the country and not an individual. The army and the civil government, everybody, was going down the drain. We have to have a change. We, the junior officers, have already worked it out. We want your support and your leadership'. According to Farook, General Zia's answer was: 'I am sorry I would not like to get involved in anything like this. If you want to do something you junior officers should do it yourself. Leave me out of it'."[2]
Yet in a later meeting, Army Chief Ziaur Rahman had urged then Major Farook to do something about the situation, then in collaboration with Khandakar Mushtaq Ahmed, and other army officers like his brother-in-law Khandakar Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim and others to bring down the regime of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.[9][10][2] It is also said that Khandakar Abdur Rashid's wife Zubaida Khan, sister of Farooq Rahman's wife Farida Khan was a mastermind behind the military coup of Mujib. Colonel Farooq also sought the guidance of a MuhajirSufi Peer from Bihar who has settled down in Chittagong as stated in Bangladesh: A legacy of blood by Anthony Mascarenhas:
"Farook decided to seek celestial sanction for his terrible purpose. He sought out in the crowded Hali Shaar quarter of Chittagong a Bihari holy man who would have a powerful influence on the killing of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Andha Hafiz (blind holy man) as he is known, was born without sight. His piety and austere life, however, had brought him the blessing of a phenomenal extrasensory perception and the gift of prophesy. The accuracy of his predictions had won him a sizeable following, among them the Khans of Chittagong who were Major Farook's inlaws. Farook decided to consult him - and found an early opportunity to do so. The Bengal Lancers were scheduled to go to Hat Hazari near Chittagong for range firing between 7 and 11 April. When this exercise was put back by two days, Farook took time off for a quick trip to Chittagong on 2 April to see Andha Hafiz."[2]
It was through all this the 1975 coup d'état had been done, through the coalition of the plethora of anti-Mujib sentiments held amongst people in the country and the army which had risked their lives for a free and independent Bangladesh governed with justice and no corruption.[2]
Operation of 1975 August Coup, featuring a tank.Sheikh Mujib in a meeting with other Awami League members, to the left is Syed Nazrul Islam, an uncle of Colonel Farook
1986 presidential election
Sayed Farooq Rahman running as a Presidential Candidate in 1986
After the assassination of Ziaur Rahman in 1981, Rahman returned to active politics by founding the Bangladesh Freedom Party and running for the presidency against Lt. Gen. Hussain Muhammad Ershad in 1986. Sayed Farooq Rahman representing the Bangladesh Freedom Party had run for presidency against Hussain Muhammad Ershad of the Jatiya Party, and Muhammadullah Hafezzi of the Bangladesh Khilafat Andolan. Sayed Farooq Rahman had obtained 1,202,303 of the total 21,795,337 votes, 4.64% of the total, coming third out of the twelve other Presidential Candidates. The Oxford-trained lawyer, Kamal Hossain, who was Mujib’s law minister, and later foreign minister, told Salil Tripathi, a journalist, “The impunity with which Farooq operated was extraordinary. When he returned to Bangladesh, the government facilitated him and President Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who wanted some candidate to stand against him in the rigged elections. Ershad let Farooq stand to give himself credibility.”[11][12][13]
Sayed Farooq Rahman and Khandakar Abdur Rashid at a Bangladesh Freedom Party meeting
1989 assassination plot
On 10 August 1989, activists and leaders of Freedom Party allegedly launched an attack at Sheikh Hasina's the then residence in Dhanmondi's Road 32. Around 14 members of the Bangladesh Freedom Party lead by a certain Kajol and Kobir attacked Sheikh Hasina's residence by hurling a bomb and firing gunshots, as stated in the case referred to court. They chanted the slogan “Farooq-Rashid Zindabad” as they left the place. Following the incident, Zahurul Islam, a security guard of the residence, filed two cases with Dhanmondi Police Station, one for plotting to kill Hasina and other for hurling and possessing a bomb.
In 1997, eight years after the attack, Bangladesh's Criminal Investigation Department's (CID) pressed charges against 19 people, including leaders of the Bangladesh Freedom Party and the assassins of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Lt Col (retd) Sayed Faruque Rahman, Lt Col (retd) Khandakar Abdur Rashid and Maj (retd) Bazlul Huda in an attempted murder and another explosive case. On 5 July 2009, charges were framed against 16 accused. Four of the accused, Sohel, Golam Sarwar Mamun, Joy Miah and Syed Nazmul Maksud Murad are all currently in jail. Four others of the accused, Humayun Kabir, Mizanur Rahman, Khandakar Amirul Islam and Md Shahjahan had been freed on bail. Two others, Zafar Ahmed and H Kabir are absconding while two others of the accused, Gazi Liakat Hossain and Rezaul Islam Khan died earlier. Sayed Faruque Rahman and Bazlul Huda have been executed in the Bangabandhu murder case.
Recent activity and leadership
On 11 February 1990, prominent members of the Bangladesh Freedom Party, Major. Zaynul Abedin and Major. Bazlul Huda leading a group of 23 men attacked with shooting from firearms, a Bangladesh Awami League rally killing local Mymensingh Awami League activist Harun-ur-Rashid and injuring others. The Dhaka court sentenced Zaynul Abedin and 21 more to seven years' rigorous imprisonment for possessing illegal firearms, murder and assault .[14] The party, according to 1997 UNHRC report, kept a low profile.[1]
According to the Bangladesh Police, from 2000 onward, Mehnaz Rashid, daughter of Khandaker Abdur Rashid, had been involved in reorganizing Freedom Party. She contested the parliamentary polls in 2001 and 2008 from Chandina of Comilla representing Freedom Party.[15] In 2009, Mehnaz Rashid was arrested by police, along with Kamrul Haque Swapan, younger brother of Major Sharful Haq Dalim for suspected links to a bomb attack on Awami League lawmaker Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh.[16]
The current leadership team of the Bangladesh Freedom Party were formerly in exile and sought political refugee status in Australia and became citizens. The exile has now been lifted after the popular student-lead uprising against former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The party chairman is Sayed Farooq Rahman's elder son Sayed Tariq Rahman who lives and is based in Sydney. The vice-chairman of the Bangladesh Freedom Party is Farooq's younger son Sayed Zubair Farooq who is a Doctoral graduate in Behavioral Economics and ethical banking from the University of Technology Sydney, chief executive of Unity Grammar College, an Islamic private school in Australia, he is also ministerial financial advisor to Sheikh Mohammed Al-Maktoum. The general secretary is Dewan Hossain Mohammad Ismail who is also based in Sydney.[17][18][19]
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.
The Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League was a political front comprising the Bangladesh Awami League, the Communist Party of Bangladesh, the National Awami Party (Muzaffar) and Bangladesh Jatiya League.
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.
The Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini was a Bangladeshi para-military force formed in 1972 by the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman government.
Jail Killing Day is observed by the Awami League (AL) of Bangladesh and many other political organisations on 3 November every year. It commemorates the killing of four Awami League and national leaders: former vice-president Syed Nazrul Islam, former prime minister Tajuddin Ahmed and Captain (Rtd.) Mansur Ali, and former home minister A H M Quamruzzaman on this date in 1975.
Khandakar Abdur Rashid, better known as Abdur Rashid Tarkabagish was a Bangladeshi politician and Islamic scholar. His career spans from the anti-colonial independence movement to the establishment of both Pakistan and Bangladesh. Tarkabagish was the second president of the All Pakistan Awami Muslim League, and served as a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan and later the Parliament of Bangladesh. Despite being a member of the treasury bench, he opposed what he considered to be the repressive mentality of the Nurul Amin government towards the Bengali Language Movement.
Shariful Haque Dalim (born 2 February 1946) is a former Bangladeshi army officer and ambassador of Bangladesh. He was also convicted for his part in the assassination of President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.
Tungipara Sheikh family of Tungipara is one of the two most prominent Bangladeshi political families, other being the Zia family. The family primarily consists of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Sheikh Hasina, Sheikh Rehana and their relatives. Their political involvement has traditionally revolved around the Bangladesh Awami League.
Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan was a Bangladeshi army officer who was convicted for the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father and then President of Bangladesh. On 28 January 2010, Rahman was hanged along with Syed Faruque Rahman, A.K.M. Mohiuddin Ahmed, Mohiuddin Ahmed, and Mohammad Bazlul Huda in Old Dhaka Central Jail.
S.H.M.B Noor Chowdhury is a Bangladesh army officer who was convicted for the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, president of Bangladesh, and for involvement in the murder of four national leaders in the Jail Killing. As of 2017, he was a fugitive, residing in Canada. The Canadian government has refused to extradite him, because he faces the death penalty in Bangladesh.
Mohammad Bazlul Huda was a Bangladeshi Army officer and freedom fighter who was convicted of the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, founding president of Bangladesh. On 28 January 2010, Bazlul was executed along with Syed Faruque Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Mohiuddin Ahmed, and A.K.M. Mohiuddin Ahmed in Old Dhaka Central Jail.
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.
The military coup in Bangladesh on August 15 of 1975 was launched by mid-ranking army officers in order to assassinate founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, whose administration post-independence grew corrupt and reportedly authoritarian until he established a one-party state-based government led by the socialist party Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League. Mujib, along with his resident family members, were killed during the coup but was survived by his two then-expat daughters, one of them being future prime minister Sheikh Hasina. The officers were led by Capt. Abdul Majed, Maj. Sayed Farooq Rahman, Maj. Khandaker Abdur Rashid and Maj. Shariful Haque Dalim.
Ahmed Sharful Hossain, also known as Shariful Islam, is a Bangladesh Army officer and a fugitive involved in the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in August 1975, and the related Jail Killing incident in November 1975.
The 3 November coup d'état was organised by Brig. Khaled Mosharraf against President Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad to remove him from the presidency and the assassins of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from power: Capt. Abdul Majed, Maj. Syed Faruque Rahman, Maj. Khandaker Abdur Rashid and Maj. Shariful Haque Dalim. The coup resulted a return of Mujibist forces in Bangladeshi politics for a short time.
Mohammad Kismat Hashem was a Bangladesh Army officer who was convicted for his role in the 1975 Jail Killing of four senior Awami League leaders following the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the president of Bangladesh.
Abdul Majed was a Bangladeshi military officer who was convicted for his role in the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of Bangladesh.
The Jail Killing refers to the murder of four leaders of the Awami League political party in Bangladesh by army officers who carried out a coup d'état there on 15 August 1975. The four killed were former President Syed Nazrul Islam, former prime ministers Tajuddin Ahmad and Muhammad Mansur Ali, and President of Awami League A. H. M Qamaruzzaman.
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