August 15 murderers tried to kill Hasina, Rehana abroad?

Prime Minister's International Affairs Advisor Dr Gowher Rizvi has said the assailants of August 15 in 1975 also conspired to kill Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana abroad, but the government of the then host countries resisted it, reports BSS.

"After the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu in the fateful night, the killers also plotted to murder Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana abroad, which was prevented by the host governments at their residence at the time," Dr Rizvi told a discussion in the UK on Monday.

The Bangladesh High Commission organised the discussion marking the 47th martyrdom anniversary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the National Mourning Day.

Dr. Rizvi said, "There is evidence of a collective and individual conspiracy behind the assassination of Bangabandhu and his family that began during the Liberation War long before Bangladesh gained independence. Bangabandhu was captured and taken to Pakistan not to be returned alive."

The PM's adviser said the main goal of the conspirators was to take back the country to pre-independence state and prevent Bangabandhu from establishing a progressive, secular and Bengali nationalism-based Bangladesh by killing him.

"Sufficient evidence of these has been found. They will be disclosed in due course," an internationally renowned historian and researcher Rizvi mentioned in his speech.

Bangladesh High Commissioner to the UK Saida Muna Tasneem delivered the commemorative speech at the high-profile event on Monday at a hotel in the Royal Borough of Kensington where Shadow Minister for Asia and the Pacific Catherine West, MP and Vice Chair of All Party Parliamentary Group on Bangladesh Lord Sheikh were the special guests.

Eminent member of student action committee of the 1971 overseas freedom movement for Bangladesh Liberation in the UK Syed Mojammel Ali also spoke on the occasion.

The Bangladesh High Commissioner said, "The premeditated brutal assassination of Bangabandhu to eliminate his entire family and the secular and progressive values by a few treacherous anti-liberation, anti-democracy and anti-secular forces is also recorded as an incident of unprecedented barbarism in human history and a gross violation of international humanitarian law as it stands apart from political assassinations of other contemporary leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and John F Kennedy."

The High Commissioner said even though the assassins tried to silence the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu lives on in the hearts of hundreds of millions of Bengali people while his vision for a self-reliant Golden Bengal is being carried forward by his missionary, courageous and dynamic daughter, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

At the event, a message on Bangabandhu from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was read out when a video message from the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer was shown.

A documentary on Bangabandhu of Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs was also screened.

Earlier, the High Commissioner along with the guests and senior officials paid homage to Bangabandhu by placing wreaths at Bangabandhu's portrait and launched a Bangladesh High Commission's commemorative publication titled "Bangabandhu-The Fried of Bengal".

The Day's programme began with the lowering of the national flag at half-mast at the High Commission followed by reading out of the messages from the President, Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and State Minister for Foreign Affairs.

A special munajat was also offered seeking eternal peace of the departed souls of Bangabandhu and martyrs of August 15 carnage.

Later, the High Commissioner visited an East London care home and distributed Bangladeshi food to the senior members of the British-Bangladeshi community.