Dhaka: Marking National Mourning Day on Saturday, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused anti-Awami League and anti-Bangladesh forces of conspiring to turn Bangladesh into Pakistan. She alleged that Bangladesh had descended into widespread anarchy, with Awami League supporters, minorities and women living under constant fear and insecurity.
Bangladesh observes August 15 as National Mourning Day, commemorating the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, also widely regarded as ‘Father of the Nation’. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated on August 15, 1975 along with several members of his family.
In a statement shared by the Awami League on X, Hasina recalled the brutal assassination, while alleging that the killing was carried out by a group of military officers with the direct and indirect backing of pro-Pakistan forces.
“August 15 is a day of profound pain and mourning for the Bengali nation. On this day in 1975, the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was assassinated along with most of his family members. At a time when the war-ravaged new state was being rebuilt amid thousands of challenges, a group of military officers, with the direct and indirect support of pro-Pakistan forces, carried out the assassination,” said Hasina.
“In effect, the military establishment, acting as a representative of the Pakistani establishment, sought to avenge Pakistan’s defeat in 1971 by leading this assassination. The subsequent twenty-one years of history became a history of attempts to turn Bangladesh politically and culturally into Pakistan,” she added.
Hasina said that although the five years of Awami League rule, achieved through struggles on the streets, slowed the process of Pakistan’s resurgence, it did not bring it to an end. After 2001, she said, the Pakistani machinery was once again set in motion for another five years, a reality that the people of Bangladesh either witnessed firsthand or came to know about.
“From 2009 to 2024, for a total of 15 years, the Awami League sought to take the country on a U-turn away from the Pakistani trajectory and return it to the path of the Liberation War and prosperity. Over those 15 years, Bangladesh became an extraordinary story of growth in the eyes of the world. But conspirators were being prepared throughout those 15 years,” said the former Bangladesh PM.
Referring to the July 2024 protests and the ensuing political upheaval, she said that after “massive bloodshed and loss of life”, the Awami League government was ousted, while all anti-Awami League and anti-Bangladesh forces joined a “grand project to turn Bangladesh into Pakistan once again.”
“The result is that the country has been plunged into the darkness of widespread anarchy. The footsteps of famine are being heard in the economy. Poor people are spending their days hungry or half-fed. For Awami League supporters, minorities, and women, Bangladesh has become a country of constant fear and insecurity,” Hasina noted.
In her concluding remarks, she pledged to return to Bangladesh to fulfil the responsibility entrusted to her to change the fate of the people and realise the “unfinished dream” of the Father of the Nation.
(IANS)
