Online Desk  :   Four national leaders pivotal to Bangladesh’s independence were assassinated inside Dhaka Central Jail 49 years ago on this day. While a trial court convicted 11 individuals over 18 years ago for their involvement in the 1975 killings, the sentences remain largely unenforced. The four leaders, Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Captain (retd) Mansur Ali, and AHM Quamruzzaman, led the country’s Liberation War following Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s imprisonment by the Pakistani army. They were detained after the tragic assassination of Bangabandhu and most of his family on August 15, 1975.

On November 3, 1975, at around 4:00 am, five armed personnel in military attire, one identifying himself as Captain Muslemuddin from Bangabhaban, entered the jail and executed the leaders. The initial complaint was filed by the then-deputy inspector general of prisons, Kazi Abdul Awal, at Lalbagh Police Station, with officer-in-charge ABM Fazlul Karim leading the investigation. The investigation and trial were halted for 21 years due to the Indemnity Ordinance until it resumed under the CID in 1996. A Dhaka trial court in 2004 sentenced 11 accused, with the Supreme Court upholding death sentences for three, including Muslemuddin, and life imprisonment for others.

Former state minister for home, Tanjim Ahmad Sohel Taj, son of the late Tajuddin Ahmed, has called for November 3 to be recognized as a ‘National Mourning Day’ and for April 10, the formation date of the first government, to be declared ‘Republic Day.’ Sohel Taj plans to submit a memorandum to Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, advocating for these recognitions and the inclusion of historical contributions of war leaders and fighters in educational curricula. He expressed on social media, “November 3 is a dark chapter in our history. The four leaders who led us to independence have yet to receive due state recognition. This injustice must be corrected.”