Commence the Month of Mourning

Today is the first day of August, the Month of Mourning. In this month in 1975, the Bangalee nation lost the greatest son of the millennium, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

On August 21 in 2004, attempt was carried out to kill Awami League
president and incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, eldest daughter of Bangabandhu, by mounting grenade attack at her anti-terrorism rally in the capital.

Though Sheikh Hasina escaped the grenade attack miraculously, 24 leaders-workers-supporters of her party including former president late Zillur Rahman's wife and Awami League's women's affairs secretary Ivy Rahman were killed and 500 others suffered splinter injuries in that horrendous attack.

The self-confessed killers of the August 15, 1975 carnage did not only
assassinate Bangabandhu but also killed some 16 members of his family,
friends and relatives including his wife Begum Fazilanunnessa Mujib, sons Sheikh Kamal, Sheikh Jamal and Sheikh Russell, daughters-in-law Sultana Kamal and Rosy Jamal, brother Sheikh Naser, brother-in-law Abdur Rab Serniabat, nephew and eminent journalist Sheikh Fazlul Huq Moni, his pregnant wife Arzoo Moni and Colonel Jamil.

A pall of gloom descended and a sense of deep hatred spread among the
people in the country and around the world following the gruesome
assassination of Bangabandhu and most of his family members by a gang of some disgruntled overambitious army officers in a military putsch on the fateful night of August 15 in 1975.

World leaders including former German Chancellor Willy Brandt, noted
Banglaee intellectuals like litterateur Nirad C Chawdhury and prestigious dailies like the Times of London and the Daily Telegraph, in strongest words,condemned the heinous killing of Bangabandhu terming his loss as an 'irreparable loss to millions of people of Bangladesh'.

Referring to the remarks of the daily Telegraph, Awami League joint general secretary Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif said, "The nation was freed from a stigma following the execution of verdict in Bangabandhu Killing Case.

The London-based daily came up with a time-befitting epoch-making remarks then which the people of Bangladesh could now understand that the anti- liberation forces in league with some local and foreign conspirators killed Bangabandhu to turn new-born Bangladesh into a neo-Pakistan."

Like the previous years, the Awami League leader said the ruling party and its associate bodies have chalked out a 40-day programme beginning on 1 August to mark the National Mourning Day commemorating the 40th anniversary of martyrdom of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

"The programme of the month of mourning will be initiated with a candle- light vigil (march with torches) towards Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi at one-minute past zero hours," Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif said. The other programmes of the day include, placing of wreaths and offering of fateha at the grave of Bangabandhu at Tungipara in Gopalganj district at 12-o'clock.

Bangladesh Krishak League (BKL) will organise a blood donation camp
followed by a discussion on the premises of the city's Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at 4-30 pm. Awami League president and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the programme.

Besides, different political parties, socio-cultural-professional bodies have also drawn up elaborate programmes to mark the Month of Mourning.