Bangladesh mourns assassination of country`s founding father

Dhaka: Black flags dotted Bangladesh`s skyline as the country on Thursday observed the National Mourning Day, recalling the nation`s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman`s assassination along with most of his family members. Thousands joined the mourning in rain soaked capital wearing black badges as army bugles played the last post while a combined military contingent offered ceremonial honour guards at the same house, where a section of army officers carried out the carnage in a pre-dawn swoop 38 years ago. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangabandhu`s surviving daughter, along with President Abdul Hamid placed wreaths on his grave at his village home at Tingipara in southwestern Faridpur while thousands thronged his residence at Dhanmandi area of the capital to pay their homage.

National flags were kept half mast across the country while the government declared it a public holiday to mark August 15 as the Mourning Day. A total of 18 people, including Bangabandhu`s wife Begum Fazilattunesa and their three sons, were killed in the putsch on August 15, 1975 that also toppled Bangladesh`s post-independence Awami League government. Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana survived the coup as they were abroad at that time. Bangladesh executed five of the 11 convicted persons involved in the massacre who were earlier protected under a notorious indemnity law enacted by the post-1975 regime, which also had rewarded the killers with diplomatic assignments abroad. Three years ago, Hasina promised to bring back the rest six convicted killers of her father and the family members, saying "we will run in the rest of the convicted killers. PTI