Jail Killing Day today

Staff Correspondent | Published: 00:01, Nov 03,2023

Jail Killing Day is set to be observed today marking the assassination of four top Awami League leaders in jail.
On November 3, 1975, four top Awami League leaders — Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmad, Captain M
Mansur Ali and AHM Quamruzzaman — were assassinated inside Dhaka Central Jail.

The four leaders played a key role in forming the Mujibnagar government, which led the War of Independence
in 1971, with Syed Nazrul Islam as the acting president, Tajuddin Ahmad as the prime minister, M Mansur
Ali as the finance minister, and AHM Quamruzzaman as the home, relief, and rehabilitation minister.
The ruling Awami League, its associate organisations and other political parties have chalked out separate
programmes to mark the day.
The programmes include hoisting the national flag and the party flag at half-mast, hoisting black flags, wearing
black badges, and offering fateha at the graves of the four leaders at Banani Graveyard.
AL and its associate bodies will place wreaths at the portrait of the country’s founding president Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman at 7:30am and AL leaders will offer fateha, place wreaths and hold a prayer session at
8:00am at Banani graveyard.
Besides, the AL will arrange a discussion at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka at
3:00pm where the prime minister Sheikh Hasina, also the AL president is scheduled to chair the discussion.
The country’s president Mohammed Shahabuddin and prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday paid rich
tributes through separate messages to four national leaders on the occasion of the Jail Killing Day, recalling
their immense contributions to the War of Independence and the nation, according to the state-run news agency
Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin said that the four leaders were close aides to the country’s founding
president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
‘I pay deep respect to their memories,’ the BSS quoted the president as saying.
The nation would always remember the contributions of the four national leaders with due respect, he added.
In her message, the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, termed the November 3, also known as Jail Killing Day, a
stigmatised day in the history of independent Bangladesh, saying such killing in jail, a secure place, is
unprecedented in the world’s history, said another BSS report.
‘The purpose of the killers was to break the state structure of the non-communal democratic Bangladesh and
undermine our independence achieved at a huge cost,’ the BSS quoted the PM as saying.
When the Awami League assumed power in 1996, the government initiated a trial against the accused of the
assassination by revoking an indemnity law that was protecting the accused.
On October 20, 2004, after a protracted trial, the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court declared 15 of the
20 accused, guilty and released the other five. All 20 accused were former military officers.
Of the 15 convicted, three fugitives were given the death penalty and 12 were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The three sentenced to death were Sergeant Moslem Uddin, Sentry Marfot Ali Shah, and Sentry Mohammad
Abul Hashem Mridha.
On August 28, 2008, a High Court acquitted six of the accused. The court released two— Sentry Marfot Ali
Shah and Sentry Mohammad Abul Hashem Mridh– who were earlier given death sentences.
The four other people released included retired Lieutenant Colonel Syed Faruqe Rahman, retired Lieutenant
Colonel Shahriar Rashid Khan, retired Major Bazlul Huda and retired Lieutenant Colonel AKM Mohiuddin
Ahmed.
The four, however, were convicted in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman assassination case and executed on January
27, 2010.
In 2012, the Jail Killing case was reopened under the Appellate Division.
On April 30, 2013, the court dismissed the 2008 verdict given by the High Court and instead upheld the 2004
judgment that convicted the 15 accused.