Bangabandhu: The final days

The last days of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's life were taken up with preoccupations of both a family and political nature. 

At the political level, the Father of the Nation remained busy, in light of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution passed by the Jatiyo Sangsad in January 1975, reconfiguring the framework of national politics. On his initiative, the country had reverted to a presidential form of government, and a powerful one at that. Political pluralism had been replaced by a national platform called the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (Baksal), which change Bangabandhu termed as the Second Revolution. However, he made it known that the move had been necessitated by the grave emergencies faced by the country --- in the nature of corruption, predatory extremist politics, assassinations of political leaders around the country, et cetera. He reassured the nation that the harsh measure was a temporary one and that at a point the country would return to the democracy with which it had commenced its independent existence.

Baksal had segmented Bangladesh into sixty one districts, each to be led by a governor. All the governors had been appointed by the time the month of August came around. They included politicians as well as civil servants, the idea being that the new districts would accelerate the pace toward the decentralization of administration. Among the salient features of the Baksal scheme was the creation of local cooperatives, which in essence was a sending out of the message that a socialistic approach to the economy was what Bangabandhu had in mind.

By late July and early August, senior cabinet ministers, including Khondokar Moshtaq, were addressing the Baksal hierarchy at various levels, including the governors. The governors of the sixty one districts were scheduled to take over on 1 September 1975.

In July, Bangabandhu ordered the release from prison of Enayetullah Khan, the hard-hitting editor of the weekly Holiday. Khan had aroused the ire of the government back in 1972 with his provocative write-up, '65 million collaborators?' And since then he had been a trenchant critic of Bangabandhu's government, to a point where the authorities took him into custody. When he was released, he was taken to Bangabandhu at Ganobhaban, where the President and Khan had a conversation, the upshot of which was that Bangabandhu appointed Khan editor of The Bangladesh Times. The appointment took effect after Bangabandhu's assassination, when the wrong information was given out that it was the Moshtaq cabal which had given Enayetullah Khan charge of the newspaper.

July was a busy time for Bangabandhu's family. His two older sons, Sheikh Kamal and Sheikh Jamal, got married within days of each other. The weddings took place at the Officers Club. In the same month, he bade farewell to his daughters Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana and Hasina's husband Dr Wazed Miah and their child Sajeeb Wazed Joy, who were going off to Europe on holiday.

At the end of July, Bangabandhu decided that Foreign Minister Kamal Hossain should go on official visits to several countries in Europe and especially Yugoslavia. Prior to his departure, Dr Kamal Hossain was briefed by Bangabandhu at his official Ganobhaban residence. Kamal Hossain, who had been detained in Pakistan along with Bangabandhu in 1971 and had been instrumental in formulating the Constitution in 1972, remembered that final meeting with the Father of the Nation. As he was on his way out of Bangabandhu's office, the President called him back and told him that by the time he returned home, he would have some good news. When Hossain wanted to know what the good news was, Bangabandhu beamed and told him, 'Tajuddin is coming back into the government.' Tajuddin Ahmad had left the cabinet in October 1974. Kamal Hossain was happy at the news. He then left Ganobhaban. He would never see Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman again.

Towards the end of July, having received a phone call from an individual close to him on reports that a conspiracy was afoot to bump off Bangabandhu, Tajuddin Ahmad rushed to 32 Dhanmondi. It was late in the evening and by the time he reached Bangabandhu's home, partly on foot, partly by rickshaw, it was close to midnight. A surprised Bangabandhu asked Tajuddin if anything was wrong. When Tajuddin told him of the phone call and the threat to the life of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu laughed in his characteristic manner. Who would harm him in free Bangladesh? He sent the former finance minister back home. It was a despondent Tajuddin who returned to his Satmasjid Road residence.

On 5 August, Davis Eugene Boster, US ambassador to Bangladesh, called on Bangabandhu at Ganobhaban. The two men talked for a good stretch of time, but never in the course of the conversation did Boster report to Bangabandhu that a few mid-ranking military officers of the Bangladesh army had been in touch with his embassy about a political change in the country. And all this while, such individuals as minister of state Taheruddin Thakur and former diplomat Mahbubul Alam Chashi were meeting at the Bangladesh Academy of Rural Develoment (BARD) in Comilla, keeping regular contact with Commerce Minister Khondokar Moshtaq Ahmed.

Syed Badrul Ahsan. Illustration: TBS

On a languid afternoon in August, Bangabandhu and Prime Minister M. Mansoor Ali sat talking beside the lake at Ganobhaban. Both men were attired in white kurtas and pyjamas. The two men looked serene as the day began to draw to an end.

On 8 August, President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman swore in Justice Abu Sayeed Chowdhury as a minister without portfolio. Justice Chowdhury, who had earlier served as vice chancellor of Dhaka University before revolting against Pakistan and taking up responsibilities as a special envoy of the Mujibnagar government in London in 1971, had been Bangladesh's President from January 1972 to December 1973. Following Bangabandhu's assassination a few days later, Chowdhury would be inducted as foreign minister in the Moshtaq dispensation, a responsibility he would free himself of when he travelled abroad sometime later.

On the same day, two former chairmen of the Public Service Commission called on Bangabandhu at Ganobhaban to discuss proposed administrative reforms in light of the recast political arrangements in the country.

A visiting special representative of South Korean President Park Chung-hee called on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Ganobhaban in the afternoon on 14 August to hand over a message from the South Korean leader. He spent a fairly good time conversing with the Father of the Nation.

As he prepared to go home in the evening, Bangabandhu wished Dr Farashuddin, a senior civil servant on his staff, a good journey abroad. Farashuddin, for whom a farewell had been arranged by colleagues at Ganobhaban, would be proceeding overseas to pursue academic research.

Earlier in the course of the day, Bangabandhu went over the draft of the address he would deliver at Dhaka University in the morning of the following day, 15 August.

It would be a night unlike any other, for in the pitch darkness preceding dawn, a whole world would come crashing down for Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his Bengali nation. Blood would flow at 32 Dhanmondi. Fiendish laughter would be heard from wolves emerging from their lairs, baying for blood --- of the greatest Bengali of all time, of his family.