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Tajuddin, One Of The Victim Of The Jail Killings Of 1975
15th Aug 1975, Bangladesh founding father Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was murdered brutaly along with 15 members of his family in a coup d'detat.Mujibs one time associate Khondoker Mostak took over as president with the coup leaders blessing.
After the killing of Mujib, the coup plotters wanted to ged rid of possible rivals of Mostak.They singled out four leaders of the ousted Mujibs party: Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Captain (Retd) Mansoor Ali and AHM Quamruzzaman.
Aug 24, 1975 - 23 (AP) Tajuddin Ahmed, a former finance minister and rival to Moshtak, was removed today from the home where he was ,being held under house arrest. 'They are taking me to detention camp, said the former minister, Tajuddin Ahmed, as he was taken away.Tajuddin also served as the first prime minister of Bangladesh during the independence war of Bangladesh.
3rd November: 1975 - Four national leaders of Bangladesh Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Captain (Retd) Mansoor Ali and AHM Quamruzzaman were shot dead at Dhaka Central Jail in the early hours on this day in 1975. It's been alleged by jail inmates of that time that the leaders did not die straight way after the shooting.The assasins came back and bayoneted them.
August 24, 1975, Sunday: A dispatch was brought out of Dhaka on 23rd August Saturday by Arnold Zeitlin of The Associated Press when he and 13 foreign correspondents, the last in the country, were expelled by the Khondoker Moshtak new Government.
Arnold Zeitlin of AP reported Tajuddins Arrest and other coup and counter coup devolopements in Bangladesh.But the first time in international media a particular name got atttatched with the Tajuddin arrest and his eventual assasination was the following two articles based on a report in Bangladesh.
On 2nd March 2001 Guardian made the header: BBC Man 'linked to coup plot'.After Luke Hardings report it seemed Guardian were following the devolopement closely.But BBC World Service managed to misled Guardian!
Russell Barling of The Guardian, reported on Monday 16 April 2001:
Syed Mahmud Ali was removed from his BBC radio post on Thursday, following complaints from prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed's ruling Awami League over comments he made in February.
In an interview with the Dhaka-based daily, Janakantha, Mahmud Ali had apparently unveiled his allegiance with the leaders of a 1975 coup.After weeks of stating its "full confidence in the impartiality and objectivity" of Mahmud Ali and his section, the BBC removed him last week. An internal inquiry into the affair "judged that Mahmud Ali's conduct during the interview amounted to a failure of editorial judgment that compromised his effective stewardship of the section", the BBC said on Thursday. "The comments he made about politics in Bangladesh and were not those expected of a BBC section head."
In what was the darkest day in Bangladesh's 30-year history on August 15 1975, the country's founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and 15 members of his family were slain at the presidential palace by dissident members of the country's military. Shortly afterwards, the coup's leaders commandeered a prominent radio station to announce their bloody victory to the nation.
Mahmud Ali said in the newspaper interview that he had rushed to the station when the coup was announced, apparently to join in. The BBC says that as an enlisted man he in fact went to the station to await orders. He went on to say that, under orders, he then personally arrested the country's first prime minister, Tajuddin Ahmed, killed in jail 10 weeks later as the dissidents fled the country following a counter-coup..
But the following update by BBC World Serveice is showing that it misled the British media all these years about Major Mahmud Ali and never removed him from BBC!In fact BBC has promoted Mahmud Ali to a position where he is no more just managing section, but as Senior Editorial Coordinator For Asia Pacific Region he is determining policy!
Now the question is whose stake the BBC World Service is protecting by covering up for the likes of Major Mahmud Ali?The answer lies with the way World Service operates! The World Service is funded by grant-in-aid through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by the British Government unlike the BBC's domestic radio and television services, which are primarily funded by a compulsory licence fee levied on every household in the United Kingdom using a television to watch programmes as they are being broadcast.Here apparantly Mahmud Ali is a Foreign Office mole within the BBC!
Nearly 29 years after the Jail killings, those who were supposedly responsible went to trial. In the judgement, which was pronounced on October 20, 2004, three fugitive former army personnel were sentenced to death, 12 former army personnel were awarded life term imprisonment and five people, including four senior politicians, were acquitted.
On August 28, 2008, the Appellate High Court of Bangladesh acquitted six former military men of the Jail Killing Case. Those who were found not guilty of the crime include Left Col Syed Farook Rahman, Left Col Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Major Bazlul Huda and Major AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed. All of these retd army officers were found guilty of murdering Bangladesh founding father Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and were given death penalty which were carried out recently.All of these Colonels and Majors are self confessed killers of Bongobondhu.But the Jail Killings have still been shrouded with mystery.
The revealation of Major Mahmud Ali as the arresting officer suggest that the coup plotters has assigned different groups to execute different stages of the 1975 coup d'etat in Bangladesh.It also suggests that
as an organisation BBC World Service is not yet done with the James Bond type legacy of the Cold War era!
The most threatened issue here is the integrity of British establishment when it comes to argue the very process that shelter the perpetrators of extra judiciary killings!
Choyon Khairul Habib
Compilation
