By CK Nayak
Last month, Bangladesh celebrated the birth centenary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who founded the country nearly 50 years ago after a bloody struggle. The house where the Bangabandhu was staying after victory still reminds its dark bloody past.
Overlooking a road, the riverfront and a memorial the house witnessed mass killing at gun point not only of Mujibur and most of his family members but also others who were present there at that point of time. The longest serving elected Prime Minister of Bangladesh and daughter of Mujib, Sheikh Hasina, however, escaped since she was abroad at that time. This was the presidential palace of Bangladesh’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur who, on August 15, 1975, was killed along with some members of his family in a military coup supported by some of his own trusted friends for their vested interest and various other factors including international conspiracy. He had become president just four years after obtaining liberation from Pakistan.
Today, the house at Dhanmondi is converted into Bangabandhu Memorial Museum.
After shooting Bangabandhu, the gunmen ascertained his death and even took pictures after which they passed on the message to their masters. A walk through the house shows the staircase where the founding father was killed, next to a portrait of him still drenched in blood. Black and white photographs tell the story of the great man and his journey to the freedom.
The rooms where Mujibur and his family were killed have been preserved as it were and maintained to detail the sad story of what transpired in the house that fateful August morning. The artifacts, the furniture, crockery and even linens remain as it were.
According to the curator, conspirators from the military divided into four groups to attack the house.
Palace guards offered little resistance, but some were killed. The house is still riddled with bullet marks and bloodstains. The bedrooms where the president and his family were killed are preserved to be etched in the memory the spectre. In this house alone, 17 people were killed, including his wife, three sons one of them 10-year-old.
On that fateful morning, up to 28 people were murdered in cold blood. Photos, portraits and artifacts are well-preserved and now hundreds of visitors come to the house to get a glimpse of history.
The master bedroom, which draws the most attention, make many visitors emotional about the massacre that took place decades ago.
Bloodstains on the walls and floor are easily discernible. A fragment of a victim’s skull on the ceiling is carefully preserved under a glass panel.
The museum opened in 2014 and it now serves as a shrine to Mujibur and the spirit of the liberation struggle. Some 150 photographs line a ground floor guestroom that was converted into a photo gallery.
Many of the photographs were taken during the height of Mujibur’s tumultuous political career. On the background vibrates Mujib’s famous call to his countrymen. Six years after that fateful August day, the house was handed over to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. In the decade that followed, she carefully recreated Mujibur’s ascetic lifestyle and painstakingly preserved traces of the killings. Hundreds of visitors throng the place every day and for foreigners coming to Bangladesh it is a ritual.
But Mujibur was not cremated in Dhaka. More than 420 km away from Dhaka, in Tungipara his body was laid to rest near the grave of his parents. The tomb is named ‘Mausoleum of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’. It was established on June 15, 2001, by Hasina.
Hasina also found Sheikh Mujib’s diaries in the building after the handover and these were later published in the form of memoirs.
Bangabandhu Memorial Trust was handed the house to turn into a museum on September 6, 1994, and it runs the museum till date.
Shortly after the first corona virus cases were detected in Bangladesh, authorities in the Muslim-majority South Asian nation scaled down the major event to mark the birth centenary of its founder.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was invited as the chief guest at the inaugural session of the 100th birth anniversary in Dhaka on March 17 but he did it through video conferencing.
Dhaka has postponed the event and decided to scale down the many ‘Mujib Barsha’ (Year of Mujib) celebrations his daughter and current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had planned to mark the centenary.
There will be many small-scale functions throughout the year since March 17, 2020, to March 26, 2021, is Mujib year.
(The writer visited the museum several times during his trips to Bangladesh)