Hussain Muhammad Imam
The National Mourning Day of 2025, on August 15, has set a unique precedent in the history of Bangladesh—one that will remain permanently written in the hearts of the people.
The people of Bangladesh defied the state ban imposed by the Yunus regime and showed their unconditional love and respect for Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Every grieving home and every heart turned into another Dhanmondi 32.
Yunus administration, his allies and press secretary Shafiqul Alam, declared mourning to be a punishable crime. But were they able to ban grief itself?
BNP leaders, including Ishraque Hossain, were directly involved in demolishing the Bangabandhu memorial at Dhanmondi 32, the divine place of our Liberation War and Independence. Khaleda Zia, Tarique Zia, and the BNP high command had their tacit approval behind these acts.
This year, once again, BNP committed yet another crime by mobbing Dhanmondi 32, shouting slogans:
“Tarique Bhai, we give you our word—we have captured 32!”
In the past, if the Awami League had wanted, it could have demolished Zia’s so-called grave at Chandrima Udyan within minutes, and not even a homeless dog would have come to defend it.
BNP leaders, workers, and supporters are cowardly by nature. When a truckload of sand was parked in front of Khaleda Zia’s house, not a single BNP leader or supporter stood by her side. Her only companion was her housemaid, Fatema.
The consequences of today’s evil deeds will be carried by BNP in the future. I firmly believe that one day Zia’s grave will not remain in Chandrima Udyan—and BNP alone will be responsible for that.
In contrast to the betrayals of BNP, Jamaat-Shibir, and Yunus’s NCP, ordinary rickshaw-pullers, widows of martyred freedom fighters in their 70s, hijab-wearing women, and an Islamic scholar, people of all backgrounds braved threats and went to the burnt and ruined house of Dhanmondi 32 to pay homage to the Father of the Nation.
Rickshaw-puller Aziz bought a bouquet with 400 taka from his hard-earned income to honor Bangabandhu, only to be harassed by BNP, Jamaat-Shibir, and NCP thugs.
A hafeez of the Qur’an, who had completed two full recitations of the Qur’an for Bangabandhu’s soul, went to pay his respects.
The widow of a martyred freedom fighter, holding two simple flowers, attempted to pay her homage but was obstructed and humiliated by the traitorous collaborators.
Bangabandhu is both the creator and the creation of history. Not only in Bengali history, but as one of the greatest sons of world history. He was not merely a dreamer but also the architect of the dream. We Bengalis, ungrateful and self-destructive, murdered the man who sacrificed his prime youth to give us independence.
August 15 is not merely a day of mourning—it is a day of strength and courage.
As long as Bangladesh exists on earth, Sheikh Mujib will remain relevant—in our strength, sorrows, joys, courage, revolutions, and rebellions.
Even a hundred years or a thousand years from now, if the unbiased history of Bangladesh is written or studied, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman will remain at its center. Even if it were to be summed up in a single sentence, it would proclaim Mujib as the beacon of Bengali identity.
The world has witnessed the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and many others.
But the barbaric massacre of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman—the architect of an entire nation-state—and his entire family in 1975 remains one of the rarest and most heinous crimes in the history of human civilization. Mujib was not just an undisputed leader of this land; he was the embodiment of the hopes and aspirations of the toiling masses, step by step becoming the living symbol of the people’s joys and sorrows.
He was not a conventional politician who shaped his agenda around election victories and defeats. Bangabandhu rose from Khoka of Tungipara to the stature of a statesman, sacrificing 14 of his youthful years in dark prison cells for the future of the next generation and for the dream of a sovereign nation-state for Bengalis.
His assassination was not simply the killing of an individual—it was an attempt to destroy the spirit of independence, the unity forged by the Liberation War, and the very sovereignty of the newborn state of Bangladesh. It was a revenge of the 1971 defeat by domestic and foreign conspirators.
On January 10, 1972, Bangabandhu returned to a free Bangladesh from a Pakistani prison, carrying the lifelong dream of independence. With vision, patriotism, hard work, and leadership, in only three and a half years he placed a war-torn country on the roadmap of development and earned international recognition. Just as Bangladesh was rising, the dark night of August 15 struck. His death robbed Bangladesh of progress, prosperity, and global dignity.
The leaders and peoples of all civilized nations across the world have condemned this heinous assassination again and again. But it also made the world recognize us as an ungrateful and stigmatized nation.
The pledge of Mourning Day should be to fulfill Bangabandhu’s lifelong dream of building a “Sonar Bangla” and bringing smiles to the faces of the poor, the helpless, and the working class.
The killers could murder Bangabandhu physically, but they could not bury his ideals, his vision, or his dream. Whenever Bengalis face hardship, they still draw inspiration from his courageous and selfless life. Mujib lives among us even in death—because Mujib means the red-green flag, Mujib means 147,000 square kilometers of land, Mujib means my map on the world map, Mujib means Bangladesh.
Leaders like Bangabandhu are born not in every era, but only once in centuries to enlighten human civilization and liberate the oppressed.
Just as India found Gandhi to oust the British, America found Lincoln and Martin Luther King to abolish slavery and secure civil rights, and Africa found Mandela to fight apartheid—so too the Bengalis found their savior in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Writer: Hussain Muhammad Imam
Pioneer of Hasinomics,
International Affairs Secretary,
Finland Awami League.
Email: hmimamecon@gmail.com
