On the 50th anniversary of one of Bangladesh’s darkest days, exiled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday described November 3—the Jail Killing Day—as “an extremely heartrending, painful, and ignominious day in the history of Bangladesh.”
In a statement issued from exile and shared on Awami League leader Mohammad Ali Arafat’s social media platform, Hasina paid tribute to the four national leaders—Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmad, Captain M. Mansur Ali, and A.H.M. Qamaruzzaman—who were assassinated inside Dhaka Central Jail on November 3, 1975.
“These four national leaders, the most trusted confidants of the Father of the Nation, dedicated their lives to realising Bangabandhu’s dreams and ideals,” she said. “Their patriotism, integrity, honesty, and self-sacrifice will remain exemplary models for us to emulate.”
A Day of National Grief and Conspiracy
Hasina recalled that after the assassination of her father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, along with most of his family on August 15, 1975, the “anti-independence clique” behind the coup had imprisoned his closest political allies.
“In the secure confines of Dhaka Central Jail, the assassins brutally murdered Bangabandhu’s lifelong political comrades and the principal leadership of the wartime provisional government,” she said.
The massacre, she emphasized, was “not merely the killing of four individuals” but part of a “deep conspiracy to obliterate the spirit of the Liberation War and the ideals of an independent Bangladesh.” The murders, Hasina said, were intended to render the nation leaderless and allow the defeated forces of 1971 to regain a foothold in politics.
A Legacy of Resistance
The jail killings took place less than three months after the August 15 assassination of Bangabandhu and his family, and are widely regarded as the second coup within the same year that upended Bangladesh’s democratic trajectory.
The four slain leaders had led the wartime Mujibnagar government in 1971, organizing the diplomatic, political, and military command structure that guided the Liberation War to victory.
In her message, Hasina reaffirmed that the Awami League—now operating under severe restrictions at home following her ouster in August 2024—would “never bow to any conspiracy, falsehood, or terror.”
She said the party would continue to work toward “a happy, prosperous, and modern Bangladesh free from poverty, inequality, and corruption—a country illuminated by the spirit of the Liberation War.”
Remembering Under Repression
Since Sheikh Hasina’s forced exile and the installation of an army- and Islamist-backed interim government under Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, state observance of Jail Killing Day has been halted. Rights organizations allege that the regime has discouraged public commemorations and removed references to the event from school curricula and state media.
For millions of Bangladeshis, however, the memory of November 3 remains inseparable from the nation’s struggle for freedom. Even as the current regime suppresses political dissent, citizens at home and abroad continue to mark the day with private prayers, seminars, and social media campaigns.
As Hasina observed, “The blood of the martyrs cannot be erased by conspiracies. Their sacrifice remains the moral foundation of our nation. The spirit of the Liberation War still guides us, even in exile.”
