Nation observes Jail Killing Day today

Today, November 3, marks one of the most tragic and shameful days in Bangladesh’s history, Jail Killing Day. On this day in 1975, four national leaders were murdered without any trial inside Dhaka Central Jail.

In the darkness of the night, Syed Nazrul Islam, the Acting President of the Mujibnagar Government during the Liberation War, Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmad, and Cabinet Ministers Captain M Mansur Ali and AHM Qamaruzzaman were brutally assassinated while in custody. The day remains a painful chapter in the nation’s history.

Barely three months after the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family on 15 August 1975, these four national leaders were killed as part of a power struggle and continuous conspiracy.

Following the murders, Kazi Abdul Awal, the then Deputy Inspector General of Prisons, filed a case at Lalbagh Police Station on 4 November 1975. The investigation remained stalled for 21 years until the Awami League returned to power in June 1996.

After 29 years, the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge’s Court delivered its verdict on 20 October 2004. The case became widely known as the Jail Killing Case.

In the verdict, three convicts were sentenced to death, and eight others received life imprisonment. Of these 11 convicts, 10 remain absconding, while one has been executed.

Among those sentenced to life imprisonment, Captain (dismissed) Abdul Majed had long been on the run. He was also a death-row convict in the Bangabandhu assassination case. After returning to the country, he was arrested in April 2020, and his execution was carried out the same month.