Awami League alleges attacks over playing Bangabandhu’s 1971 speech

Dhaka, March 9 (IANS): Bangladesh's Awami League on Monday said that several Dhaka University students and other civilians were physically abused and tortured and later arrested for playing Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's historic March 7, 1971 speech.

Slamming the Tarique Rahman-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the Awami League said that the current government seems to be following the "same path as the former Muhammad Yunus-led interim government", whose 18-month tenure witnessed a "rapid erosion" of Bangladesh's 1971 Liberation War history.

The party alleged that "treating the playing of Bangabandhu's historic March 7 speech as a crime", police from Shahbagh Police Station on Saturday arrested several students of Dhaka University. It also claimed that the students were subjected to abuse and torture by extremists before being arrested.

According to the Awami League, several rickshaw pullers were arrested at Bangabandhu's iconic home at 32 Dhanmondi -- already been reduced to ruins due to attacks and vandalism by militants -- for paying respect to the memory of the Father of the Nation at that historic site.

"They were later sent to court under cases filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act. In the same way, in different parts of the country, many leaders and activists have faced harassment and mob attacks for the same reason. This raises a serious question: does the country truly have a functioning government?" the party questioned.

Highlighting the significance of the speech which led to the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War against Pakistani forces, the Awami League said, "The decisive struggle for the establishment of the state of Bangladesh effectively began on March 7, 1971, and concluded on January 10, 1972. The war that began with Bangabandhu's historic speech on March 7 reached its final culmination with the Father of the Nation's return to his homeland."

The party highlighted that in the past, several military, civilian, and so-called "civil society" governments in Bangladesh attempted to erase March 7 from the country's history. However, it added that the spontaneous remembrance of the masses only increased its significance.

The speech was recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in October 2017 as part of the 'Memory of the World' documentary heritage.

Condemning the recent "arrests and repression", the Awami League said, "As an established truth of history, March 7 and the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, will remain eternally remembered and continue to shine ever more brightly. No falsehood or distorted history will be able to suppress that truth."

(IANS)

This report was published from a syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.