What was the reaction of world leaders after the assassination of Bangabandhu?

❐ BD Digest Desk

Fifty years ago today, on August 15, 1975, the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and 18 members of his family, who lived in Dhanmondi 32 and several other houses in the capital, were brutally murdered. After this brutal murder, no one in the country dared to make a sound, the situation was so terrible. A curfew was declared across the country, tanks and armored vehicles were deployed on the roads, and Awami League leaders and activists were being beaten up all over the country.

However, such an incident did not remain suppressed, the whole world was shaken. World leaders and the world media strongly condemned and protested this incident. The conscious circles of the world were shocked. The shocked world leaders made heart-wrenching comments in their reaction to the assassination of Bangabandhu along with sighs.

Here are some comments for the readers:

German politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Willy Brandt said that after the assassination of Mujib, Bengalis could no longer be trusted. Those who killed Mujib could do any heinous act.

The then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, one of the allies of Bangladesh’s independence struggle, said, “I am shocked by the news of Sheikh Mujib’s death. He was a great leader. His extraordinary courage was an inspiration to the people of Asia and Africa.”

Cuban revolutionary leader and former Prime Minister Fidel Castro said, “I have not seen the Himalayas, I have seen Bangabandhu.” With the death of Sheikh Mujib, the exploited people of the world lost one of their great leaders, and I lost a friend with a genuine and big heart.

Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was so saddened to hear the news of Bangabandhu’s assassination that he lamented, “You killed my friend Mujib with the tank I gave you! I curse myself.”

At that time, the then US Secretary of State and one of the masterminds of the August 15th massacre, Henry Kissinger, who called Bangladesh a bottomless basket, also admitted that no leader as energetic and dynamic as Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would be found in the Asian continent in the next twenty years.

Whenever Fukura, the leader of the Japanese civil liberation movement, saw a Bengali, he would say, “Are you from Bengal? I have seen your victory in Bengal. I have seen Sheikh Mujib. You know, Asia will not have a lion-hearted leader like your Sheikh Mujib for a long time.”

British MP James Lamond said that Bangladesh was not only orphaned by the assassination of Bangabandhu, but the world lost a great son.

British Lord Fener Brockway said that Sheikh Mujib was a greater leader than George Washington, Gandhi, and De Valera.

Iraqi President Saddam Hussein used to say that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the first martyr of the struggle to establish socialism. That is why he is immortal.

Former Palestinian President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Yasser Arafat said that uncompromising militant leadership and a gentle and kind heart were the hallmarks of Mujib’s character.

Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda said that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s struggle inspired the Vietnamese people.

Renowned writer Humayun Azad said that Sheikh Mujib was physically gigantic, his head was much higher than that of an ordinary Bengali, his height was easily visible. In 1971, he was the one who stirred up and exploded Bangladesh, and all his contemporary and former Bengali politicians were becoming smaller and smaller beside him. The people can also be led astray; dictators like Hitler and Mussolini also turned the people into fires, floods, and volcanoes, the consequences of which were terrible. They turned the people into insane and brainless animals. In March 1971, Sheikh Mujib created a good fire, a good flood, a good volcano, and created Bengali Muslims anew, as a result of which we became independent.