Aug 15 masterminds have to be unmasked: Hasan

Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud has said that respect to the August 15 martyrs will be meaningful if the masterminds of the brutal carnage are unmasked and exposed to justice.

"The honour to the soul of Shaheed Sheikh Russel and other August 15 martyrs will be meaningful when the masterminds of the carnage including BNP's founder Ziaur Rahman will be unmasked before the nation," he said.

The minister told reporters after paying homage to Shaheed Sheikh Russel and other August 15 martyrs by placing a wreath at Banani graveyard here coinciding with the 60th birthday of Bangabandhu's youngest son Sheikh Russel on Wednesday.

The 60th birthday of Sheikh Russel, a student of class four at University Laboratory School, is being observed today as Sheikh Russel Day.

Russel, also the youngest brother of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was born on October 18, 1964, at the historic Bangabandhu Bhaban on Dhanmondi road number 32 in the capital.

Dr Hasan, also Awami League joint general secretary, prayed for eternal peace for the departed souls of all martyred in the August 15 carnage.

The minister said innocent Sheikh Russel didn't know politics when he was killed brutally along with Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members.

He said people can watch Bangabandhu's biopic that portrayed how Sheikh Russel took shelter under the stairs and how the killers took him away near his mother Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa’s body and how they killed him (Sheikh Russel).

The information minister said women and children were even not killed in the desert of Karbala when Imam Hussain was murdered.

However, women and children were not spared on the fateful night of August 15, 1975, as children including Sheikh Russel were killed, he added.

He said the killers also killed four-year-old Sukanto Babu, 12-year-old Baby Serniabat, 11-year-old Arif Serniabat, and Arzu Moni who was pregnant.

"It was a crime against humanity," the minister said.

However, it is regrettably true that BNP's founder Ziaur Rahman was one of the masterminds behind this crime against humanity, he said.

He also said BNP is continuing their politics of killings till now and they want to hand over the country to their foreign master.

Hasan urged all to remain alert against them.

/KN/