Rashed Chowdhury: Hero or Killer [1] by Ahmad Shihab

“He thought he had asylum. Now, he could face a death sentence” ran a story by US’s influential POLITICO on July 24, 2020. “Rashed Chowdhury was a bit player in a years-old coup. His home country wants him back.” (He thought he had asylum. Now, he could face a death sentence. – POLITICO).

With that news in public, the regime-serving Bangladesh media went into a frenzy. Rashed Chowdhury would soon be brought to the country for execution for his alleged crime as a “self-confessed killer of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,” whom they prefer to call “Bangabandhu” and crown as the “father of the nation.” The bonanza was seen as a competition to please a vindictive Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who had been seeking the blood of the leaders who were deemed responsible for ending the BAKSAL dictatorship of her father four and a half decades ago.

A gleeful foreign minister entertained the journalists almost daily in an effort to take credit in getting Chowdhury from the United States, further asserting that the execution would add color to the Mujib Borso, the year-long celebrations of Mujib’s birth centenary. “Only a few months,” he assured his audiences to wait to enjoy the hanging. The news has been caught up in India too, with a suggestion that it was a deal to keep Dhaka away from Beijing.

An enthusiastic Hasina administration had reportedly completed all arrangements to receive Chowdhury: a death cell and the execution date. The Awami sycophants in Chowdhury’s village home had loudly campaigned that the “killer of Bangabandhu” would not be allowed to be buried in their village.

In Bangladesh, virtually everything follows the whims and fancies of an authoritarian Sheikh Hasina. However, in the US, the rule of law largely works and the legal process follows its usual course. Apparently, the A-M-R-C, as Chowdhury’s case has been dubbed by the Office of the US Attorney General, country’s top legal office, is a complicated and sensitive one. The “Review” had already attracted dozens of challenges from high profile judges, legal experts, law professors, human rights organizations and renowned law houses, in addition to Chowdhury’s own team of immigration attorneys.

The Hasina administration keeps bugging the US at every opportunity to grab Chowdhury, terming it a “game changer” in the US-Bangladesh relationship. To the baffled people at home, it continuously hammers the notion that the execution of Chowdhury is a “cure-all” for the future of Bangladesh.

Rashed Chowdhury, an accomplished author, has just published his latest book A Soldier and the War Within: Post-Independence Bangladesh. While introducing the book, the author wrote the following lines:

My long-awaited book A Soldier and the War Within: Post-Independence Bangladesh is finally out. It suffered a birth pang for years, the last few months being traumatic with the finishing and publication hassles.

A Soldier and the War Within (SWW) is a follow up to my book A Soldier’s Debt (ASD) published in 2015. SWW took up from where the ASD left, i.e., from independence in December 1971.

The Bangladesh liberation war was both brutal and traumatic. Millions of people died, wounded and suffered in achieving independence. Post-liberation was expected to be peaceful and prosperous. It was not to be. There was no dearth of sympathy and support in cash and kind from the international community. Unfortunately, the new leadership bungled everything. It pushed the country to the brink of collapse, turned the country into a “bottomless basket case.” Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who campaigned for democracy and rights for the Bengalis all his life, became an oppressing dictator once at the helm of the newly independent country. 30,000 political opponents were killed, 62,000 sent to languish in jails, and rampant corruptions led to a famine that took 1.5 million lives directly and indirectly.

Post-Independence Bangladesh attempts to recollect the time how people’s hopes and aspirations were trampled and how a ruthless autocracy turned the country into a miserable abode for hapless millions. The historic August 15 Revolution in 1975 brought relief to the people. Under a new leadership, the country rediscovered its identity and proceeded on the track of fame and prosperity.

Two decades later, Sheikh Mujib’s legacy returned and a worse form of fascism dawned. In fulfillment of her vengeance, Sheikh Hasina, Mujib’s daughter, sent the saviors of the country to the gallows before the eyes of a bewildered but silenced nation. Nearly half a century later, the suffering people today wish the Surja Santans (Divine Children), they fondly called, returned to salvage the country once again.

Readers may kindly note the Epilogue of the book in which the author attempts to clarify his position vis a vis the allegation leveled against him.

Epilogue [2]

Rashed Chowdhury: Hero or Killer?

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh and her administration keep falsely claiming, without substantiation, that Rashed Chowdhury is a “self-confessed killer of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.” The continued drum beating at home and abroad for the past more than two decades made Chowdhury, once a poor unknown village boy, widely known and virtually a celebrity for all the wrong reasons. He is viewed as a “game changer” holding the key to Bangladesh’s future!

It was tragic that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members got killed in a successful military coup on August 15, 1975. But the whole nation celebrated the fall of the dictatorial regime. The coup leaders were hailed as Surja Santans (Divine/Heroic Children), who saved the nation from the verge of destruction and deviation from people’s long-cherished hopes and aspirations. The media of the time testifies to the facts.

Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Mujib, became Prime Minister by default after 21 years and immediately orchestrated a partisan, politically motivated, and one-sided trial for the “Mujib Murder.” Whatever limited defense was allowed to the accused was rejected outright by an obliging court. After a showcase of protracted legal and procedural maneuvering, available coup leaders were led to the gallows in 2010. Hunt continued for the rest.

The sham trial did not place Rashed Chowdhury anywhere near the house where Mujib and others died. It has also not been explained where, when, and to whom he allegedly “confessed” his act of “killing?”

The allegation of the “self-confessed killer of Mujib” is completely false and remains as weird as a ghost story.

If one goes back to August 1975, one will find without any shred of doubt that the coup bailed the nation out of a fascist destructive slide. The 44-month Mujib rule killed 30,000 patriots, jailed 62,000 political opponents, and pushed 1.5 million lives to die in hunger caused by unprecedented corruption. Above all, August 15 saved the nation from a one-party dictatorship of BAKSAL. For 21 years, five successive governments acknowledged it and honored the facts.

Points to Ponder:

1. The August 15 Coup was a glorious revolution aimed at saving the nation and its people. Rashed Chowdhury was proud to play a part even though he joined the historic event only hours before. His sole responsibility on the day was to capture and secure the Radio Station in central Dhaka. It was accomplished in a peaceful manner, as the security guards at the place surrendered voluntarily.
2. The Mujib Trial document does not place Rashed Chowdhury anywhere near the location of Mujib’s death, because the plain fact is that he wasn’t there.
3. In the execution of the coup, if there were any wrongdoings at other places, Rashed Chowdhury could not be made liable for them under any logical, judicial, or procedural argument.
4. There were about 500 uniformed men directly involved in the action that day. All of them would be just as responsible if Rashed Chowdhury were to be deemed responsible for any wrongdoings by others.
5. The entire military supported the coup of August 15. All the chiefs of the defense services, Police, Bangladesh Rifles, Rakkhi Bahini, and Ansar publicly declared their unequivocal support to the coup and total allegiance to the new president. If Rashed Chowdhury were to be found guilty, so would the country’s entire defense forces and law-enforcing agencies.
6. The whole nation hailed the August 15 Revolution. People celebrated the fall of the autocratic and fascist regime. Not a token protest was staged anywhere.

Finally, it is a challenge to the Hasina administration to prove How, Where, and When Rashed Chowdhury killed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Also, when and to whom he allegedly confessed the killing? If they can prove these fictitious facts—the word “facts” being used facetiously as these incidents never occurred—Rashed Chowdhury will happily walk to the gallows. He survived the liberation war in 1971 and became a decorated freedom fighter. Now at 76, he will consider this judicial murder, if committed, as his martyrdom for the nation, for the people, and for the pleasure of Allah (SWT).

*The writer is a democracy and human rights activist. He has a few published books and many articles to his credit.

August 10, 2023

The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of Aequitas Review.