DHAKA, Reuter: Sayyed Farook Rehman, the main opposition candidate in Presidential elections next week, has again defended the killing of Bangladesh founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in a coup that he led n 1975.
Rehman who will challenge President Hussain Mohammad Ershad in next Wednesday’s poll, said on television last night that Mujib’s killing was an historic necessity that fulfilled a dream of independence and freedom.
“Through the coup on August 15, 1975, we had completed the half earned independence (from Pakistan) achieved in 1971 and rid the country of an autocratic and corrupt ruler”, Rehman, a retired lieutenant colonel, said in a campaign speech.
Six members of Mujib’s s family were also killed in the coup, which was followed three months later by another military takeover. Rehman has since lived for much of the time in Libya,
Rehman said that if elected he would switch the date of Independence Day from March 26 to August 15 and repeated a pledge that he would arrange a posthumous trial of Mujib.
Rehman accused Mujib of “selling the country’s interest to his foreign masters and signing several deals that undermined national independence and sovereignty”. He gave no details.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 17, 1986
