The four national leaders were killed at the behest of Khandaker Mushtaq Ahmed, says Prime Minister and Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina.
Her remarks came on Sunday (Nov 3), when the country is observing the Jail Killing Day — when the four leaders close to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were assassinated 44 years ago.
Addressing a discussion organised by the Awami League, Hasina said, "The murders of the forur national leaders were carried out at the behest of Khandaker Mushtaq. Firearms are not allowed inside the central jail. But the killers entered with arms and the orders came from the Bangabhaban."
On this day in 1975, the leaders of the wartime national government — acting president Syed Nazrul Islam, prime minister Tajuddin Ahmad and cabinet ministers M Mansur Ali and AHM Quamruzzaman — were brutally killed inside Dhaka’s Central Jail.
They were murdered while in state custody as the country witnessed sweeping changes in politics amid the chaos that followed Bangabandhu’s assassination with Mushtaq as the president.
Earlier in the day, Hasina paid tribute to the four leaders by placing a wreath at the mural of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Dhanmondi 32 as part of the remembrance programme.
Leaders of the Awami League and its associate organisations also paid their respects by placing wreaths before the portrait of the nation's founding father.