Four top Bangladesh leaders, Tajuddin Ahmed, Nazrul Islam, Mansur Ali and Qamaruzzaman who steered the country to freedom through a gory struggle were assassinated, within three months of the brutal gunning down of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Radio Bangladesh which announced the deaths did not name the killers but subsequent developments left little doubt they were the very Army officers who engineered the August 15 coup in which Sheikh Mujib and his family members were killed. With these killing Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmed remains the sole survivor of the five-member provisional government which guided the freedom struggle from Mujibnagar after the Pakistani army crackdown on March 26, 1971. Ahmed was the prime minister of the provisional government and Islam the acting president in the absence of Sheikh Mujib who was in a jail in Pakistan.
President Quits
Bangladesh President Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmed announced that he was quitting office in favour of the Supreme Court Chief Justice A.M. Syem.
India Shocked
India expressed “great shock” at the brutal killings in Dacca.
BangkokMiscreants
Three Bangladesh Army officers termed as “miscreants” by Dacca Radio arrived in Bangkok following a counter coup be restive military elements. The three are Lt Col Sayed Farook Rahman, Lt Col K.A. Rashid and Lt Col Shariful Huque, also known as Major Dalim. The trio were leaders of a coup against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15. That Thai Foreign Ministry said it agreed to allow the group to stay for two weeks after the Bangladesh ambassador in Bangkok had requested that the group be granted visas.
