Bangladesh scales up security ahead of Mujibur Rahman anniversary

Aug 14, 2009, 14:37 GMT

Dhaka - Authorities scaled up security across Bangladesh Friday ahead of the 34th anniversary of the assassination of the country's founder, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who along with most of his family was killed in a military putsch in 1975.

Some 3,000 security personnel drawn from police and elite crime- busting Rapid Action Battalion were being deployed in the capital in addition to normal security arrangements to ensure smooth observance of the day, said the Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Strong security vigilance will also be in place in other parts of the country, it added.

Bangladesh's government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed, daughter of slain Mujib, will mark August 15 as National Mourning Day to pay tribute to Mujib amid a mounting demand for completion of trial of the killers, a section of whom are still absconding abroad.

The ruling Awami League party and various socio-cultural organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes to mark the day on Saturday.

The programmes will include hoisting national and party flags half-mast across Bangladesh, discussion and mourning procession, the government said in a handout. The day is a public holiday.

President Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Hasina will fly to Tungipara, Mujib's ancestral home where he was laid to rest to place floral wreaths at Mujib's grave.

Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, Mujib's two daughters, survived the military coup as they were abroad at that time.

In November 1998, the trial court sentenced to death 15 people, mostly retired army officers, for the August 15 killings, but the High Court later spared three of them. The case remained pending with the Supreme Court since then.