Prime Minister’s International Affairs Adviser Professor Dr Gowher Rizvi has said following Bangabandhu's brutal assassination on 15 August 1975, the killers also plotted to murder Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana abroad, which was prevented by the host government of their country of residence at the time.

Dr. Rizvi, an internationally renowned historian and researcher, said there is evidence of a collective and individual conspiracy behind the assassination of Bangabandhu and his family that began during the liberation war long before Bangladesh gained independence.

"Bangabandhu was captured and taken to Pakistan not to be returned alive."

Dr Rizvi also said, “The main goal of the conspirators was to take back the country to pre-independence state and prevent Bangabandhu from establishing a progressive, secular and Bengali nationalism-based Bangladesh by killing him.

He said sufficient evidence of these has been found. "They will be disclosed in due course.”

He made the remarks while speaking as the chief guest at Bangladesh High Commission, London’s commemorative event on the 47th anniversary of the martyrdom of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the National Mourning Day.

High Commissioner for Bangladesh to the UK Saida Muna Tasneem delivered the commemorative speech at the event, organised on Monday at a hotel in the Royal Borough of Kensington where Shadow Minister for Asia and the Pacific Catherine West, MP and Vice Chair of All Party Parliamentary Group on Bangladesh Lord Sheikh were the special guests. 

Eminent member of student action committee of the 1971 overseas freedom movement for Bangladesh liberation in the UK Syed Mojammel Ali also spoke on the occasion.

Paying profound homage to Bangabandhu and all the martyrs of the 15 August 1975 carnage, High Commissioner Saida Muna Tasneem said the premeditated brutal assassination of Bangabandhu to eliminate his entire family and the secular and progressive values by a few treacherous anti-liberation, anti-democracy and anti-secular forces is also recorded as an incident of unprecedented barbarism in human history and a gross violation of international humanitarian law as it stands apart from political assassinations of other contemporary leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and John F Kennedy.

Read: Milad, doa mahfil at PMO marking the 47th martyrdom anniversary of Bangabandhu

The High Commissioner said, “Even though the assassins tried to silence the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu lives on in the hearts of hundreds of millions of Bengali people, while his vision for a self-reliant Golden Bengal is being carried forward by his missionary, courageous and dynamic daughter, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina."

She said Bangladesh, under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Vision 2041, is not only en route to graduating into a Middle-Income Country leapfrogging its economic growth to unprecedented heights as the fastest growing economy of South Asia but has also reached a new milestone of self-reliance by unveiling its first self-financed mega-project, the Padma Bridge, to be followed by our nation’s first Metro Rail and Nuclear Power Plant.

The High Commissioner also said the progressive, inclusive, democratic and secular value-based Bangladesh-UK friendship that Bangabandhu pioneered in 1972 led to the UK becoming Bangladesh's third largest trade and investment partner, the largest remittance sending country in Europe, the most active partner in climate change and sustainable development, as well as the home of enterprising Bangladeshi-British and Bangladeshi-Irish citizens.

At the event, a message on Bangabandhu from British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was read out when a video message on the National Mourning Day from the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer was shown.

A documentary on Bangabandhu of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was also screened.

At beginning of the event, High Commissioner along with the guests and senior officials placed a floral wreath on Bangabandhu’s Portrait and launched a Bangladesh High Commission’s commemorative publication titled “Bangabandhu-The Friend of Bengal”.

Renowned cultural activist Urmee Majhar and Counsellor (political) at the Bangladesh High Commission, London Dewan Mahmudul Haque recited the famous poetry "Shei Rattrir Kolpo Kahini" written by celebrity poet Nirmalendu Goon, dedicated to Bangabandhu and the martyrs of 15 August 1975.

The day’s programme began with the lowering of the national flag at half-mast at the High Commission followed by reading out of the messages from the President, Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and State Minister for Foreign Affairs.

A special munajat was also offered for the salvation of the departed souls of Bangabandhu and his family members and others who were brutally assassinated on 15 August 1975.

 On this occasion, the High Commissioner visited an East London care home and distributed Bangladesh food to the senior members of the British-Bangladeshi community.