innocent victim
Sheikh Russel Day reminds an innocent victim of brutal atrocity
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family were assassinated on 15 August 1975, four years after the independence of Bangladesh. 10 years old Sheikh Russel, the youngest son of Bangabandhu, was amongst the victims who died in that terrible attack.
58 years ago, on this day (October 18, 1964), Russel was born. Even on the eve of the 50th anniversary of independence, the death of Russel reminds the nation to strengthen the determination of protecting the country’s sovereignty ever after. Today's remembrance feature is aimed at Sheikh Russel.
Childhood days of Sheikh Russel
When Bangamata Fazilatunnesa gave birth to her youngest child Sheikh Russel, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib was in Chittagong on a mission to protest against the dictator Ayub Khan. Russel was born at House No. 677, Road No. 32, Dhanmondi in Dhaka.
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When Bangabandhu was arrested on May 8, 1966, Russel was barely one and a half years old. With his mother, the baby Russel used to visit Bangabandhu at the central prison and cried for bringing his father along with him. At one point he was told that that prison was his father's house. After a year, Russel began to call his mother "Father" and did not cry anymore for his father when he returned from prison. This is what Bangabandhu wrote about his youngest son Russel in his prison diary.
When Sheikh Mujibur Rahman received the title of Bangabandhu on 23 February 1969 at Sohrawardy Udyan, Russel was four and a half years old.
Russel began his captive life with his mother and two older sisters at a house on Road No. 16 in Dhanmondi on the eve of Bangabandhu's arrest and imprisonment in West Pakistan in 1971. He was released from captivity on December 17, 1971.
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