After the most gruesome political assassinations in the history of Bangladesh, perpetrated on August 15 and November 3 of 1975, in which Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members, and four national leaders were killed by disgruntled army officers, the killer majors and colonels were allowed free passage to Bangkok by a special plane.

Just forty-one days into the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, an indemnity ordinance was promulgated by Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmed, who grabbed state power immediately after the killing by putting martial law in place.

Sheikh Hasina along with her younger sister Sheikh Rehana escaped the putsch on August 15, 1975 as they were abroad at the time.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was born on 17 March 1920 to Sheikh Lutfur Rahman and Shahara Khatun in village Tungipara under the then Gopalganj subdivision.

What caused the delay of as long as 34 years in holding the trial of the killings of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman?

It was not any quick decision to exterminate Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family by some hot-headed army officers, but a long drawn plan that was known to some top political leaders and senior army officers, as the boastful descriptions of the August 15, 1975 carnage by self-confessed killers testify.