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Bangladesh – Court declares Sheikh Mujib Father of the Nation |
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In a landmark judgment, a top court in Bangladesh has ruled that the country’s founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was the person who proclaimed independence from Pakistan in 1971, declaring illegal the State-published documents giving slain President Ziaur Rehman and husband of BNP chief Begum Khaleda Zia the credit. The ruling will end claims for the honour by the supporters of former President Zia.
A High Court bench in Dhaka ruled on June 21 that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of the Bangladesh Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, proclaimed the country’s independence just ahead of his arrest by the Pakistani troops on March 25, 1971, as the court reviewed the events leading to the liberation war of Bangladesh and the pre-and-post war incidents. The court noted that Gen. Ziaur Haq, an Army General-turned politician who was killed in an abortive Army coup in 1981, had never claimed that he was the one who proclaimed independence in his lifetime.
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