Little birdie Sheikh Russel’s killing stigmatises nation: Joy

Throwing back to history’s darkest chapter, the 1975-assassination of Bangabandhu and his family, Bangabandhu’s grandson Sajeeb Wazed Joy said that the murder of 10-year-old Sheikh Russel is a stigma that the nation is yet to overcome.

Joy, also Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ICT adviser, said this in a Facebook post from his verified account, reports Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha.

“Please take me to my mother”- how Russel sobbed to those assassins on that tragic night, the post said. 

“We are taking you to your mother” - how they lent false hope to Russel and soon after fired bullets, a pointer to the sheer barbarity unleashed by the group of assassins, part of a larger national and international conspiracy, with the assassins going unpunished for decades.”

The post also includes an animated video portraying the fateful night of August 15 where little Russel is seen crying fitfully amid a pool of blood at the Dhanmondi 32 house.

Russel would have celebrated his 59th birthday on Tuesday had the assassins’ bullets not ripped him apart.

The feeble voice of Russel begging for life was drowned out by the beastly laughter of assassins and the rattling shots of brushfire. His head was dislodged; the voice of the little angel was silenced forever, said Sajeeb.

A pack of traitors perforated the “little birdie”, along with other members of Bangabandhu’s family, to avenge the defeat in the War for Liberation, added the post.

“How can we, Bengalis, get rid of this stigma? Please give sanity a chance,” he further said.

“May every child grow up safely. May the altar of the bloodstained memory of Russel ring in a new, humane world,” he concluded.

Bangladesh marked Sheikh Russel Day on Tuesday in a befitting manner coinciding with the 59th birthday of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s youngest son Shaheed Sheikh Russel. 

Sheikh Russel, also the youngest brother of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was born on October 18 in 1964 at the historic Bangabandhu Bhaban at Dhanmondi Road 32 in the capital.

But he was brutally assassinated along with most of his family members, including his father Bangabandhu, on August 15, 1975 when he was a student of class four at University Laboratory School.

The Cabinet Division last year declared October 18, the birthday of Sheikh Russel, as Sheikh Russel Day under the category “Ka”.