Zia was behind Aug 15 killings, Tarique Aug 21: Hasan Mahmud

Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud on Tuesday said that Ziaur Rahman was behind the August 15, 1975 killings while his elder son Tarique Rahman carried out the grenade attack in Dhaka on August 21, 2004.

The minister came up with the allegation after paying homage to Bangabandhu's family members, who were killed on August 15, 1975, at Banani graveyard in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Earlier, he paid tributes to the portrait of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on Dhanmondi Road No. 32 in Dhaka.

The minister said Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members including his wife Bangamata Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib, were killed on August 15, 1975.

"Even when Hazrat Imam Hussain was slaughtered in the desert of Karbala, women and children were spared. But on the black night of August 15, 1975, 10-year-old Sheikh Russell, 4-year-old Sukanta Babu, 8-year-old Arif Serniabat, 12-year-old Baby Serniabat, pregnant Arzu Moni were killed," he said.

Sheikh Kamal, Sheikh Jamal, Sheikh Naser and none of Bangabandhu's family were spared by the killers, he added.

And BNP founder Ziaur Rahman was involved in this murder. He seized power and stayed in power through murder, Hasan said.