Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana In silent tears, they remember a father Bangabandhu's,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

The ambience at Bangabandhu's grave was one of pain and pathos. In the loud silence which grief always causes to course through the woods and the fields and across the streams and rivers, one could hear the emotions rising in the loneliness of the two surviving children of the Father of the Nation.

For once, Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana were not the public figures we know. They turned into two siblings for whom life has not been fair because some evil men had committed deeds most foul thirty seven years ago. Loneliness was theirs as they tried finding solace in each other at the grave of their father. Holding on to each other, in tears and in agony, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana recalled Bangabandhu in Tungipara yesterday.

The two daughters of Bangabandhu, who survived the massacre of August 15, 1975, placed a floral wreath on the grave of the Father of the Nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, as a symbolic offering of love for the parent they lost to the forces of darkness thirty seven years ago.

Then the two sisters together recited verses from the Holy Quran in silence and prayed for his departed soul. The heavy silence cast a pall of gloom all around. The heavens lapsed into silence.

The bereaved sisters left the capital for Tungipara in the morning by helicopter to pay homage to Bangabandhu on the anniversary of his martyrdom.

Members of the cabinet, the prime minister's advisers, lawmakers, the three services chiefs, senior leaders of the ruling Awami League and senior government officials, among others, were present on the occasion.

The premier, her sister, cabinet members and party leaders joined a milad mahfil held at the mazar premises.

Earlier, in the morning, Sheikh Hasina placed a floral wreath at the portrait of the Father of the Nation at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi-32.

Sheikh Hasina also visited the graves of the members of Bangabandhu's family and other martyrs of 1975 at Banani graveyard.

In the pre-dawn hours of August 15, 1975, Bangabandhu was assassinated along with nearly his entire family by misguided soldiers of the Bangladesh army. Bangabandhu's two daughters -- Hasina and Rehana survived the massacre as they were away on a visit to Germany.