At the ‘cruel’ dawn of August 15, 1975, the clock of history
was suddenly stopped in front of 32 Number Dhanmondi.
The human civilization was suppressed under the bullets of a
heinous group of assassins at the staircase of Bangabandhu’s residence. If we
remember our founding Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
and subsequently his brutal assassination with most of family members, it would
be clear that it was not the saddest tragedy of the Bengali national, but most
cruel and barbaric tragedy of the
contemporary history of the human civilization and the entire mankind. Leave
everything, it can’t be imagined that an 11-year most innocent and sublime
child could be the heinous target of political killing of some beastly people,
better called animals. Bangabandhu had three sons – Kamal, Jamal and Russel.
Before naming his offspring Bangabandhu recalled Kamal Ataturk, founder of
modern Turkey, Jamal Abu Naser, and reformer of modern Egypt and his youngest
son was named after his favorite writer and renowned philosopher, also a Noble
Laureate Bertrand Russel. Surely Bangabandhu has dream that one day his son
would be a famous personality in the world scenario. But who knows, that the
fateful dawn of ‘cruel’ August 15. 1975 the light of life of this innocent boy
would be put off by the hit of bullet of the assassins.
Born on 18 October 1964 at the historical Bangabandhu Bhaban
or now, the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, Russel did not get enough time to
enjoy the warmth of his mother’s lap, fathers, and deep love and adorned under
the shadow of affection of his sisters Sheikh Hasina (Now Prime minister) and
Sheikh Rehana... Cruelty, cruelty and cruelty snatched away his future hope and
happiness. But since his tender age, Russel was very active and playful from a
very early age and he was light of the family. However, life didn’t remain
playful. He had to face the harsh cruelty of life from the age of one and half,
when he had to visit Dhaka Central Jail and Dhaka Cantonment just to meet his
beloved father who suffered imprisonment for over 12 years of his full-youth.
On the morning of August 15, 1975, a group of young disgruntled army officers
surrounded Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s residence No. 32 in Dhanmondi with a tank.
Later they killed Sheikh Mujib, with his family and his staff.
The attackers then intercepted Russel and the personal
secretary while fleeing. Terrified, the young Russel said in a tearful voice,
“I’ll go to my mother.” Later, after seeing his mother’s lifeless body, he
beseeched in sorrow, “Send me to ‘Hasu apa’ (Sheikh Hasina).” According to the
personal secretary, AFM Mahitul Islam, “Russel came running and grabbed me. He
told me, “Bhaiya (brother), are they going to kill me?” Tears welled up in my
eyes when I heard his voice. An assassin came and hit me painfully with the
butt of a rifle. Seeing me beaten, Russel let go of me. He (Sheikh Russel) was
crying, saying, “I will go to my mother; I will go to my mother.” An assassin
came and said to him, “Let’s go to your mother.” I couldn’t believe that the
killers would kill such a young child. Russel was taken inside and then the
brush fire.” Several athletic organizations in Bangladesh have been named in
memory of Russel, including the professional football club Sheikh Russel Krira
Chakra, the Sheikh Russel School Table Tennis Tournament, the Sheikh Russel
Memorial Sporting Club, and the Sheikh Russel Roller Skating Complex. In April
2014, a children’s park named- “Sheikh Russel Shishutosh Angan” established in
Kalabagan, Dhaka. His birthday is observed annually by Bangladesh Awami League
and organizations associated with it. The Sheikh Russel Jatio Shishu Kishore
Parishad is a philanthropic organization based in Dhaka. Sheikh Russel, the
youngest son of Bangabandhu and Bangamata Fazilatunnesa Mujib, was to extend
floral reception to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with other students
of the University Laboratory School. Russel was a fourth grader at the school
at that time. Until he was seven, Russell hardly got to see his father who was
leading the struggle for independence. Bangabandhu just started to enjoy some
family time after independence and that is when Russel got to see him up close.
Despite being the son of the President, Rusell would go to school riding his
bicycle and take meals in the kitchen along with housekeepers. He loved feeding
the pigeons and do focus on math under the supervision of his tutor. Whenever
the family visited their ancestral home at Gopalganj’s Tungipara, Rusell would
insist on taking some clothes for his friends there. Why did Rusell’s life end
so cruelly? Simple, one may say. He became a victim of a brutal game of revenge
by the defeated forces of 1971, those who wanted a military-backed Islamist
theocracy to rule Bangladesh rather than a secular democratic dispensation
anchored in linguistic cultural nationalism that Bangabandhu espoused.
The world has witnessed many brutal political killings by conspirators
over the ages. But none could match the brutality in the way Russel was killed.
The blood-thirsty soldiers dragged the child next to the blood[1]drenched bodies of
his family members and then shot him point blank to the cheer of some of those
present. Bangabandhu in his book “Karagarer Rojnamcha” wrote how Russell, then
two and half years old in May 1967, chanted the slogans on the six point
movement with his sweet voice. “I asked where did he learn it from? Renu (Begum
Mujib) replied, the activists uttered these at a programme in the house and he
learnt this.” The bullets cut short this lively child who was beginning to
display a heart of big as his father. Cruelty, cruelty and cruelty snatched
away a promising future national figure from us and Russel is no more with us.
He is no more in this mundane world. But he did not die- he cannot die – he is
immortal. He would remain alive in the inward hearts of millions of people like
our “Shaheed Minar” and “Jatiyo Smritishoudha”.
