PM vows to find out masterminds of August 15 massacre

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said the masterminds behind the August 15 massacre will also be gradually exposed in the near future.

"It was very essential to try the killers first. We've done it. And it'll also come out eventually one day who had been behind the killings. And that day is not far," she said.

The prime minister was addressing a memorial meeting arranged by Bangladesh Awami League (AL) marking the National Mourning Day and 46th martyrdom anniversary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Sheikh Hasina, also the AL President, presided over the virtual function joining it from her official residence Ganobhaban, while other participants were connected from AL central office in the city's Bangabandhu Avenue.

She said all of those who took part in the brutal assassination and who stood beside them (killers) or who prepared the ground for it are equally guilty.

About the demand for a commission to find out the masterminds of the cruellest mayhem, Sheikh Hasina said things would be very clear to all from the newspapers of those days.

 "We will not need to go far to find out them, if we see who criticised (the rule of Bangabandhu), who spoke (against it) and who prepared the ground. You've asked for formation of a commission. It is very fine. But if you read the then newspapers, many things would be very clear to all," she said.

Sheikh Hasina, also the eldest daughter of Bangabandhu, said the father of the nation returned home on January 10, 1972, and the conspiracy against him started the same year, not giving him time to rebuild the war-ravaged country.

It takes many years to rebuild a war-ravaged country, but criticism started against him just in one year, she said.