Today is Jail Killing Day, marking the assassination of four top Awami League leaders in jail.

The leaders — Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmad, Captain M Mansur Ali, and AHM Quamaruzzaman — were assassinated inside the Dhaka Central Jail on 3 November, 1975.

The day commemorates the tragic event in which the four leaders, who had played key roles in Bangladesh’s Liberation War and the formation of the post-independence government, were assassinated inside the jail in one of the darkest chapters of the nation’s history.

The killings took place during the rule of another AL leader Khandaker Mushtaq Ahmad after the assassination of the country’s founding President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and all but two of his family on 15 August, 1975.

Syed Nazrul Islam was the acting president while Tajuddin Ahmad was the prime minister, M Mansur Ali the finance minister, and AHM Quamaruzzaman the home, relief, and rehabilitation minister in that government.

The Awami League has not taken any programme to observe the day as the party has been absent from open political activities since the ouster of the AL government — led by Sheikh Hasina — on 5 August amid a student-people uprising.

Following the overthrow of the government, Hasina instantly escaped to India and has been living in exile in the neighbouring country.

When the Awami League assumed power in 1996, the government initiated a trial against the accused of the assassination of the four leaders by revoking an indemnity law that was protecting the accused from being tried.

On 20 October, 2004, after a protracted trial, the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court declared 15 of the 20 accused guilty and released the other five.

All the 20 accused were former military officers. Of the 15 convicted, three fugitives were given death penalty while 12 were sentenced to life term imprisonment.

The three that received death sentence are Sergeant Moslem Uddin, Sentry Marfot Ali Shah, and Sentry Mohammad Abul Hashem Mridha.

On 28 August, 2008, the High Court acquitted six of the convicted accused and released Sentry Marfot Ali Shah and Sentry Mohammad Abul Hashem Mridha who were earlier given death sentences by the lower court.

Four other people were released, who were retired Lieutenant Colonel Syed Faruqe Rahman, retired Lieutenant Colonel Shahriar Rashid Khan, retired Major Bazlul Huda, and retired Lieutenant Colonel AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed.

The four, however, were convicted in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman assassination case and were executed on 27 January, 2010.  In 2012, the Jail Killing case was reopened at the Appellate Division. On 30 April, 2013, the court dismissed the 2008 verdict given by the High Court and upheld the 2004 judgement that convicted the 15 accused.