Dhaka: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday issued a message on the eve of the Jail Killing Day, paying rich tributes to the four national leaders who were brutally killed in Dhaka Central Jail on November 3, 1975.

The four national leaders—Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Captain Mansur Ali and AHM Qamaruzzaman—were close associates of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the Liberation War heroes.

Sheikh Hasina prayed for eternal peace of the departed souls of the four leaders and said such killings in the safe custody of jail are unprecedented in the world.

The prime minister  said the killings of the four national leaders were the sequel to the killing of Father of the Nation and his family members. Through these killings, the conspirators wanted to erase the name of Bangladesh Awami League, she added.

She recalled the grenade attack on 21 August in 2004 and said though she escaped the attack, 22 people, including Ivy Rahman, were killed in the carnage.

A reactionary clique is conspiring to hamper the trial process of war criminals and the country’s development, Sheikh Hasina said and urged the people to be united imbued with spirit of the War of Liberation to resist the conspiracy.

The Prime Minister said, ‘I believe the countrymen will uphold democracy and rule of law resisting the conspiracies being imbued with spirit of Liberation War’.

She hoped they (countrymen) will work to build ‘Sonar Bangla’, dreamt by Bangabandhu through implanting the Vision 2021 and Vision 2041.