Bangabandhu’s self-confessed killer Syed Farooq Rahman had allegedly attempted to assassinate former military dictator HM Ershad in 1985 with the help of slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, according to recently-released CIA documents.
Despite being in Libya, Lt Col (relieved) Farooq had also been involved in attempted coups in 1977 to overthrow military strongman Ziaur Rahman, the founder of BNP.
“Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi [Gaddafi] reportedly ordered funds and arms to support a plan to shoot the Bangladesh president [Ershad] and other senior officials on June 6 [1985],” according to a CIA Terrorism Review dated June 3, 1985.
“The principal perpetrator of the plot, Syed Farook [Farooq], has already confessed he had been involved in at least two previous coup attempts in 1975 and 1977.”
The secret document also states that Farooq used to operate a training camp in Libya for dissidents.
Farooq returned to Bangladesh in September 1984, and was arrested in June the following year – apparently a couple of days before the alleged operation – “for plotting to kill president Ershad.” He reportedly had received Libyan support in an earlier coup attempt, reads another review dated January 13, 1986.
After learning about the plot, the Ershad government was faced with a dilemma about how to respond.
“The Ershad government is considering declaring several Libyan diplomats [in Dhaka] persona non grata, but fears that Bangladesh labourers in Libya will be expelled, thereby cutting off a significant source of income,” the 1985 review reads.
Farooq went to Thailand on November 3, 1975 along with some other army officers – involved in the August 15, 1975 coup that killed Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – following a “counter-coup” by Brig Khaled Mosharraf, then chief of the general staff.
From Bangkok, Farooq and another Bangabandhu killer, Lt Col (relieved) Khandaker Abdur Rashid, flew to Libya and started business as Zia had not allowed them to return to Bangladesh.
The duo was behind the formation of Freedom Party on November 7, 1987.
Farooq, along with most of his family members, was finally arrested from his Old DOHS house in Dhaka on August 14, 1996, after the Awami League came to power for the first time since the assassination of Bangabandhu.
An FIR was lodged in connection with the massacre and the Indemnity Act was scrapped by the government.
The same year, Gaddafi sent a letter to then prime minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangabandhu’s daughter, requesting that she forgive Farooq and Rashid. Hasina disclosed the matter at a public function in Dhaka on August 28, 2011.
The government executed Farooq and four other convicts at the Dhaka Central Jail on January 28, 2010 after his plea seeking presidential clemency had been rejected. Six other convicted killers including Rashid are still at large. Rashid is believed to be hiding in Pakistan.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
