The nation mourns the brutal killings of Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmad, Captain (Rtd.) Mansur Ali and AHM Qamaruzzaman this day forty-two years ago. It is an infamy that added the second blot in our history following the killing of the Father of the Nation along with almost all the close members of his family on August 15. 

It was a very well-planned move to deprive the nation of the leadership that they were capable of providing the people of Bangladesh in the absence of Bangabandhu. As his trusted lieutenants, they had skillfully steered the Liberation War towards the final conclusion in 1971. But that was not to be. We recall with gratitude the extraordinary service they provided the nation during the very seminal stages of our independence. 

Their killings were a double blow for us, and the nation has suffered for a considerable period the odious consequences of politics of killing and murder that was initiated on the fateful day of August 15, 1975. We thank the Sheikh Hasina government for initiating the legal process to bring the killers of the 1975 tragedies to justice. 

However, some of the killers remain at large. And we hope that the government would do everything to bring them back from wherever they are ensconced in and make them face the punishment they have been awarded by the court. Only then will the wheel of justice complete its full circle, and only then can we as a nation feel completely absolved of the guilt that we have been carrying. 

We join the nation in mourning the death of the four national leaders and pray for the departed souls.