Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of Bangladesh, was assassinated along with most of his family members during the early hours of 15 August 1975 by a group of Bangladesh Army personnel who invaded his residence as part of a coup d'état. The minister of commerce, Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad, immediately took control and proclaimed himself head of an interim government from 15 August to 6 November 1975; he was in turn succeeded by Chief Justice Abu Sayem. The assassination marked the first direct military intervention in Bangladesh's civilian administration. 15 August was observed as National Mourning Day in Bangladesh under the government of Sheikh Hasina.

Background

Mujib's presidency

In the 1970 Pakistani general election, Sheikh Mujib's party, the Awami League (previously known as the Awami Muslim League), won the majority of the seats in the Pakistani National Assembly. They won 160 of the general 162 seats and all 7 women's seats in East Pakistan,Baxter, C. (1971). Pakistan Votes -- 1970. Asian Survey, 11(3), 197–218. which would later become Bangladesh after it seceded from West Pakistan. Despite Pakistan's military government delaying the handover of power, Mujib's residence had become the de facto head of government in East Pakistan by March. At the start of the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, he was arrested at his home by Pakistani soldiers. On 10 April that year, the provisional government of the Bangladeshi rebellion, popularly known as the Mujibnagar Government, was established with Mujib as its head and as the leader of Bangladeshi armed forces. Following the defeat of Pakistani forces on 16 December 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was released from custody from Pakistan in London on 22 December 1971, from where he flew to India, and then to Bangladesh. Mujib led the government as Prime Minister of Bangladesh for three years after Bangladesh gained independence.

Post-war devastation in Bangladesh After nine months of widespread destruction by the Pakistani army in 1971, Bangladesh was in ruins.The new country, Bangladesh, began with many "attacks and sexual violence" by the Pakistani occupation forces. According to the American "Time" magazine in January 1972:

After the Pakistani army's onslaught last March, a special team of World Bank inspectors observed that some cities looked "like the morning after a nuclear attack." Since then, the devastation has only increased. An estimated 6,000,000 homes have been destroyed and about 1,400,000 farming families have left without tools or livestock to work their fields. Transport and communication systems are completely disrupted. Roads are damaged, bridges are broken, and inland waterways are blocked. Massacres and sexual violence continued in the country until the Pakistani army surrendered a month ago. In the final days of the war, businesses owned by West Pakistanis – which included almost every commercial enterprise – deposited virtually all of their funds in the West. Pakistan International Airlines left just 117 rupees ($16) in its account in the port city of Chittagong. The army has also destroyed banknotes and coins, as many areas now face a severe cash shortage. Private cars were taken off the roads or confiscated from auto dealers before the ports were closed and sent west. Prime Minister Sheikh Mujib officially announced that the massacre had killed 3 million Bengalis and brutally raped 200,000 Bengali women by the then Pakistani army, calling it "the worst massacre in human history". The high hopes and aspirations of the people of newly independent Bangladesh were becoming increasingly difficult for the Mujib government to fulfill.

Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini controversy and outrage in the army

The Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini (JRB) was a controversial militia formed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and loyal to him personally. Although it was originally founded as a law enforcement agency to maintain internal security, it became a second national armed force and served as a political task force for the Awami League. As a result, it found little support among traditional military organisations such as the Mukti Bahini. Its 30,000 troops intimidated and tortured opponents of the Awami League in various ways. The military grew resentful of the level of funding the Rakkhi Bahini received from the Mujib government, with the former's own funding being reduced to 13% in the 1975–76 budget, a considerable decrease from the 50–60% it enjoyed during the Pakistan period. Salimullah Khan said in a symposium on 5 August 2025 that, in Mujib's 1972–1975 regime, around 10,000 JSD and other youths were killed by JRD peeling off their skins alive.

Zia-Shafiullah conflict in the army After the war of independence, discord and disorder arose in the Bangladesh army for various reasons. The distance between the freedom fighters and the military officers who had returned to Pakistan continued to increase.

Problems also arose over the appointment of the army chief. Despite being senior, Mujib appointed K. M. Shafiullah as the army chief instead of Zia.The relationship between Zia and Osmani deteriorated significantly during the war of liberation. Osmani sent orders to arrest Zia three times during the war of liberation. Although Zia was widely praised for reading the declaration of independence on Mujib's behalf, Zia declared himself the 'Head of the Provisional Government' and 'Liberation Army Chief' in an announcement from the radio station. Basically, during the Liberation War, this arrogant declaration, Osmani's negative perception of Zia, and his attempt to take leadership were the reasons why Mujib considered it reasonable to appoint Shafiullah as the army chief compared to Zia. It is worth noting that the President's interference in the appointment of the army chief and political decision-making are a normal thing. Shafiullah said in his court statement,

This was a political decision, as a result of which Zia became personally angry with the Mujib government. As a result, the relationship between Ziaur Rahman and Shafiullah deteriorated.

Colonel Shafaat Jamil said,

Shafiullah also said, Colonel (Retd.) Shawkat Ali held Ziaur Rahman responsible for creating discord in the army, saying,

According to Abu Sayyid, the author of the book Facts and Documents: Bangabandhu Khattakand and former State Minister for Information, there was always a propaganda in the army that Ziaur Rahman is the source of all virtues and merits. According to many, Ziaur Rahman was responsible for creating conflict between the returnees from Pakistan and the freedom fighters. Shawkat Ali wrote,

In addition to all these issues, there were also differences among the freedom fighters. There was no harmony between the members of Ziaur Rahman's 'Z' Force and Khaled Mosharraf and Shafiullah's 'K' and 'S' forces. The conflict between Zia, Khaled and Shafiullah began during the Liberation War.During the Liberation War, Ziaur Rahman, Khaled Mosharraf and Shafiullah continued to try to gain power and leadership in the Liberation War. Ziaur Rahman advised Tajuddin Ahmed to form a war council to seize leadership during the Liberation War and 'appoint Colonel Osmani to the Ministry of Defense'. Khaled Mosharraf and K. M. Shafiullah opposed this. This led to a serious deterioration in the relationship between Zia and Osmani. During the Liberation War, Osmani sent orders to arrest Zia three times. According to professor Abu Sayyid, these young officers fundamentally prioritized the issue of leadership in the Liberation War. The pressure to obtain leadership from Zia, Shafiullah, and Khaled Musharraf was clear in the Liberation War. However, due to the dominance of soldiers from the 'K' and 'S' Forces in the army, Khaled and Shafiullah did not have a good relationship with Zia.

Allegation of nepotism and corruption within the Mujib-family Sheikh Fazlul Haque Mani, a politician and one of the nephews of Mujib, was appointed to senior positions in the Government formed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. When private trade with India was banned due to slow inflation, Fazlul Haque actively engaged in it with Mujibur Rahman's blessings. This was seen as an attempt by Mujibur Rahman to form a dynasty.

Near the end of 1973, Sheikh Kamal was involved in a shootout in which he suffered gunshot injuries. Multiple claims have been made as to how the shootout occurred. Many people claim that it was during an attempted robbery of a bank by Sheikh Kamal and his friends. However, a retired major general of the Bangladesh Army claimed that it was actually a case of friendly fire. Near the end of 1973, Bangladeshi security forces received intelligence that the left-wing revolutionary activist Siraj Sikder and his insurgents were going to launch coordinated attacks around Dhaka. Police and other security officers were on full alert and patrolling the streets of Dhaka in plainclothes. Sheikh Kamal and his friends were armed and also patrolling the city in a microbus looking for Siraj Sikder. When the microbus was in Dhanmondi, the police mistook Sheikh Kamal and his friends for insurgents and opened fire on them, thus injuring Sheikh Kamal. However, it is also claimed that Sheikh Kamal and his friends were in Dhanmondi to test drive a new car that his friend Iqbal Hassan Mahmood had bought recently. Since Dhaka was under heavy police patrolling, police special forces under the command of the then city SP Mahamuddin Bir Bikrom opened fire on the car thinking that the passengers were miscreants.

A 1976 issue of the Asia Yearbook stated, "It was an open secret - that Mujib's brother, Sheikh Nazir, was alleged to have monopolised the smuggling in the southeast; that his wife took a cut in contracting World Bank projects; that his son, Sheikh Kamal, had been involved in thuggery; and that his nephew, Sheikh Moni, was fast accumulating power and wealth." Abdul Waheed Talukder, in his book "Gonotontrer Onneshay Bangladesh" (গণতন্ত্রের অন্বেষায় বাংলাদেশ, Bangladesh in Search of Democracy), said in the 1976 issue of the Asia Yearbook,

Marcus F. Franda in his book "Bangladesh: The First Decade" says,

S. R. Mirza says in his book Conversations after the War of Liberation,

Left-wing insurgency

A left-wing insurgency from 1972 to 1975 is widely held to be responsible for creating the conditions that led to the assassination. In 1972, a leftist group named the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) was founded from a split in the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the Bangladesh Awami League. The JSD, through its armed wing Gonobahini led by Colonel Abu Taher and politician Hasanul Haq Inu, began a political massacre of government supporters, Awami League members, and police. Their campaign contributed to a breakdown of law and order in the country and paved the way for the assassination of Mujib. Hasanul Huq Inu later held the office of the Minister of Information under Sheikh Hasina's Second and Third cabinets.

Ramna massacre

Immediately after the formation of the National Socialist Party, the JSD leaders and activists started a movement against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's National Guard. At that time, members of the National Guard were accused of being involved in many illegal activities, including attacking the houses of opposition politicians, looting, torturing, killing, and abducting opposition ideologues. On 17 March 1974, the Guard attacked JSD supporters in Ramna, which the JSD called the Ramna Massacre. On that day, when JSD activists surrounded the residence of Home Minister Muhammad Mansur Ali located in Ramana area of Dhaka, members of the National Guard opened fire on them, resulting in heavy casualties. At least 50 people were killed in the massacre.Ahmad, Mahiuddin, The Rise and Fall of JSD: Politics in Unstable Times, First published 2015, p. 111, Prothoma Prakashani, Dhaka.

Opposition to India