A 10-year-old child strikes fear into the hearts of army generals
Great sacrifices offered by Sheikh Mujibur-Rahman for the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan, included the life of his youngest son Russel. The 10-year-old child was immortalised when he was murdered on August 15, 1975. His tragic death has left an indelible scar on human conscience. The crime has been, since then, a recurring nightmare weighing heavily on his killers, their Pakistani masters and their descendants.
Despite his tender age, Russel was subjected to physical and mental torture before the assassins killed him in cold blood. They were executing firm orders given by the military junta in Pakistan, which saw in the small boy a potential threat to its existence and authority.
The horrors Russel experienced at the hands of psychopathic assassins bear witness to the Pakistani military junta’s cruelties and brutalities against thousands of innocent children, who were killed inhumanly during the Liberation War in Bangladesh.
Russel’s inhumane murder was carried out in the family residence at Dhanmandi Road 32 in Dhaka. After killing the father and almost all his family, the killers discovered that Sheikh Mujibur-Rahman’s youngest son was missing.
The madding attackers searched the house until they intercepted Russel standing terrified upstairs, not knowing what was going on. Mistaking the attackers for being his father’s security guards, the child begged them to take him to his mother.
The child realised that he was in trouble when the strangers grabbed him roughly and dragged him downstairs. Russel cried when he saw his father, his mother and all family members lying lifelessly in a pool of blood. The psychopathic killers then took him upstairs again and shot him dead at point-blank range.
Before his death, the Pakistani army generals and their allies in Bangladesh were living in constant fear that time would come when the small boy would be given the mantle and continue his father’s struggle for independent and free Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina, Russel’s sister, was destined to realise their father’s dream.
It is all the more outrageous that Russel’s killers remain at large in several foreign countries. The Western hosts are reluctant to appreciate appeals from Russel’s family, his friends (now grown-ups) and millions of vulnerable children in conflict zones to hand the fugitives over to the Government of Bangladesh. The murderers should be brought to justice. International organisations interested in children’s human rights and their welfare should lend their support to the child, who struck fear into the hearts of tough army generals.
Mohssen Arishie,
Egyptian journalist and writer
Human rights day letter: Sheikh Russel
Human rights
Russel deserved everlasting life, his killers deserve justice children vuilnerable to and Although he deserved an everlasting life, The international community represented by its UNICEF, human rights organisations and children welfare organisations should ensure to millions of children across the world that their lives matter. Russel’s life matters.
Russel was born on October 18, 1964, at Bangabandhu Bhaban in Dhanmondi, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He was the brother of Sheikh Hasina, the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh.[2] At the time of his death, he was a student at the University Laboratory School.[3]
Several athletic organizations in Bangladesh have been named in memory of Russel, including the professional football club Sheikh Russel Krira Chakra,[4][5] the Sheikh Russel School Table Tennis Tournament,[6] the Sheikh Russel Memorial Sporting Club,[7] and the Sheikh Russel Roller Skating Complex.[8] In April 2014, a children’s park named- “Sheikh Russel Shishutosh Angan” established in Kalabagan, Dhaka.[9]
His birthday is observed annually by Bangladesh Awami League and organizations associated with it.[10] The Sheikh Russel Jatio Shishu Kishore Parishad is a philanthropic organization based in Dhaka.[11]
On February 20, 2016, Prime Minister Hasina opened the Shaheed Sheikh Russel Bridge on the Shibbaria River.[12] On October 2, 2016, the Information and Communication Technology Division, Ministry of Posts, Telecom. and Information Technology, announced plans to build 2,000 computer labs named Sheikh Russel Digital Labs (SRDLs) in schools and colleges across Bangladesh.[13][14]
Mohssen Arishie,
A renowned Egyptian writer whose brilliantly emotional, exquisitely structured biographicalfiction, mingled with mythology, marks the transition in Bengali history since1920 to the present century glorification. He is greatly interested in the history of great leaders who led their bleeding nations to celebrate a better tomorrow.
Mohssen Arishie was born on 17 March 1955 in Giza. He graduated in law from Cairo University.Later, he pursued post-graduate studies in MuslimShari’ah and a post-graduate diploma from the International Institute for Mass Communication, New Delhi, India. and
In professional life
In professional life, Mohssen Arishie is a seasonedjournalist, he is working as a Managing-Editor of the Egyptian-Gazette, the oldest English-speaking daily in the Middle East, writing a weekly column in the Egyptian Gazette for more than 2 decades, and has been the Editor and translator of art publications issued by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture for twenty years too. He worked atHarperCollins, a publishing house in the United States for consecutive two years, had been theformer Board Chairman and the Editor-in-Chief of Al-Khalifa, a provincial newspaper in Egypt, and the Managing Editor of Tourism 2000 magazine published in Bahrain. He won the prize of the Egyptian Press Syndicate in 2006 for the best article and political analysis interested in the US invasion of Iraq.
Previously
Previously, he published his first book in Arabic on the history of Bangladesh- “Haqa’iq & Assatir”, which has a translated copy in Bengali “SHEIK HASINA: JE RUPKATHA SHUDHU RUPKATHA NOY” [Sheikh Hasina: Facts And Mythologies]. e.g.
Currently, he is preparing two novels in Arabic and English for publication. In a short.