NEW DELHI: It was a day on which two political veterans — one from Bangladesh and another from India — went down the memory lane — albeit for different reasons. One was Sheikh Hasina and the other BJP veteran L K Advani.
In Hasina’s case, everytime she visits India, it is a sort of homecoming for her. On her current visit, the Bangladesh Prime Minister on Monday opened up about the events following the assassination of her family in 1975.
A visibly emotional Hasina told a gathering of people at an event organised by India Foundation that she and her sister were rendered “homeless, countryless” and became refugees, and that it was India’s former PM Indira Gandhi, who came to their rescue.
“They (the assassins) attacked three houses and killed 18 people. We had nobody there. We were at that time homeless, countryless, we became refugees. But at that time Mrs Indira Gandhi immediately sent a message to us asking us come to India,” Hasina said.
On August 15, 1975, her whole family — including the then PM Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, her mother, three brothers, two newly-wedded sister-in-laws and an uncle were killed. Hasina and her sister were in Germany at that time.
“I don’t know without that shelter what would have been our condition. We express our gratitude to everyone in India,” she added.
Speaking at the event, Advani rued that the Sindh province in Pakistan, where he was born, is not a part of independent India.
“I do not know how many of you have this realisation, the realisation that I have that there was one part of India, when India was undivided, not independent and was under British rule, there was one such part where I was born... I and my comrades, those who lived in that part feel sad (about this)” he said. He said since Hasina is visiting, he thought of sharing his anguish.