- Deadly Israeli strike on Beirut likely targeted Hezbollah security chief
- Bangladesh Islamist chief backs crimes against humanity trial for ex-PM
- Everest climber's remains believed found after 100 years
- 20 Pakistan coal miners shot dead in attack
- Clashes on South China Sea, Ukraine dominate Asia summit
- Han Kang's books sell out in South Korea after Nobel win
- Zelensky meets Pope, Scholz as whirlwind Europe tour ends
- Hello Hallyu: why is South Korean culture sweeping the globe?
- UK economy rebounds in August in boost to new govt
- Voice of Japan's beloved robot cat 'Doraemon' dies
- Shanghai markets sink ahead of briefing on mixed day for Asia
- Investors, analysts eye bigger China stimulus at Saturday briefing
- 20 Pakistan coal miners shot dead in attack: police
- Blinken condemns China's 'increasingly dangerous' sea moves
- Toyota returns to Formula One as Haas partner
- EU chief says China must 'adapt its behaviour' to solve trade row
- Musk unveils robotaxi, pledges it 'before 2027'
- Lynx rally, stun Liberty in overtime in WNBA Finals opener
- Pogacar hunting 'perfect' season finale with Coppi's Il Lombardia record
- 'Soul of old Baghdad': city centre sees timid revival
- Kittle at the double as Niners hold off Seahawks
- At least 11 dead in Florida but Hurricane Milton not as bad as feared
- Yankees advance in MLB playoffs as Guardians stay alive
- Asian markets mixed after Wall St drop, Shanghai dips before briefing
- Automaker Stellantis says CEO will retire in 2026
- Musk's promised robotaxi unveil delayed
- Kamada says Japan can close in on World Cup place against Australia
- On US coast, wind power foes embrace 'Save the Whales' argument
- Renewables revolt in Sardinia, Italy's coal-fired island
- Argentina held, Brazil leave it late in 2026 World Cup qualifiers
- Obama blasts 'crazy' Trump in first rally for Harris
- 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, a plea in favour of world order?
- Fry homers as Guardians down Tigers to stay alive in MLB playoffs
- Japan PM presses China's Li on airspace intrusion
- In Trump 'Truths,' conspiracies, attacks -- and doubts about the election
- How Sebastian Stan found a 'relatable' Trump for 'The Apprentice' biopic
- Panama's water wheel trash collector keeps plastic at bay
- It's still 'the economy, stupid,' says US political guru Carville
- Five key dates in the history of the America's Cup
- Zelensky to meet Pope, Scholz as whirlwind Europe tour ends
- At least 10 dead in Florida but Hurricane Milton not as bad as feared
- Far from eye, Hurricane Milton's deadly tornados rampaged Florida
- At least 10 dead in Florida after Hurricane Milton spawns tornadoes
- Argentina held, Bolivia stun Colombia in 2026 qualifiers
- Socceroos have 'nothing to fear' from Japan
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs sex trafficking trial set for May 2025
- Bolivia stun Colombia in World Cup qualifiers
- Internet Archive reels from 'catastrophic' cyberattack, data breach
- Greece earn late win against England in Nations League, Italy-Belgium stalemate
- Trump biopic 'The Apprentice' hits US theaters weeks before election
Ode to the father: Bangladesh's political personality cult
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina still grieves the assassination of her father -- the country's founder -- nearly 50 years ago, and her government ensures the nation grieves with her.
Once sidelined from official history, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is now the subject of a personality cult that designates him "Father of the Nation".
Hasina has foregrounded his legacy in what critics say is an effort to entrench her ruling Awami League, which dominates national politics and is set to sweep elections Sunday following an opposition boycott.
Her government has also enacted stiff punishments for any comments, written work or social media posts that could be construed as defaming his legacy.
"She has basically introduced a secular blasphemy law in the country for her father -- the kind we see in one-party states," a senior human rights activist in Bangladesh told AFP, asking for anonymity out of fear of retribution.
Since his daughter returned to office in 2009, Mujib's visage has appeared on every banknote and in hundreds of public murals across the South Asian nation of 170 million people.
Dozens of roads and institutes of higher learning have been named after him, and Hasina's government changed the constitution to require that his portrait be hung in every school, government office and diplomatic mission.
At the centre of this project of national commemoration is Hasina's childhood home in an upmarket neighbourhood of the capital Dhaka.
Now a museum, the residence is where her father, uncle and three brothers were gunned down by disgruntled army officers at the break of dawn in August 1975.
The walls are still pockmarked with bullet holes from that day, in rooms that otherwise faithfully preserve the books, smoking pipe and other artefacts of Mujib's life, with hundreds visiting daily to pay their respects.
"I could see how he and his family were brutally murdered," student Abdur Rahim ibne Iftekhar, 21, told AFP inside. "It was heart-wrenching."
- 'Betrayal of the hopes' -
Mujib was the key political figure during a period of growing agitation for independence from Pakistan, which had governed the territory now known as Bangladesh since the 1947 end of British colonial rule.
He was imprisoned by Pakistan's military regime at the outset of a horrific 1971 war that liberated his country and killed as many as three million people -- most of them civilians in present-day Bangladesh.
Mujib was the first post-independence leader but the tumultuous years that followed saw Bangladesh struggle through the economic devastation imposed by the war, including a famine in which hundreds of thousands of people died.
Towards the end of his life he abolished multi-party democracy and imposed media restrictions that shuttered all but four state-controlled newspapers.
Hasina refers to his assassination in a 1975 military coup in almost every speech she gives, her voice often choking with emotion.
It was "the betrayal of the hopes and aspirations of the people of the soil", she once wrote.
- 'Cannot be questioned' -
In 2018, Hasina's government enacted a cybersecurity law that has been used to arrest numerous people accused of defaming Mujib's legacy.
A city mayor from her party was arrested in 2021 for refusing to approve a mural of Mujib, because the traditions of some among Bangladesh's majority Muslim faith consider depictions of people in murals or statues to be idolatry.
Opposition parties say that the veneration of Mujib and the laws protecting him from criticism reflect a broader erosion of civil liberties under Hasina and the consolidation of her party's grip over democratic institutions.
"It is a clear tilt towards an authoritarian one-party state," a senior opposition official, who also asked for anonymity, told AFP.
Some analysts believe Hasina's motivations to be more personal.
Mujib's contributions to Bangladesh's independence struggle were minimised by the military government that replaced him.
Some of his killers received coveted diplomatic postings and all were controversially indemnified from prosecution -- a law revoked by Hasina's government.
All five were hanged after she returned to office.
"Hasina wants to make sure that this and future generations do not encounter such a situation," Ali Riaz, a professor at Illinois State University, told AFP.
"The objective is to ensure that Sheikh Mujib's standing and contributions in history cannot be questioned."
M.A.Colin--AMWN