Guwahati, Aug. 15 -- Written By ABM Nasir

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh, was a secular, nationalist leader who, like Ataturk, championed secular values, and like Martin Luther King Jr., sought peaceful means for self-rule until war became inevitable.

Leading his people to freedom on December 16, 1971, after 24 years of West Pakistani oppression, he returned from imprisonment to govern a nation devastated by war. Its infrastructure was shattered, six million homes were destroyed, industry was dismantled, currency was wiped out, and over 100,000 firearms were in civilian hands.

Mujib faced the daunting task of rehabilitating millions of refugees and rebuilding a war-ravaged, crippled country, which ...