CNN Central News & Network–ITDC India Epress/ITDC News Bhopal: Under seige, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flew out of Dhaka on Monday, seeking safety in India. Five decades ago, when she had taken political asylum in India along with her husband, two children and her sister after her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated, she had found a family and a home away from home in Pranab Mukherjee and his household.
In 1975, when Mujib and his family members were killed in Dhaka, his daughters Hasina and Sheikh Rehana were the only two who survived the massacre as they were in Europe at that time. Hasina, her husband M.A. Wazed Miah and her two children, and Rehana took political asylum in India.
The responsibility of looking after Hasina and her family was given by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to Pranab. Sharmistha Mukherjee, Pranab’s daughter, writes in her book ‘Pranab, My Father’ about the close familial bond which then developed between Hasina and the Mukherjees. Hasina, she writes, became very close to Pranab and his wife Suvra. “They soon became a part of our family and would be there for all family occasions like birthdays, get-togethers and annual picnics,” writes Mukherjee.
Apart from a select few family friends, no one knew the true identity of Hasina and her kin. Suvra would introduce Hasina to strangers as her sister. Mukherjee has written that Hasina personally shared this memory with her while reminiscing about her time with Suvra when she called on her during her visit to India as Prime Minister of Bangladesh in September 2022.