DHAKA, Aug 16: The Awami League, Bangladesh's main opposition party, enforced a half-day countrywide general strike on Sunday, demanding 'immediate execution of a lower court verdict against the killers of former president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman', and protesting against scrapping of the public holiday on August 15, the day he was assassinated.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed at his Dhanmondi residence early August 15, 1975 in an uprising by mostly out-of-uniform young army officers.

His wife Fazilatunnesa Mujib, sons Sheikh Kamal, Sheikh Jamal and Sheikh Russell, daughters-in-law Sultana Kamal and Rosy Jamal, and a number of close relatives and aides were also shot dead. His daughters Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana were abroad then.