POBNEWS24, Dhaka, Jan 10, 2022 :Historic Homecoming Day of Father of the Nation Bangladesh Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is being observed today across the country in a befitting manner.
Bangabandhu, the undisputed leader of the nation and supreme commander of
the country’s Liberation War, returned to the sacred soil of independent
Bangladesh via London and New Delhi on January 10 in 1972, after 290 days of
confinement in Pakistan jail.
Bangladesh President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages paying glowing tributes to the Father of the Nation on the eve of
the day.
Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Birth Centenary
Celebration National Implementation Committee has chalked out elaborate
programmes to observe the day.
A programme titled ‘Father of the Nation in Independent Country (Mukto
Swadeshe Jatir Pita)’ will be live broadcast on all television channels,
online and social media at 3pm today from Shaheed Manirul Alam Auditorium
of the Bangladesh Television here.
Bangabandhu’s daughter Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will chair the
programme virtually joining from her official residence Ganabhaban in the
city.
Poems of Sheikh Rehana, Bangabandhu’s younger daughter, written on her
parents will be recited in the function while a discussion on the
significance of Bangabandhu’s homecoming will also be held.
Ruling Awami League (AL) has also taken various programmes to observe the
historic Homecoming Day of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman.
The AL’s programmes began with hoisting of the national and party
flags at the AL central office, Bangabandhu Bhaban, and its party offices
across the country in the morning.
AL leaders and workers also paid homage to Bangabandhu by placing wreaths
at his portrait in front of Bangabandhu Bhaban in the city’s Dhanmondi area.
Later, an AL delegation paid respect to the undisputed leader of
the nation by placing wreaths at his grave in Tungipara.
The AL delegation is supposed to include its presidium member Lt Col Muhammad Faruk Khan, organising secretaries Abu Saeed Al Mahmud Swapan, SM Kamal Hossain,
Advocate Afzal Hossain and Shafiul Alam Chowdhury Nadel, secretary of Finance
and Planning Affairs Waseqa Ayesha Khan, Office Secretary Barrister Biplab
Barua, commerce and industries secretary Md Siddiqur Rahman, and central
committee members Abul Hasnat Abdullah, Advocate ABM Riazul Kabir Kawsar,
Vice Principal Raymond Areng and Mohammad Sayeed Khokon.
On the occasion, a discussion will be held on a limited scale at the
party’s central office in the city’s Bangabandhu Avenue at 3.30 pm,
maintaining the health safety guidelines.
Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina will address the
discussion through videoconferencing from her official Ganabhaban residence.
Besides, all district, city, upazila, thana, union and ward level units of
the AL, its’ associate and likeminded bodies will organise similar programmes
to observe the day in a befitting manner.
On the night of March 25, 1971, Pakistan army arrested Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from
his Dhanmondi 32 No residence and sent him to a West Pakistani jail the following
day.
Sheikh Mujib was subjected to inhuman torture in the Pakistan jail where he
had been counting moments for the execution of his death sentence that was
pronounced in a farcical trial.
“I was a prisoner in the condemned cell awaiting hanging. From the day I
went into jail, I didn’t know whether I would be alive or not. I was mentally
ready to die. But I knew Bangladesh would be liberated,” Bangabandhu spoke
emotionally about his ordeal in Pakistani prison at a news conference in
London.
About the Pakistan army’s genocide on Bangalees, Mujib said: “If Hitler
had been alive today, he would have been ashamed.”
Earlier, on March 26 in 1971, Bangabandhu proclaimed independence of
Bangladesh and urged people from all walks of life to participate
wholeheartedly in the nation’s War of Liberation.
Immediately after the proclamation of independence, Bangabandhu was
arrested by Pakistani military junta and then flown to West Pakistan to keep
him in prison there.
Though the final victory through the nine-month-long bloody War of
Liberation was achieved defeating Pakistani occupation forces on December 16
in 1971, the nation’s expectations were fulfilled and the people got the real
taste of victory with the homecoming of Bangabandhu on January 10, 1972.
On reaching Dhaka (Tejgaon) airport in the afternoon on January 10,
Bangabandhu was greeted by tens of thousands of jubilant people who had been
eagerly waiting to see their beloved leader since the victory on December 16
in 1971.
From the airport Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib was escorted to the Racecourse Maidan (now Suhrawardy Udyan) where he addressed a spontaneous reception accorded to him
by the cheerful countrymen believed to be one million.
He recalled with deep respect the contribution of all during the war and
urged the people to rebuild the war-ravaged country.
Bangabandhu took the oath of office as the country’s Prime Minister on
January 12, 1972.
