Bangladesh embarks on a 10-day biggest ever extravaganza on Wednesday to celebrate the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the Golden Jubilee of the country’s hard-earned Independence.
The 10-day special program will start at the city’s National Parade Square Ground at 4:30 pm tomorrow, maintaining all the precautions as local and foreign guests will take part in the events.
Heads of state and government from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives will be present in the programmes to be held on different days.
Among the programmes, thematic discussions and cultural events will be held, and audio-visual and other presentations will be screened to pay tributes to Bangabandhu every day.
President Abdul Hamid will be present at the programme on March 17, 22 and 26, while Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on March 17, 19, 22, 24 and 26.
Heads of state and government of different countries will be present as guests of honour at the programmes on March 17, 19, 22, 24 and 26.
Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih will be present at the programme as the guest of honour on March 17, while Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa on March 19, Nepalese President Bidya Devi Bhandari on March 22, Prime Minister of Bhutan Lotay Tshering on March 24 and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 26.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will deliver welcome speeches at the programme on March 17, while Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on March 18, OIC Secretary General Yousef bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen on March 20, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on March 22, Pope Francis on March 24, South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun and Japanese friend of Bangladesh Takashi Hayakawa’s son Osamu Hayakawa on March 25.
Television channels, online media and social media will broadcast the programmes live every day.
To add colour to the celebration of this spectacular programmes, various national establishments like Bangabhaban, Prime Minister’s Office, Ganobhaban, Parliament, National Museum, National Memorial in Savar and others have been illuminated with colourful lights to show respect to the highest level for the Father of the Nation, who sacrificed his whole life for the country and its people, and martyrs who made supreme for the Independence of the country and for the Mother Tongue.
They will pay their homage to Language Movement heroes, martyred Freedom Fighters, who took risks of their lives, and Biranganas, who lost their precious gift of lives during the Liberation War.
Soon after the partition of the Indian subcontinent on the basis of religions in 1947, the people of the then East Pakistan had been forced to start their struggle for their Mother Tongue and Independence.
After the preparations of long 23 years, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman led the nation to have its own land Bangladesh, the only country around the world based on language.
He prepared the unarmed mass people of the country into armed ones through various struggles and movements against the then Pakistani autocratic military rulers.
Before a rally of a million of freedom-loving people at the then Race Course Maidan (now Suhrawardhy Udyan) on March 7 in 1971, Bangabandhu in a virtual announcement of independence declared, “the struggle this time is for our freedom, the struggle this time is for our independence”.
As the Pakistani occupational forces raged their heinous attack on Bangalees on the night of March 25, Bangabandhu through the then East Pakistan Rifles (EPR) delivered his declaration of independence and asked people to resist the hyenas and liberate the country.
After a nine-month war and shedding the blood of millions, Bangladesh emerged as an independent country on December 16, 1971.
