ZCZC
BSS-20
CELEBRATION-CENTENARY-MUJIB-COUNTDOWN
Nation set to witness Mujib Year inauguration tomorrow
DHAKA, March 16, 2020 (BSS) – The nation is set to celebrate the
inauguration of Mujib Year as the countdown for opening of Father of the
Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth centenary ends tonight.
“The celebrations will begin with fireworks at 8 pm at the Suhrawardy Udyan tomorrow,
marking Bangabandhu’s birth moment,” the Birth Centenary Celebration National
Implementation Committee’s chief coordinator Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury
told a media briefing this afternoon.
The organizers selected Suhrawardy Udyan for the inauguration of the Mujib
Year with fireworks, considering the site to be historic as Bangabandhu had
delivered his momentous March 7, 1971 speech leading to the Liberation War
and eventual independence.
Chowdhury said the fireworks would be immediately followed by nationwide
broadcast of President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s
address.
The countdown for the celebration’s opening began on January 10 last
coinciding with Bangabandhu’s homecoming in 1972, as the founder of the newly
born Bangladesh, after nine months of captivity in Pakistan.
The nation, meanwhile, had waged its war for independence in line with his
directions and earned the victory.
On March 17 one hundred years ago, Bangabandhu was born to a respected
family at Tungipara village of the then Gopalganj sub-division, now district
as the third among six children of Sheikh Lutfur Rahman and Saira Khatun.
The history had set his course to be the architect of independent
Bangladesh and the greatest Bangalee of all times after protracted struggle
and personal sacrifices.
Organisers said the global coronavirus pandemic forced them to scale down
the inauguration fanfare revising the schedule trying to keep most of the
programmes indoors to discard public gatherings.
But the President and the premier would lay wreaths at Bangabandhu’s shrine
at Tungipara in Gopalganj tomorrow morning and offer fateha and munajat as
per original schedule.
Under the original plan, the celebration was set to be opened drawing
thousands of people at the National Parade Ground tomorrow.
A scheduled gathering of children at Tungipara and in primary schools
across Bangladesh tomorrow were also scrapped due to COVID-19.
Sheikh Hasina, who is Bangabandhu’s elder daughter, will also place
wreaths at Bangabandhu’s portrait at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at
Dhanmondi Road No. 32 in the capital ahead of travelling to Tungipara.
Different socio-cultural and political organisations from grassroots to
national levels, ministries and divisions have drawn up programmes to
celebrate the birth centenary opening.
MORE/KC-KUC-MKD-TAN/AR/ARS/1739 hrs