ZCZC
BSS-16
PM-BANGABANDHU-SIX-POINT-2-LAST
The prime minister said Bangbandhu declared the historic Six-Point Demand which had appeared before the Bangalees as their demand of freedom at that time and they had taken it as a right to live.
“This was a rare instance (in the world) that the people had received a demand (the Six-Point Demand) in such a way and shed blood for (implementing) it. It was possible only by the Bangalees,” she said.
She said that the Six-Point Demand in phases turned into a one point demand to liberate the country from the Pakistani rulers.
Sheikh Hasina said Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib on January 18, 1968 was taken to Dhaka Cantonment from Dhaka Central Jail after being arrested in a case titled ‘Agartala Conspiracy Case’ framed by the Pakistani government against Bangabandhu and 34 other civil and military officers and persons.
But the people of Bangladesh burst into protest against the case, she said, adding that Chattra Sangram Parishad waged movement in a united manner transforming it into a mass upsurge.
The prime minister said Ayub Khan was compelled to withdraw the case on the face of mass movement on February 21, 1969. And Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was released from the jail on February 22, 1969, she added.
Sheikh Hasina said after the arrest of Bangabandhu and other front-ranking AL leaders due to announcement of the Six-Point Demand, her mother Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib had played a great role in drumming up public opinion for advancement of the movement centering the demand.
“My mother always knew what my father wanted and she was very aware about those,” the premier remembered.
She said her mother used to reach the instructions of Bangabandhu to the party leaders and student society which she (Fazilatunnesa) got during her visit to Bangabandhu at the jail.
Sheikh Hasina also recalled Bangabandhu’s arrest time and again as he raised a movement to establish Bangla as the state language instead of Urdu that finally led to achieve the country’s independence in phases.
The prime minister said the advancement of the country had been halted with the assassination of the Father of the Nation along with most of his family members on August 15, 1975.
“We’ve to move ahead to build a developed and prosperous country free from poverty and hunger following the ideology of the Father of the Nation,” she said.
The premier said that the defeated forces of 1971, who wanted to foil the country’s victory, would not get any more chance to this respect.
BSS/AHJ/SH/1517 HRS