The homecoming day of Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was observed on Monday recalling her returning home on that day in 1981 after a long exile.
Marking the day, various organisations, including the ruling Awami League, usually arrange elaborate programmes throughout the country, but this year the day was celebrated on a limited scale in view of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dhaka City North unit of AL arranged a discussion at the party’s Bangabandhu Avenue central office in the morning with maintaining health guidelines.
AL General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader addressed the discussion as the chief guest joining it virtually from his official residence.
AL Presidium Member Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif, Organizing Secretary Mirza Azam, Science and Technology Affair Secretary Engineer Abdus Sabur and Dhaka City North AL General Secretary SM Mannan Kachi addressed it, among others.
Dhaka City North AL Vice-President Sadek Khan chaired it.
Marking the day, AL’s Dhaka City South unit arranged a discussio and doa mahfil at Mahanagar Natyamancha here at 3pm.
AL Presidium Member Begum Matia Chowdhury addressed it as the chief guest while Presidium Member Abdur Rahman, Information and Broadcasting Minister and AL Joint General Secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud, Joint General Secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim, Organizing Secretary Mirza Azam, Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, AL Office Secretary Barrister Biplab Barua and Dhaka City South AL General Secretary Md Humayun Kabir addressed the discussion, among others.
Dhaka City South Al President valiant freedom fighter Abu Ahmed Mannafi chaired it.
Awami Swechchhasebak League organized a discussion at Jatiya Press Club auditorium with its president Nirmal Ranjan Guha in the chair.
AL Joint General Secretary AFM Bahauddin Nasim addressed it as the chief guest while Bangla daily Bhorer Kagoj Editor Shyamal Dutta and Swechchhasebak Leage General Secretary Afzalur Rahman Babu spoke on the occasion, among others.
Awami Jubo League arranged a doa and milad mahfil at Bangabandhu Avenue on the occasion of the four decades of the homecoming of successful statesman Sheikh Hasina. Cooked meals were also distributed among distributed on the occasion.
Jubo League General Secretary Md Mainul Hossain Khan Nikhil, Presidium Member Mamunur Rashid, Joint General Secretary Biswas Matiur Rahman Badsha, Organizing Secretaries Md Jahir Uddin Khasru, Md Sohel Parvez and Mashiur Rahman Chapal, Publicity Secretary Joydeb Nandi, Office Secretary Md Mostafizur Rahman Masud, Deputy Publicity Secretary Aditya Nandi and Deputy Office Secretary Md Delwar Hossain Shahjada addressed the function, among others.
Doa and milad mahfil was arranged at mosques across the country including Baitul Mukarram National Mosque in the capital.
As part of arranging special prayers at temples, pagodas, churches and other prayers’ houses, Christian community centrally arranged prayers at Holy Rosary Church at Tejgaon at 6am, Buddhist community at International Buddhist Monastery at Merul Badda at 10 am and Hindu community at Dhakeshwari National Temple at 11.30am.
A two-day documentary exhibition titled “Sheikh Hasina’s Four Decades: Indomitable Progress of Changed Bangladesh” ended today on the premises of Bangabandhu Bhaban at Dhanmondi road number 32. AL’s information and research affairs sub-committee arranged it.
‘Hasina: A Daughter’s Tale’, a docudrama bringing to life the trials and tribulations of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina went through following the assassination of her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was rescreened on television channels marking the homecoming day.
The locally and globally acclaimed docudrama was screened on BTV and BTV World at 3:30 pm while some private television channels also screened it, said a press release of Centre for Research and Information (CRI) here.
On May 17 in 1981, AL President Sheikh Hasina returned home after six years of exile defying different obstacles of the then government.
Boarding on an aircraft of the Indian Airlines, she reached the then Kurmitola Airport in Dhaka from the Indian capital of New Delhi via Kolkata at 4.30pm on that day four decades back.
Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was brutally killed along with most of his family members on August 15 in 1975 while his two daughters- Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana – luckily escaped the brutal assassination as they stayed abroad.
In a national council session of the Awami League on February 14-16 in 1981, Sheikh Hasina was elected as party president in her absence and then she returned to the country on May 17.
“I have returned to the country not to become a leader of the Awami League, rather to participate in the struggle for freedom by staying beside the people,” said the AL president in a heart touching reception accorded by nearly 1.5 million people at the airport at that time.
She added: “I want to stay beside you as your sister, as your daughter, and as a worker of Awami League, who believes in the ideals of Bangabandhu.”
Source: BSS