Victory Day today

The nation is celebrating today (Monday) the 49th Victory Day, marking the most precious day when the country was liberated from the Pakistani occupation forces after a nine-month-long bloodstained War of Liberation.

Forty-eight years  back on December 16 in 1971, Bangladesh was born as an independent country under the leadership of the Father of Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and for the supreme sacrifice of three million people and the honour of nearly half a million women.

Different socio-political, educational and cultural institutions and organisations have chalked out a series of programmes to celebrate the nation’s glorious victory over the Pakistani occupation force.

The government has taken elaborate programmes to celebrate the Day at the national level today.

The day started with 31 gun salutes. President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid tributes to the martyrs of the Liberation War by placing wreaths at the National Mausoleum at Savar with the rise of the sun.

They are followed by the freedom fighters and their family members, foreign diplomats, leaders of Awami League and different political and social organisations and people from all walks of life.

The day is a public holiday. The national flag is being hoisted atop government, semi-government and private offices as well as offices of autonomous bodies across the country.

Important buildings and establishments will be illuminated at night. Important roads and road islands have already been decorated with miniature national flags and colourful festoons.

President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages on the occasion. National dailies have brought out special supplements.

The state-owned and private televisions and radios broadcast month-long special programmes highlighting the Liberation War.

Special prayers will be offered in mosques and other places of worship, seeking eternal peace of the souls of the martyrs of Liberation War and peace, progress and prosperity of the country.

Improved diets will be served in jails, hospitals, orphanages and vagrant homes across the country.

Dhaka/Mukul