UNB, Dhaka :
People across the country will observe the National Mourning Day, the darkest chapter in the history of independent Bangladesh on Monday.
On this day in 1975, the nation’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members were assassinated by a cabal of military men.
Eighteen members of Bangabandhu’s family, including Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib, three sons – Captain Sheikh Kamal, Lieutenant Sheikh Jamal and 10-year-old Sheikh Russel, two daughters-in-law Sultana Kamal and Rosy Jamal, brother Sheikh Naser, peasant leader Abdur Rab Serniabat, youth leader Sheikh Fazlul Haq Moni and his wife Arzu Moni, Baby Serniabat, Sukanta Babu, Arif and Abdul Nayeem Khan Rintu were, among others, killed on that fateful night.
Bangabandhu’s Military Secretary Brigadier General Jamil was also killed. Several members of a family in the capital’s Mohammadpur area were killed by artillery shells fired by the killers on the same day.
His two daughters – Sheikh Hasina, now the Prime Minister, and Sheikh Rehana – luckily survived the massacre as they were abroad at that time.
The government, various socio-cultural, political and professional organisations, including ruling Awami League and its associate bodies, chalked out programmes to observe the day.
Elaborate programmes have been chalked out to observe the 47th martyrdom anniversary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and National Mourning Day on Monday.
The national flag will be hoisted half-mast in all government, semi-government, autonomous institutions, educational institutions and private buildings including Bangladesh missions abroad.
At 6.30 am in the morning, President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will lay wreaths at the portrait of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Dhanmondi Road-32 in the capital.
A guard of honor will be presented by the armed forces and prayers will be offered.
At 7.30 am, the Prime Minister will place wreaths and flower petals in the Banani Graveyard on the graves of the family members of the Father of the Nation and other martyrs who were brutally killed on August 15, 1975, along with Bangabandhu. She will also offer Fateha and munajat for salvation of the souls of the martyrs there.
The Prime Minister will pay homage to the Father of the Nation by placing a wreath at mazar of Bangabandhu at Tungipara in Gopalganj at 10 am. Apart from Honor Guard by the Armed Forces, fateha will be recited and munajat will be offered at Bangabandhu Mausoleum complex.
Special doa and munajat will be held in mosques across the country after Zohr prayers marking the occasion. Special prayers will also be organized in temples, churches, pagodas and other religious institutions.
Special supplements will be published in national dailies and periodicals on the occasion.
Department of Films and Publications (DFP) has published posters for distribution across the country. Posters in English language have already been dispatched to Bangladesh diplomatic missions abroad.
On the occasion of mourning day, Department of Mass Communication will screen documentary films on life and works of Bangabandhu across the country. The Press Information Department (PID) organized a week-long photo exhibition at the Bangladesh Secretariat.
Regional Information Offices under PID also arranged Photo Exhibition at divisional level. Bangladesh Betar and Bangladesh Television will air special programmes on the occasion.
All public and private primary schools, high schools, madrasas, colleges, medical colleges and universities and other educational institutions will organize discussion meetings, poetry recitations, essay writing and painting competitions, art exhibitions, hamd-naat competitions and doa mahfils.
In line with the national programme, discussion meetings, doa mahfil and other programs will be held at the district and upazila levels.
All city corporations, municipalities and union parishads of the country will chalk out and implement their own mourning day programmes.
The programmes of Dhanmondi, Banani and Tungipara will be broadcast live on Bangladesh Betar and Bangladesh Television. Other private television channels, FM radio and community radio will also broadcast the programmes live with the help of Bangladesh Betar and Bangladesh Television.
AL leaders and workers will pay tributes to Bangabandhu by placing wreaths at his portrait on the premises of Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi road number 32 here at 6am.
An AL press release also said that tributes will also be paid to other martyrs of August 15 by placing wreaths at their graves in Banani graveyard at 8am.
A delegation of Awami League Central Working Committee, Gopalganj district and Tungipara upazila units of the party will pay homage to Bangabandhu by placing wreaths at his mausoleum at Tungipara in Gopalganj at 12 noon where Fateha offering, milad and doa mahfil will be arranged there.
On the second day, a discussion will be arranged at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) on the occasion of the National Mourning Day in the afternoon (4pm).
Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to chair it.
