Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday vowed to change the lot of the distressed people by transforming Bangladesh into a developed and prosperous country as envisioned by the Father of the Nation, calling upon all to work from their respective positions to advance the country maintaining the existing progress.
“Today, our target is to materialise the dream of Bangabandhu for which he liberated the country. We will bring smile on the faces of distressed people and build a Sonar Bangla free from poverty and hunger,” she said.
The Prime Minister reiterated her commitment saying that she would implement the dream of the Father of the Nation by changing the fate of the distressed people.
She said this while virtually presiding over a discussion titled “Mukto Swadeshe Jatir Pita” (Father of the Nation in the Liberated Homeland) from her official Ganabhaban residence here marking 50 years of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s homecoming after the country’s independence.
The National Implementation Committee for Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s 100th Birth Anniversary Celebration organised the function at Shaheed Monirul Alam Auditorium at BTV in Rampura here.
Sheikh Hasina, elder daughter of Bangabandhu, said their target is to shape the fate of the people for which her father struggled throughout his life and he was jailed and tortured time and again and finally sacrificed his life.
The Prime Minister called upon the people to do their parts in transforming Bangladesh into a Sonar Bangla maintaining the country’s existing advancement.
She thanked the countrymen as the Awami League has got the chance to work for the people after being elected to power time and again.
The Prime Minister said it was a big matter that they have got the chance to celebrate the country’s golden jubilee of independence, birth centenary of the Father of the Nation and 50 years of Bangabandhu’s homecoming.
She said that they had a plan to celebrate 50 years of Bangabandhu’s homecoming on a large scale at his birthplace Tungipara, Gopalganj, adding that they are now observing it on a limited scale due fresh surge of new variant of the coronavirus, thinking people’s safety.
Former vice-chancellor of Dhaka University Prof Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique spoke on the occasion while former foreign secretary Mohiuddin Ahmed, one of the three persons who received Bangabandhu at the Heathrow International Airport in London on January 8 in 1972 on his arrival from the Pakistani jail, shared his experience of that moment.
Chief Coordinator of the national implementation committee Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury gave the welcome address.
Noted actor Asaduzzaman Noor, MP, recited two poems on Bangabandhu and Bangamata written by their younger daughter Sheikh Rehana.
At the outset of the programme, a group of children sang the national anthem. At that time, all attending the function stood in solemn silence for some time in respect to the Father of the Nation while the theme song of the Mujib Borsho was also played.
An audio-video documentary was screened on the occasion.
Bangabandhu, the undisputed leader of the nation and supreme commander of the country’s Liberation War, returned to the sacred soil of independent Bangladesh via London and New Delhi on January 10 in 1972, after 290 days of confinement in Pakistan jail.
Since then, the nation is observing the day as the Homecoming Day of the Father of the Nation.
