Today is the homecoming day of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Mujib returned to independent Bangladesh on January 10, 1972, after his release from solitary confinement for nine months and a half in a Pakistan prison during the War of Independence.
The Pakistan government released him on January 8, 1972. From Pakistan he flew to London where he stayed on January 9 and met the then British prime minister Edward Heath and addressed the international media.
He flew to Dhaka on January 10 with a brief stopover in New Delhi. A huge crowd welcomed him back at the erstwhile Tejgaon airport in the capital Dhaka.
Mujib, who was the president of the Awami League, was earlier picked up by the occupation forces of Pakistan from his residence on Road 32 of Dhanmondi in Dhaka at the midnight of March 25, 1971, after they had started a crackdown on the unarmed Bengalis in what was then East Pakistan.
Traditionally, the Awami League and its associate and front organisations, along with various socio-cultural bodies, used to observe the homecoming anniversary with elaborate programmes every year.
However, since the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League regime amid a student-led mass uprising on August 5, 2024, the day had not been officially observed by the party.
Most of the party’s senior leaders, including its president Sheikh Hasina, are currently facing numerous cases on various charges, including allegations of mass killings during the July uprising, and many of them are either in hiding or staying abroad.
In May 2025, the interim government issued a gazette imposing ban on all activities of Awami League and its affiliated, associate and like-minded organisations until the completion of the ongoing trial proceedings against the party’s leaders and activists at the International Crimes Tribunal.
Source: https://www.newagebd.net/post/politics/287680/sheikh-mujibs-homecoming-day-today
