Tens of thousands of people joined in singing Bangladesh’s national anthem ‘Amar Sonar Bangla, Ami Tomay Bhalobashi’ (My Bengal of Gold, I love you) at the Suhrawardy Udyan where the Bangalees’ charter of freedom was written 42 years ago.
The song, composed by Rabindranath Tagore, had inspired the nation during Bangladesh’s War for Independence from Pakistan in 1971. It was later adopted as the national anthem.
The huge mass of gathered people sang the anthem at 4:31pm on Monday in unison at the ‘Bijoy 2013’ celebration at the historic park.
Then they took oath to boycott all war criminals and their collaborators. Deputy Commander-In-Chief of the Mukti Bahini AK Khandker, one of those who witnessed the Instrument of Surrender of Pakistani occupation forces on this day in 1971, was present as they took the oath.
However, this year the mood of celebrations was a little different than usual after the first of the war criminals, Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General and former Al-Badr leader Abdul Quader Molla was hanged.
Explaining, Professor Emeritus Anisuzzaman said, “For 40 years, we have been demanding trial of those who betrayed the country during the Liberation War and committed crimes against humanity. At last their trial process has begun and the first of the verdicts has been carried out.”
Bijoy 2013 Udjapan Jatiya Committee, Sector Commanders’ Forum, Muktijuddher Chetona Bastabayan Committee, Bijoy 4:31 Mancha and Ganajagaran Mancha co-organised the Victory Day celebrations this year.
Before the singing of the national anthem in the afternoon, since the morning singers of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra sang songs that had once inspired freedom-loving people to fighting on until freedom was won in 1971.
Suhrawardy Udyan is also the place where the nation’s architect Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had delivered his historic speech on March 7, 1971. He had said: “This time the struggle is for our freedom” – electrifying words that had galvanised the Bangalee nation into a struggle for freedom.
On Dec 16, 1971, the military commander of East Pakistan, General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, surrendered with 93,000 troops to the joint forces of Mukti Bahini and Mitra Bahini, led by India’s eastern army commander General Jagjit Singh Aurora, at the Ramna Race Course Ground (now the Suhrawardy Udyan) in Dhaka.
The Instrument of Surrender was signed at 4:31pm on Dec 16, 1971.
Retired Air Vice-Marshal AK Khandker said, “The main theme of today’s ceremony is to have the national anthem sung by millions at that historic moment (4:31pm).”
Source: Bd news24
