The year-long celebrations marking the 100th birthday of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the architect of independent Bangladesh, get underway throughout the country on Tuesday, March 17th, 2020. Bangabandhu’s birth centenary will also be celebrated all over the world in line with the initiative of Unesco.
On this day in 1920, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was born to Sheikh Lutfar Rahman and Sayera Khatun in Tungipara of Gopalganj, then a sub-district of Faridpur. Through his dynamic leadership, Bangabandhu organized the Bangali nation in the struggle against exploitation and repression by Pakistani rulers between 1947 and 1971. On March 7, 1971, he delivered the historic speech that inspired Bangalis in their movement against subjugation and subordination by West Pakistan, declaiming, “Our struggle is for our freedom. Our struggle is for our independence.” A few weeks later, in the early hours of March 26, he declared Bangladesh’s independence before being arrested by the Pakistani occupation army. The movement culminated in the emergence of independent Bangladesh through a nine-month Liberation War in 1971. On returning from imprisonment in Pakistan after liberation, Mujib began rebuilding the war-ravaged state. On August 15, 1975, the great leader, along with most of his family members, was assassinated by a disgruntled group of army men.
From Tuesday till March 26, 2021, the whole nation will mark the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation through various programs. Additionally, under the supervision of Unesco, the entire world will celebrate the centenary. Through the celebrations by the United Nations, the history of Bangabandhu’s long struggle and his great sacrifice for the nation and the people of Bangladesh will be projected before the world.
We the peoples of Bangladesh will always remember with pride, the great sacrifice by the father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibar Rahman and all the freedom fighters who gave us an identity and an independent country BANGLADESH.