City Desk :
Sheikh Russell Day will be observed in the country today in a befitting manner coinciding with the 60th birthday of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s youngest son Shaheed Sheikh Russell.
Russell, also the youngest brother of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was born on October 18 in 1964 at the historic Bangabandhu Bhaban at Dhanmondi road number 32 in the capital, reports BSS.
But he was brutally assassinated along with most of his family members, including his father Bangabandhu, on August 15, 1975 when he was a student of class four at University Laboratory School.
The Cabinet Division in 2021 declared October 18, the birthday of Sheikh Russell, as ‘Sheikh Russell Day’ under the category “Ka”.
To mark the day, government bodies, ruling Awami League and its associate bodies and different socio-cultural organizations will observe various programmes at national and international levels.
The day will also be observed at Bangladesh missions abroad while different TV channels will air special programmes highlighting the significance of the day tomorrow.
Sheikh Russell was named after Bangabandhu’s favorite writer, renowned philosopher and Noble laureate Bertrand Russell, by Bangabandhu himself and Mother Sheikh Fazilatun Nesa Mujib, according to government website https://sheikhrussel.gov.bd/index-en.html.
Very active and playful from a very early age, Russell was light of the family.
However, life didn’t remain playful.
He had to face the harsh cruelty of life from the age of one and half, when he had to visit Dhaka Central Jail and Dhaka Cantonment just to meet his beloved father.
From cruelty, life soon became merciless. In 1971, he himself became an inmate of Dhaka Central Jail, just at the age of seven.