Bangladesh marks Hasina’s homecoming

UNB, Dhaka :

The 42nd anniversary of the ruling Awami League president and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s homecoming from exile was observed in Bangladesh on Tuesday.

On this day in 1981, Hasina returned home from India after nearly six years in exile following the assassination of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members by a cabal of army officers on August 15, 1975.

Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana survived as they were in Germany at the time. The two sisters were forced to live in exile till Hasina was elected the president of the Awami League in her absence in the party’s national council held on February 14-16, 1981.

After landing at Dhaka’s Kurmitola airport on the rain-swept afternoon on May 17, Hasina addressed a huge rally at Manik Miah Avenue where she vowed to dedicate her life to the restoration of democracy and fulfil Bangabndhu’s “unfinished task of building Bangladesh into a ‘Sonar Bangla’, a land of prosperity”.

To mark the day, the Awami League and its front and associated bodies, organised discussions and other programmes, highlighting the significance of her return and how she changed the political and development landscape of Bangladesh as the Prime Minister.

Special prayers were held at mosques and other places of worship across the country seeking blessings for Hasina.

The Hindu community also arranged a prayer programme at the Dhakeshwari temple in the capital at 10am and the Buddhist community at the International Buddhist monastery temple at Merul Badda at 9.30am. The Christian community’s programme is scheduled at the YMCA Church in Mirpur-10 at 6pm.