Countdown to Mujib Year celebrations to begin Jan 10

The countdown to the year-long celebrations of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s birth centenary is set to begin on January 10.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to launch the countdown in Dhaka and across Bangladesh – at every upazila in every district, and in all public places.

The day is significant for beginning the countdown as it marks the anniversary of Bangabandhu’s homecoming: his release from Pakistan and return to an independent Bangladesh in 1972. 

“On January 10, 1972, Bangabandhu returned to an independent and sovereign Bangladesh after spending nine and a half months of captivity in a Pakistan jail. He was flown in by a British Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft, which landed at the old airport in Tejgaon,” said Barrister Shah Ali Farhad, special assistant to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is closely working with the national committee in charge of organizing the birth centenary celebrations. 

“We aim to create an ambience similar to how it was at the old airport in Tejgaon on January 10, 1972,” Farhad told Dhaka Tribune yesterday. “To this end, we have collected an aircraft, of the same model that Bangabandhu flew in, from the UK.” 

The aircraft is a gift from the British government to the Bangladesh government, he further added. 

Bangabandhu’s birth centenary celebrations, officially termed “Mujib Borsho” or Mujib Year, will take off on his birthday, March 17, and will continue till March 26, 2021, which marks the Golden Jubilee of Bangladesh’s Independence Day. 

The “Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Birth Centenary Celebration National Implementation Committee,” the committee in charge of the celebrations, will organize a program for the launch of the countdown, in association with the Armed Forces Division, Farhad told Dhaka Tribune. 

The event is set to take place at the National Parade Ground in Tejgaon. The prime minister will officially launch the countdown on the afternoon of January 10. She will also reveal the logo of the birth centenary celebrations at the same event. 

Prof Rafiqul Islam, chairman of the national implementation committee, said: “We will start this countdown spontaneously for the celebrations. That spontaneity will depend on the participation of the younger generation."

Earlier on December 4, at an event at the International Mother Language Institute in Dhaka, Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, chief coordinator of the committee, said installations for the countdown would be set up in every divisional headquarters, district, city corporation and upazila, with the cooperation of divisional commissioners, deputy commissioners, and cultural and political personalities. 

There will be a big countdown installation set up in front of the parliament building, he further added. 

Bangladesh missions abroad instructed to celebrate Mujib Year

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has directed all its missions abroad to celebrate Mujib Year, involving governments and civil societies of the host countries, as well as expatriate Bangladeshis.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen issued the directive in a letter to heads of all Bangladesh missions on Tuesday.

“The observance of Mujib Year is not only a mere formality for us. Rather, it is our respect to the singular role of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in regard to our identity as a nation, Bangali nation, and establishment of the state of Bangladesh,” the foreign minister said in the letter.

He mentioned that the Mujib Year was a huge opportunity to project Bangladesh’s recent “unthinkable successes” in the international arena. 

Dr Momen directed all the missions to play a more active role in upholding the image of the country before the world by projecting Bangladesh’s successes before all the governments, business communities, civil societies and people of the world.  

The GDP growth of the country currently stands at 8.15%, and is going to rise to 10% very soon, the foreign minister hoped.