Historic Mass Upsurge Day today

The historic 'Mass Upsurge Day', commemorating the 1969's movement for autonomy from the then East Pakistan that eventually led to the Liberation War and the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971, is being observed on Wednesday in a befitting manner.

On January 24, 1969, Matiur Rahman Mallik, a standard IX student of Nabakumar Institution, and Rustam Ali, a rickshaw-puller, were killed in a police firing on demonstrators in Dhaka as Pakistani rulers desperately tried to suppress the popular uprising.

The killings spread intense protests across the country that eventually saw the fall of the autocrat Ayub regime.

It is said that the day teaches Bangladeshis the values of democracy and protest against oppression.

Different political and socio-cultural organisations have taken separate programmes in observance of the day.

Bangladesh Awami League will place wreaths at Shaheed Matiur Rahman Smiriti Saudha at Nabakumar Institute in Bakshibazar at 10am.

 AL General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges minister Obaidul Quader has urged party leaders-workers to join the programme.

On the eve of the day, President Mohammed Shahabuddin and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today issued separate messages, expressing profound respect for those who had embraced martyrdom in the historic movement in 1969.

/KN/