Mujibnagar Day today

Today is April 17, which marks the historical Mujibnagar Day. During the previous Awami League government, the day used to be celebrated with various ceremonies and official programmes. Even after the fall of that government on August 5, Mujibnagar Day was observed in a brief manner under the interim government. However, after seventeen years, there is no state ceremony to mark Mujibnagar Day at the complex premises this time. 

The Deputy Commissioner of Meherpur, Shilpi Rani Roy, said that they had come to know verbally that Mujibnagar Day is not being celebrated on this occasion. Nevertheless, they have not received any official written letter in this regard.

Mujibnagar in Meherpur district, known as the first capital of independent Bangladesh, is one of the most significant historical places in the country. It was in this mango orchard, locally called Amrakanan, that the first government of independent Bangladesh was formed on April 17, 1971. 

Hussain Muhammad Ershad first constructed a memorial with twenty-three pillars to preserve the memory of independence, giving special importance to Mujibnagar. Later, in 1996, the Awami League government acquired 80.42 acres of land and initiated the development of the Mujibnagar Liberation War Memorial Complex.

According to the geographical layout, the eleven sectors of the Liberation War were shown on the map, and various scenes from the war were depicted through approximately six hundred sculptures. 

Visitors from far and wide would come to the historic Mujibnagar to learn about the history of the Liberation War. 

However, miscreants have damaged about forty per cent of those sculptures, leaving them scattered here and there. On August 5, after the departure of the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from the country, students and members of the public took to the streets in Mujibnagar, Meherpur, just as they did elsewhere in the country, to hold joyous processions. 

Taking advantage of the situation, some miscreants vandalised the sculptures at the oath-taking site of the Mujibnagar government. The Mujibnagar Liberation War Memorial Complex now stands bearing these wounds.

At the Mujibnagar Day celebration on  April 17, 2025, the Adviser to the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs, Faruk-e-Azam Birpratik, stated that the interim government had no desire to change the name of the Mujibnagar government, because history can never be erased. 

He explained that although the government was formed on April 10, the oath-taking ceremony was held in Mujibnagar on April 17. The Mujibnagar government established connections with the country and the international community. It was not an expatriate or temporary government. Bangladesh achieved independence under the leadership of this government. Therefore, this government was a constitutional one, and its oath-taking ceremony remains a glorious chapter in the nation’s history. 

He also assured that the damage done to the Mujibnagar Liberation War Memorial Complex would be repaired, that the history of the Liberation War would not be erased, and that nothing would be imposed upon it. However, the complex has not yet been repaired. During the interim government, in November and December, the Public Works Department prepared a list to assess the damage from Meherpur to the Mujibnagar Complex. 

The Sub-Divisional Engineer of the Public Works Department in Meherpur, Md. Jamal Uddin, said that a list of damaged and missing items was prepared and sent on the instructions of the ministry. At that time, a team from Dhaka visited and inspected the site. A letter was also issued for the allocation of funds, stating that sixty lakh eighty-seven thousand taka would be required for the repairs. The work could not proceed due to the lack of government budget.

On April 17, at the beginning of the 1971 Liberation War, the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Independent Bengal officially took its oath in a mango orchard in Baidyanathtala (now known as Mujibnagar) under the then Meherpur subdivision of Kushtia district. The mango orchard was named ‘Mujibnagar’ and declared the temporary capital of Bangladesh.