Victory Day today
December 16, 2009 00:00:00
The nation celebrates the 39th Victory Day today (Wednesday) recalling the final moments of victory after a nine-month war of liberation against Pakistan, marked by bloodshed of millions, reports BSS.
The victory paved the way for the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation on the world stage.
A 31-gun salute will herald the day.
The day's programme will start with offering of wreaths by the President at the National Memorial at suburban Savar paying homage to the 1971 Liberation War martyrs.
President Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in separate statements congratulated the countrymen on the eve of the day.
Programmes have been drawn up for the celebration of the day at the state level and by numerous socio-political and cultural organisations to renew the spirit of independence for rebuilding the nation.
But the revisiting of the memory lanes would possibly enable the nation, particularly the new generation, to appreciate the long struggle, from the 1952 Language Movement to the 1971 Liberation War, which culminated in the final victory on December 16, 38 years ago.
Pakistani Army General A.A.K. Niazi led his 93,000 soldiers to bow down under an instrument for unconditional surrender to the allied forces of Mukti Bahini and Indian army at the historic site at Suhrawardy Udyan in Dhaka.
This was the venue from where Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman asked the people to prepare for an independence war "with whatever (weapon) you have" on March 7, 1971 ahead of his final independence declaration on March 25 night, just before his arrest by Pakistani military junta.
Several documents and visual documentaries by local and foreign journalists and researchers, war veterans and even by the defeated Pakistani soldiers drew the events leading to the eventual victory.