8 to receive Swadhinata Padak

Eight distinguished personalities of the country have been selected for the Swadhinata Padak-2015 in recognition of their outstanding contributions in their respective fields, reports UNB.

The awardees include late Commandant Manik Chowdhury, who made significant contributions towards organising the Liberation War in 1971 in Sylhet, late Mamun Mahmud, who was a police officer in 1971 and killed by Pakistani occupation forces for helping the freedom fighters, late Shah AMS Kibria, who played an important role in the campaign for Bangladesh's war of independence in Washington, and veteran politician Prof Mozaffar Ahmed, who was an adviser to the war-time government of Bangladesh.

Besides, educationist and Prof Emeritus of Dhaka University Anisuzzaman, renowned film actor Abdur Razzak, agricultural scientist and former director general of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) Muhammad Hossain Mondol and eminent journalist late Santosh Gupta have also been nominated as recipients of the award.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will hand over the awards to the recipients at a function at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the city on March 25.