Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday said the historic six-point demand was the “Magna Carta” for the Bengali Nation, which ultimately brought independence to the country.
"The six-point was the Magna Carta for the Bengali Nation. We achieved our independence through this Six-Point," she said.
The premier was addressing a discussion arranged by Bangladesh Awami League (AL) at its office in the city's Tejgaon area, marking the historic Six-Point Day.
Drawing a comparison of deprivation between the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan she said it was Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who had strongly protested the long-running deprivation.
"Whatever had been needed to remove that deprivation he (Bangabandhu) reflected in this Six-Point demand," she said.
Hasina, also the eldest daughter of Bangabandhu, highlighted how the Father of the Nation carried out campaigns through every corner of the country to make the six-point demand popular among the people.
She asked her party members to read the book titled "Secret Documents of Intelligence Branch on Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman" saying that AL activists should read the book and know how he (Bangabandhu) made the nation inspired the spirit of independence through his struggles.
"He (Bangabandhu) had wanted to free the people of this country from deprivation. This is why he placed this Six-Point Demand," she added.
AL President, Sheikh Hasina, said the party had gained an absolute majority in the entire Pakistan in the 1970 election under the leadership of Bangabandhu.
Noting that there was a 20-party alliance as the rival of Awami League in the 1970 election, she said, "Now there is also a 20-party alliance as our rival... That 20 don’t go anymore. That 20 remains like carbuncles."
The AL chief asked her party men to stand beside the people of the country and work for them.
Among the AL leaders, its praesidium members Fazlul Karim Selim, Shajahan Khan, Qamrul Islam and Dr Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin, liberation war affairs secretary Mrinal Kanti Das, science and technology affairs secretary Abdus Sabur and its central working committee member Sanjida Khanam, spoke on the occasion.
On this day in 1966, Bangabandhu launched a massive movement against the misrule of the Pakistanis based on the six-point demand, the Magna Carta of the Bangalees demanding autonomy for the then East Pakistan.
The Awami League under the leadership of Bangabandhu called for a day-long hartal on June 7 1966 throughout then-East Pakistan pressing the demand for autonomy to end the exploitation, deprivation, subjugation and tyranny of the then central government of Pakistan on the people here.
Eleven people, including labour leader Manu Mian, Shafique and Shamsul Haque, were killed as the police and paramilitary East Pakistan Rifles (EPR) opened fire on the demonstrators on the day in Dhaka, Tongi and Narayanganj during the hartal.
The Pakistani atrocities intensified the movement for provincial autonomy turning it into the historic mass upsurge in 1969 that subsequently caused the downfall of the reign of dictator Field Marshal Ayub Khan.
