Victory Day celebrated

The nation on Thursday celebrated the 51st Victory Day by paying deep homage to the martyrs of the Liberation War and taking an oath to build the country as a developed, prosperous and non-communal “Sonar Bangla”.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina administered an oath to the nation to build the country as a developed, prosperous and non-communal ‘Sonar Bangla’ with the ideology of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina lead the nation in paying tributes to the martyred freedom fighters placing wreaths at the National Memorial at Savar followed by the speaker and the chief justice.

Thousands of people poured into the National Memorial at Savar and other memorials across the country holding the green and red national flag to pay homage to the martyred freedom fighters amidst joy and festivity.

They renewed the pledge to create a secular and prosperous society free from poverty, inequality and injustice.

The Victory Day, a public holiday, was heralded by a pre-dawn 31-gun salute.

A Victory Day parade was held at National Parade Square marking the day coinciding with the golden jubilee celebrations of independence.

President M Abdul Hamid took the salute while his Indian counterpart, Ram Nath Kovind, joined the ceremony along with prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Military contingents from three foreign countries — India, Russia, and Bhutan — joined the parade. It was the first ever participation of foreign troops in the Victory Day ceremony since Bangladesh’s independence alongside the country’s forces.

The contingents of the three countries took part in the march-past while their own military music bands and officers led the troops and saluted the Bangladesh president.

The United States and Mexico sent military observer groups that too took part in the parade.

Twenty three contingents of Bangladesh’s army, navy, air force and paramilitary units as well as civil and utility services and ministries joined the parade.

The armed forces also displayed their defence hardware and weaponries in the ceremony at the National Parade Square alongside the march-past and the air-past, when the fighter jets and helicopters displayed their performances in the air.

Special prayers were offered at mosques, temples, churches and other places of worship for national progress and prosperity.

Newspapers brought out special supplements and television channels and radio stations aired special programmes to mark the Victory Day.

Kovind joined this evening the opening of a two-day programme titled ‘The Greatest Hero of the Glorious Victory’ at Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad complex.

The Bangladesh president opened the function as part of the birth centenary celebrations of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Ministers, opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, the three service chiefs, lawmakers, freedom fighters and diplomats paid homage to the martyrs at the National Memorial.

As the day wore on, the whole memorial area became crowded as people of all ages and different political, socio-cultural and professional organisations and different institutions gathered there, defying fear of Covid infection.