The historic Mass Upsurge Day, commemorating 1969`s movement for autonomy from the then East Pakistan that eventually led to the Liberation War and the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971, is being today.
On 24 January 1969, Matiur Rahman Mallik, a standard IX student of Nabakumar Institution, and Rustam Ali, a rickshaw-puller, were killed in a police firing on demonstrators in Dhaka as Pakistani rulers desperately tried to suppress the popular uprising.
The killings spread intense protests across the country that eventually saw the fall of the autocrat Ayub regime.
It is said that the day teaches Bangladeshis the values of democracy and protest against oppression.
Different political and socio-cultural organisations have taken separate programmes in observance of the day.
Bangladesh Awami League will place wreaths at Shaheed Matiur Rahman Smiriti Saudha at Nabakumar Institute in Bakshibazar at 10am today.
On the eve of the day, President Mohammed Shahabuddin and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages, expressing profound respect for those who had embraced martyrdom in the historic movement in 1969.
The president said Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared the historic six-point demand in 1966 to make the Bangalee nation free from Pakistani rule, exploitation and deprivation.
The six-point was the charter of Bengalees` freedom, he added.
The president said after the Six-Point Declaration, the speed of the freedom movement intensified and it spread all over the East Bengal.
"The joint movement of Awami League as well as various political parties and student organisations accelerated the mass movement," the president said, adding that the then dictator filed the Agartala conspiracy case to foil the movement.
Mohammed Shahabuddin urged all to work together for building a prosperous Bangladesh being imbued with the spirit of the 1969 mass uprising.
In her message, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called upon all, irrespective of party affiliations, to work together for building a modern, developed and prosperous nation dreamt by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
She said the 1969 mass upsurge is a significant chapter in the history of the country`s independence.
The nation achieved independence following the 1952 Language Movement, Six-Point Demand, 11-Point Demand, the Mass Upsurge of 1969 and the armed War of Liberation, the premier said.
