Declare April 10 as republic day: Barrister Amir-Ul Islam

Barrister M Amir-Ul Islam has said April 10 should be declared “Republic Day” and celebrated officially.

He was speaking at the conference “Proclamation of Independence: 10 April 1971 and the birth of a sovereign state”, organized by Bangladesh institute of Law and International Affairs (BILIA) at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital on Monday.

Barrister Amir-Ul Islam, the author of the Proclamation of Independence of Bangladesh (1971) and the Chairman of BILIA, also said the “Proclamation of Independence of Bangladesh” should be declared as the country’s “birth certificate.”

At the conference, he presented the keynote paper titled "Birth of the State Bangladesh".

Meanwhile, Prime Minister's Energy Adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury has said that de-facto independence of Bangladesh was already achieved through Bangabandhu's 7th March speech as the whole country was being run according to his instructions since then.

Barrister Tania Amir, the honorary secretary of BILIA, Ambassador Veena Sikri, former High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh, Professor Dr Syed Anwar Hossain, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Chair at Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP) were present among others while former BIMSTEC adviser, eminent poet and fiction writer Mujtaba Ahmed Murshed moderated the event. The conference was chaired by former Ambassador Muhammad Zamir.