The Awami League, the oldest and largest political party in Bangladesh, will celebrate its 72nd foundation day in a restricted manner on Sunday, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The anniversary programmes will begin at Dhaka’s 32 Dhanmondi Road on Sunday morning, with the hoisting of the national and party flags at Bangabandhu Bhaban and the Awami League central office.
The Awami League and its affiliate organisations will pay homage to the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, by placing wreaths at his portrait at the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum.
The ruling party will also hoist the national and party flags at its offices across the country, reports UNB.
A delegation from the Awami League Central Working Committee (ALCWC) will place wreaths at 10 am at the mausoleum of Bangabandhu in his birthplace of Tungipara in Gopalganj while presidium member Lt Col Muhammad Faruq Khan (Retired), Jahangir Kabir Nanak, organisational secretary SM Kamal Hossain, Mirza Azam, Shahabuddin Farazi, and Syed Abdul Awal Shamim will attend the programme.
Alongside, a discussion programme marking the foundation day of the party will be held at 4 pm at the party's central office on Bangbhabandhu Avenue where its President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will virtually attend the programme.
Party general secretary Obaidul Quader has already called up all party and associate bodies' leaders, activists and followers and urged them to organise programmes in a limited manner maintaining all Covid-safety protocols.
The party began its journey on June 23 in 1949, when a young, secular and progressive section of the Muslim League formed the East Pakistan Awami Muslim League, at a meeting in the historic Rose Garden on KM Das Lane in Dhaka’s Tikatuli.
Maulana Abdul Hamid Bhashani was elected as the founding president, and Shamsul Hoque was named the general secretary.
In July 1953, during the Second National Council meeting of the party, Bhashani was re-elected president, and the Father of the Nation was named the new general secretary.