Agartala, March 26 (IANS): Bangladesh Independence Day and National Day was celebrated across Tripura on Monday with several functions.
The celebrations began on Sunday with a candlelight gathering here to commemorate the martyrs who were massacred on March 25, 1971.
Bangladesh’s Assistant High Commission -- the second diplomatic mission in northeast India after Guwahati in Assam -- organised the series of programmes to observe the day.
Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, Chairman University of Grants Commission of Bangladesh Abdul Mannan, and Editor of Dainik Sambad Pradip Datta Bhowmik, among others, spoke at a seminar organised on the occasion.
“People of Tripura are always soft and heartfelt towards Bangladesh,” Bangladesh’s Assistant High Commissioner Shakhawat Hossain told IANS.
He said, “A large number of people of Tripura always took part in the Bangladesh national days on March 26 and December 16 every year. People of Tripura are always behind Bangladesh’s every struggle.”
Artists, including renowned singers, from both Bangladesh and India, performed at the function.
Local people and various groups also organised functions in many places across the state.
Days after the Pakistani forces unleashed attacks across Bangladesh, the then East Pakistan’s leaders vowed to win their independence on March 26, 1971. Bangabandhu Mujibur Rehman launched a guerilla war against the then Pakistani rulers.
The Liberation War later turned into a full-scale India-Pakistan War, leading to the surrender of 93,000 Pakistani soldiers in Dhaka on December 16, 1971.
India was the first country to recognise Bangladesh as a sovereign nation.
According to Bangladeshi freedom fighters and experts, Pakistani forces, during the 9 months of the Liberation War (March 26 to December 16, 1971), massacred over 3 million Bengali-speaking people, including children, and raped over 6 lakh women.
Over 1 crore families were uprooted from their ancestral homes and lands during that period.
