Bangladesh is celebrating 49 years of its emergence as a new country on the map of the world on Dec 16, 1971 after nine months of bloodbath.
After over two decades of West Pakistani rule, Bengalis in then the East Pakistan won a bloody war to carve out an independent state on this day.
The victory was hard won after millions of Bangladeshis faced bloodshed, torture, deprivation and persecution.
President Md Abdul Hamid’s Victory Day message has taken pride in Bangladesh’s journey towards development.
Noting that the country’s people are getting benefits of the development programmes, he said with successive economic growth, Bangladesh is marching forward in every socio-economic indicator including education, health, women empowerment, per capita income etc. Bangladesh has got recognition the status of low-middle-income country and graduated from least developed country (LDC) to a developing country.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in her message, renewed the resolve to establish ‘Sonar Bangla’ as dreamt by the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“On the eve of the golden jubilee of our independence, I would like to call upon all to play their due role from their respective positions to accelerate the development, uphold democratic polity and establish good governance frustrating all sorts of conspiracy against democracy and the government being imbued with the spirit of liberation war,” she said in the message.
The nation will remember the three million martyrs of the Liberation War through a slew of programmes on Monday, the 49th anniversary of the victory over Pakistan.
The national flag will be hoisted at all government and non-government buildings while the National Memorial in Savar and other monuments raised across the country to commemorate the martyrs will be covered with flowers of respect.
The nation began its armed struggle against the occupation of Pakistani forces on March 26, 1971 and won its victory on Dec 16.
On this day in 1971, Pakistan Army's Lieutenant General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi formally surrendered along with some 93,000 soldiers to Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, General Officer Commanding in Chief of the allied forces of the Muktibahini and Indian Army, at the Race Course in Dhaka, and the People’s Republic of Bangladesh was born.

India also commemorates the victory as Vijay Diwas.
The celebrations of the day will start with a 31-gun salute at National Parade Square in the capital’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.
The next programmes will revolve round the National Memorial in Savar.
The president and the prime minister will lead the nation in paying respect to the martyrs by placing wreaths at the memorial just after sunrise. It will be then be opened to organisations along with individuals.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will pay tribute to Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the memorial in front of Bangabandhu Bhaban at the historic Dhanmondi 32 in Dhaka.
The Victory Day Parade at by the armed forces will start at 10.30am in the National Parade Square.
The president will take salute as chief guest at the parade. The prime minister will also be present on the occasion.
Important buildings and establishments have been illuminated. Key roads and road islands have already been decorated with national flags and colourful festoons.
Special prayers will be offered in mosques, temples, pagodas and other places of worship seeking peace, progress and prosperity.
Newspapers are publishing special supplements marking the day and televisions and radios, too, will air special programmes.
Bangladesh missions abroad will observe the day through various programmes.
In 2017, the celebration had reached a new height following the UNESCO’s recognition of Bangabandhu’s historic March 7th Speech as a part of the world’s documentary heritage.
Bangabandhu effectively decelerated the country’s independence in a mammoth public rally at the then-Racecourse grounds (now Suhrawardy Udyan) in Dhaka on March 7, 1971.
The speech inspired the Bengali nation in their quest for freedom and energised freedom loving people for freeing the country through War of Liberation.