Victory Day in Bangladesh in 2020

Bangladesh rejoiced on its national Victory Day, with tens of thousands thronging to the street bearing national flags, placards and festoons while dressed up in red and green representing the blood of martyrs in the 1971 Liberation War as well as the country’s green natural beauty.

People from all walks of life, regardless of ethnic, political or other identities came to the streets in the capital city Dhaka since early morning on Monday to welcome the 49th Victory Day together under the banners of a myriad of socio-cultural organizations.

Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan on Dec. 16, 1971, after a bitter nine-month war led by the country’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of the current premier.

Since then the South Asian nation has been celebrating the day as the Victory Day of Bangladesh.

The country’s largest joint platform of various cultural bodies, Sammilita Sangskritik Jote, brought out a grand rally with a giant national flag at the Dhaka University campus early Monday morning.

“We believe in communal harmony and progress of Bangladesh with the spirit of the 1971 Liberation War and ideology of the father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,” Shimu Chowdhury, vice president of the platform, told Anadolu Agency following the rally.

Pointing to Bangladesh’s cultural development in the last 49 years after independence, he said Bangladesh was now a “role model of multiculturalism where people from all faiths and paths are living together with peace and enjoying their rights”.

“But still, we are far behind in achieving a corruption and narcotic-free Bangladesh,” Chowdhury said, adding that the country must ensure freedom of opinion and press as well as put an end to unjust practices like extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.