Bangladesh
Hasina Homecoming Today is Sheikh Hasina's Homecoming Day
Dhaka, May 17: Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 40th Homecoming Day is today, May 17. On this day in 1981, after a long exile, she returned to Bengal. She arrived at the then Dhaka Kurmitola Airport via Kolkata from the Indian capital Delhi at 4.30 pm on an Indian Airlines Boeing flight.
On 15 August 1975, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family were brutally killed. At that time, his two daughters, Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, were in exile and they got relief from the killers. Hasina was later elected President of the Awami League in her absence at the session of the National Council of the Awami League held in Dhaka on 14, 15 and 16 February 1981. Then on May 17 she returned to the country.
In response to the heartfelt love of about 1.5 million people present at the airport to welcome Sheikh Hasina, she said, "I have come to the country to take part in the liberation struggle from the side of the people of Bengal. I have not come to be the leader of Awami League. As a believing Awami League worker, I want to be by your side."
On the occasion of Homecoming Day, various socio-cultural organizations including Awami League hold detailed programs every year across the country, but this time due to coronavirus situation, they will observe the day to a limited extent due to health conditions.
In a message on the occasion of the day on Sunday, President Md. Abdul Hamid said that Sheikh Hasina's return home is a milestone in the history of democracy in Bangladesh.
He said that on the night of August 15, 1975, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family were brutally killed by the anti-independence assassins. At that time his two daughters Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana stayed in the then West Germany and they survived. But they could not return to the country. They had to spend the next 7 years in exile in London and Delhi in extreme hostility, bearing the pain of losing their loved ones including father, mother and brother.
Speaking as the chief guest at the inaugural function of the documentary titled 'Sheikh Hasina's Four Decades: Irresistible Progress of Changed Bangladesh' organized by Awami League Information and Research Sub-Committee on the occasion of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Homecoming Day, Awami League General Secretary and Minister for Road Transport and Bridges Obaidul Quader said Sheikh Hasina has transcended the boundaries of politics and turned into a statesman. From a struggling leader to a time-honored statesman today.
