The historic Six-Point Day, marking the demand for autonomy for the then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, was observed today across the country in a befitting manner.
To mark the day, different socio-political organisations including Bangladesh Awami League, its associate bodies and like-minded socio-cultural organisations drawn up elaborate programmes.
The Awami League’s programmes included hoisting of the national and party flags atop Bangabandhu Bhaban at Dhanmondi and its central office on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital and all unit offices across the country.
Awami League leaders and workers led by its General Secretary Obaidul Quader placed wreaths at the portrait of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in front of Bangabandhu Bhaban at Dhanmondi in Dhaka.
Talking to journalists, Quader said the six-point demand was the charter of freedom of the Bangalee nation.
“We got independence under the dynamic leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. And now the country is moving ahead under the visionary leadership of Bangabandhu’s daughter Sheikh Hasina,” he said.
He said those, who deny Jun 7 or the Six-Point demand, the milestone of Independence, don’t believe in the Liberation War.
Awami League Advisory Council Members Amir Hossain Amu and Tofail Ahmed, Presidium Members Begum Matia Chowdhury, Advocate Sahara Khatun and Colonel (retd) Lt. Col. (Retd.) Muhammad Faruq Khan, Joint General Secretary Jahangir Kabir Nanak, Organizing Secretaries AFM Bahauddin Nasim and Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, Forest and Environment Secretary Delwar Hossain were present on the occasion, among others.
President Md. Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages marking the six-point day.
On Jun 7 in 1966, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman launched a massive movement against the misrule of the Pakistanis on the basis of the 6-point demand, the Magna Carta of the Bengalis demanding autonomy for the then east Pakistan.
Eleven people, including Manu Mian, Shafique and Shamsul Haque, were gunned down by the police and paramilitary EPR on June 7, 1966 in Dhaka and Narayanganj during a hartal called for the release of Bangabandhu and other leaders detained for launching the Six-Point Movement against the then barbaric ruling clique.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman launched his historic six-point political and economic programme in Lahore on Feb 5 in 1966, aiming at attaining greater autonomy for the then East Pakistan in the backdrop of exploitation and discrimination by the then Pakistani rulers.
The six-point demands were – creating provision in the constitution for a Federation of Pakistan in its true sense based on the Lahore resolution, the federal government will deal with only two subjects: Defence and Foreign Affairs, introduction of two separate, but freely convertible currencies for East and West Pakistan, vesting the power of taxation and revenue collection with the federating units, maintaining two separate accounts for the foreign exchange earnings of the two wings and creation a separate militia or paramilitary force for East Pakistan.
(Compiled)
