A High Court bench yesterday observed that “Joy Bangla” was the only slogan at home and abroad during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971.

Even some poets, litterateurs and intellectuals of the then West Pakistan had chanted the slogan and therefore, they were arrested and sent to jail in 1971, the HC bench of Justice FRM Nazmul Ahasan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader said while hearing on a rule.

The bench said when the Pakistan occupation force shot freedom fighters during the war, freedom fighters embraced death chanting Joy Bangla.     

Deputy Attorney General Abdullah-Al-Mahmud Bashar supported the rule, and told the court that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had finished his historic March 7 speech with Joy Bangla, which is now a part of the constitution of the state.

After concluding yesterday’s proceedings on the rule, the HC bench set today for resuming hearing on the issue.  

Following a writ petition by Supreme Court lawyer Bashir Ahmed, another HC bench on December 4, 2017 issued the rule asking the government to explain why Joy Bangla should not be declared the national slogan.

In the petition, Advocate Bashir said Joy Bangla was the slogan of freedom fighters and people of Bangladesh during the Liberation War in 1971.

“Joy Bangla was the slogan of our independence and national unity and therefore it should remain as the national slogan -- a symbol of national spirit and patriotism,” he said in the petition.

Bashir Ahmed represented himself at yesterday’s hearing.