Shaheed Asad Day today

Shaheed Asad Day will be observed today, commemorating the supreme sacrifice of the student leader Asaduzzaman Asad.

On January 20 in 1969, Asaduzzaman Asad, the hero of the 1969 mass upsurge movement, was gunned down by the Pakistani police at a protest against the atrocities on the people of East Pakistan at a rally near Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

The death of Asad, then a master's student of Dhaka University, took the mass upsurge to the highest peak which expedited the fall of the then military dictator Field Marshal Ayub Khan from his long rule.

President Mohammed Shahabuddin and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages paying tributes to the memory of Asad on the occasion.

To mark the day, different socio-cultural, student and political organisations, including Shaheed Asad Parishad, have also chalked out various programmes. The programmers include placing wreaths at the memorial plaque of Asad in front of the DMCH and his grave at Shibpur in Narsingdi.