Bangabandhu's Homecoming Day today

The ruling Awami League will hold a rally in the capital's Suhrawardy Udyan to mark the Homecoming Day of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman today.

The party expects tens of thousands of leaders and activists to join the rally to be addressed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Visiting the venue yesterday, AL General Secretary Obaidul Quader said Hasina would deliver an important speech on how to fight extremism.

He also expressed the hope that people from Dhaka and its adjacent districts would join the rally to rejoice at the success in the fight against militancy, fundamentalism and conspiracies.

The AL has taken huge preparations for the last couple of weeks to organise the rally. Party top leaders already held a series of meetings with the party front and like-minded organisations.

On this day in 1972, Bangabandhu returned to an independent Bangladesh via London and New Delhi after 290 days in captivity in Pakistan jail. People in droves came out to accord him a hearty welcome when he arrived at Tejgaon Airport from New Delhi by a British Airways flight at 1:41pm.

The road from Shahbagh to Tejgaon Airport was jam-packed with people eagerly waiting for him. It took around four hours for his motorcade to reach Racecourse Maidan, now Suhrawardy Udyan, where he later addressed a mammoth gathering.

Pakistani occupation forces arrested him on March 25, 1971, from his Dhanmondi residence during the late-night crackdown on the people of Bangladesh.

He was later sent to Pakistan (then West Pakistan) and imprisoned.

After the nation achieved victory over Pakistan on December 16, 1971, through a nine-month-long Liberation War, the junta was compelled to free Bangabandhu.