Book fair in Dhaka pays homage to Bengali language martyrs

 By Mohssen Arishie

in Dhaka Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina led the ribbon-cutting ceremony of a month-long cultural event, which pays tribute to Bengali language martyrs in 1952.

Eukoshy Book Fair is an annual event held to mark the anniversary of the Bangladesh’s triumph in the historic Language Movement during the Pakistani occupation of Bangladesh. Described as the jewel of Bangladesh’s cultural events, Eukoshy book fair has unfolded at the Bangla Academy premises.

Journalist Mohssen Arishie, Managing-Editor of The Egyptian Gazette; and and India’s prominent poet Shankhan Ghosh was standing next to Sheikh Hasina during the inauguration ceremony.

Arriving at the fairground, Sheikh Hasina was greeted with thunderous applause from thousands of people, who waited for hours for her arrival. Popular in her country as the daughter of the Father of the Nation (Bangabandhu), Sheikh Hasina was also greeted by top officials, Cabinet ministers, intellectuals and writers. She unveiled a book entitled ‘Secret Documents of Intelligence Branch on Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’ (volume-2).

Bangabandhu’s daughter has her mark on the heritage of Muslim woman after successfully helping her Muslim country rise from the rubble of the Liberation War, in which three million people were killed, 200, 000 women were raped and 10 million people were homeless.

She was in Germany when her father and almost her entire family members were massacred brutally at the early hours of 15 August 1975 at the hands of Jamaa Islamiya in collaboration with the agents of Pakistani military junta. Although world’s leaders and heads of state appealed to her to stay abroad for her safety, Sheikh Hasina firmly decided to return and lead efforts that could heal the bleeding wounds of Bangladesh and its people. She said that the massacre did not stop at the door of her family home.

“The stab was treacherously dealt to my country and almost every home in the Bangladesh was mourning a beloved one(s) killed during the Liberation war,” she said. When she served as Prime Minister from 1996 to 2001, Bangabandhu’s daughter refused to take the law into her hands and avenge herself on the assassins of her family. The suspects were referred to International Special Tribunal, which handed down death sentences to the convicts, including Motiur Rahman Nizami, 73, who led the Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party, Jama-e-Islami, which was responsible for the genocide and mass rape. Following the example of Bangladesh, the suspects behind the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri in 2005 were put on trial before the IST formed in 2009.