Today is Bangabandhu's Homecoming Day

Today, January 10, is the historic homecoming day of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He returned to the land of newly independent Bangladesh on this day in 1972 after being imprisoned in Pakistan during the Liberation War.

Sheikh Mujib was released on January 8, 1972 after 9 months of imprisonment in Mianwali Jail in Lyallpur city, about 80 miles away from Lahore, Pakistan. Later he went to London from Pakistan and returned to Dhaka via Delhi. On the occasion of the Homecoming Day of the Father of the Nation, President Md. Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave separate messages.

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Birth Centenary Celebration of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman National Implementation Committee organized a special program on the occasion of Bangabandhu's historic homecoming day with the theme "Father of the Nation in a Free Land". The program will be broadcast live on all television channels, online and social media from Bangladesh Television's Shahid Monirul Alam Auditorium at 3 pm on Monday (January 10). Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will preside over the event to be joined virtually from Ganabhaban. A poem written by Bangabandhu's daughter Sheikh Rehana will be recited on the occasion. Eminent panelists will discuss Bangabandhu's Homecoming Day in the discussion phase.

Awami League and various affiliated organizations of the party have taken extensive programs to celebrate the day. Awami League's program includes hoisting national and party flags at the party's central office, Bangabandhu Bhavan and all offices of the organization across the country at 6:30 am on Monday. Tribute to the portrait of the Father of the Nation kept in front of Bangabandhu Bhavan at 8:30 am. At 11 o'clock, the Awami League party paid tribute to Sheikh Mujib at his tomb in Tungipara.

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On the occasion of Homecoming Day, Awami League's discussion rally will be held on a limited scale at 23 Bangabandhu Avenue central office at 3:30 pm. Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will try to hold the discussion meeting through video conference.

In the early hours of March 26, 1971, Bangabandhu announced the independence of Bangladesh and invited people from all walks of life to join the liberation war. Immediately after the declaration of independence, he was arrested on the orders of the military ruler of Pakistan, General Yahya Khan, and subsequently detained in a prison in West Pakistan.

On 16 December 1971, after a nine-month war against Pakistani troops, the final victory was achieved, but on 10 January Bangabandhu's homecoming, the nation acknowledged the full taste of victory.
The father of the nation was released from Pakistan on the early night of January 7, 1972, i.e. January 8. On this day, Bangabandhu was airlifted. He arrived at Heathrow Airport in London at 6:30 am. After 10 pm, Bangabandhu spoke to many including British Prime Minister Edward Heath, Tajuddin Ahmad and former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi. Later on the next day on January 9, he traveled to the state in 1 aircraft of the British Air Force.

He landed in Delhi on January 10 morning. There, Sheikh Mujib received a warm welcome from the then President of India VV Giri, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, the entire cabinet, top leaders, the best of the three forces and other guests and the people of the country. He expressed his sincere gratitude to the leaders and people of India for their help. He called his homecoming 'a journey from darkness to light'.

Bangabandhu set foot on the ground of Dhaka at 1:41 PM from Delhi on January 10. Millions of ecstatic Bengalis gave him a spontaneous welcome from the airport to the Race Course Maidan (now Suhrawardy Udyan). At five o'clock in the afternoon he spoke in the presence of about one million people at the Race Course Maidan.