When is National Mourning Day?
National Mourning Day is a public holiday in Bangladesh on August 15th.
It commemorates the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, known as the 'Father of the Nation' on this day in 1975.
History of National Mourning Day
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is known as the 'Father of the Nation' of Bangladesh. Often referred to as 'Mujib' or 'Sheikh Mujib', he is regarded as the prime architect of the independent nation, Bangladesh. In a 2004 BBC poll, Mujib was voted the Greatest Bengali of all time.
Mujib began his political career in 1949 as a co-founder of the Awami League. The league advocated political autonomy for East Pakistan, the then recently created eastern part of Pakistan.
In the 1970 general elections, the Bangla-based Awami League, led by Mujibur won an overall majority, but the West Pakistani regime was reluctant to hand over power. On March 25th 1971, Pakistani troops were used to quell the growing unrest.
With the help of India, East Pakistan defeated the Pakistani army. East Pakistan was renamed Bangladesh and in January 1972 Mujib became the country’s first prime minister.
Faced with increasing problems, Mujib took tighter control of Bangladesh and assumed the presidency in January 1975.
Mujib and most of his family members were assassinated by a small group of army officers during a military coup on August 15th 1975.
One of his daughters, Sheikh Hasina Wazed, was in Germany at the time, so survived the killings and is the current prime minister of Bangladesh.
As a mark of respect, national flags will be lowered to half-staff at all government, semi-government and autonomous bodies, educational institutions, private buildings and Bangladesh missions abroad.
