The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League president, places a wreath at the mural of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Dhanmondi in Dhaka marking Mujibnagar Day on Tuesday. — New Age photo

The historic Mujibnagar Day was observed in the country on Tuesday in a befitting manner commemorating the formation of the provisional government of independent Bangladesh in exile during the war of liberation in 1971.
Hundreds of people from all walks of life, particularly leaders and workers of the ruling Awami League and its associate organisations, thronged the city’s Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, Mujibnagar in Meherpur district, Banani graveyard and Rajshahi to pay glowing tributes to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and four slain national leaders.
Following the Pakistan army’s genocide on unarmed sleeping Bengalis perpetrated on the fateful night of March 25 in 1971, senior leaders of the Awami League assembled at the mango orchard at Baidyanathtala of Meherpur on the day and constituted the provisional government of independent Bangladesh.
On this day in 1971, the provisional Bangladesh government in exile on ‘Mujibnagar government’ was formed with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the president, Syed Nazrul Islam as the vice-president, Tajuddin Ahmed, prime minister, Khondokar Mostaque Ahmed, foreign minister, M Mansur Ali, finance minister and AHM Quamaruzzaman as home and relief minister.
In absence of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was arrested following declaration of country’s independence on the night of March 25 and put in a jail in the then West Pakistan, Syed Nazrul Islam was chosen as the acting president of the provisional Bangladesh government.
This core cabinet steer the liberation war to the victory on December 16, 1971.
In observance of the day, the Awami League president and prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, along with party stalwarts, her cabinet colleagues and advisers placed wreaths at the portrait of Sheikh Mujib at the city’s Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi in the morning.
Hasina stood there in solemn silence for sometime as a mark of respect to the leader of the country’s independence.