Shaheed Asad Day Sunday

The nation will observe the 50th anniversary of martyrdom of Shaheed Asaduzzaman Asad tomorrow (Sunday).

Asad was gunned down by police on January 20 triggering the 1969 mass upheaval that toppled the autocratic Ayub regime.

Marking the day, different socio-cultural, student and political organisations, including Shaheed Asad Parishad, have chalked out various programmes that include placing wreath at the memorial plaque of Asad in front of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) and his grave at Shibpur in Narsingdi.

On this day in 1969, Asad, the hero of the 1969 mass upsurge, was killed in firing by the Pakistani police on a protest rally near Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) against the atrocities on the people of East Pakistan.

The death of Asad, then a master’s student of Dhaka University (DU), took the mass upsurge to the highest peak which hastened the fall of the military dictator Field Marshal Ayub Khan after over a decade of his iron rule.

Asad was president of Shahidullah Hall Unit (Dhaka Hall) of Dhaka University and General secretary of Dhaka Unit of East Pakistan Students Union.

Students’ leaders had expressed their solidarity with Bangabandhu’s historic six-point demand and eleven-point demand of students on January 4, 1969. During that period Shaheed Asad played a vital role.

The nation achieved independence in 1971 following the nine-month War of Liberation in continuation of the 1969 mass upsurge, reports BSS.

With the demand of independence and own state, the country’s people irrespective of class and profession took to the street defying the fear of jail and oppression.