The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has announced a 13-day program to commemorate the 42nd death anniversary of General Ziaur Rahman, the party's founder and former president of the country.
The observance will commence on May 29 and conclude on June 10. These programs were finalized during a joint meeting at the party's Naya Paltan central office yesterday, presided over by Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
Fakhrul announced a series of activities that will take place during this period. These activities include engaging in discussions, hosting seminars, organizing photo exhibitions, wearing black badges as a symbol of mourning for Zia, as well as distributing food and relief materials to the needy, according to a report by UNB.
As part of the commemoration, black flags will be raised and party flags will be lowered to half-mast at all party offices, including the Nayapaltan headquarters, at 6 am on May 30.
Ziaur Rahman gained prominence for his role in reading out the Declaration of Independence from Kalurghat Betar Kendra on March 27, 1971, and for his active participation in the war. Following liberation, he was appointed deputy chief of staff of the army. After the assassination of the Father of the Nation and President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975, Zia assumed the position of army chief. In November of the year, following a series of coups and counter-coups, with President ASM Sayem as chief martial law administrator, Zia became one of the three deputy chief martial law administrators. He eventually became president of the country in April 1977 in succession to Justice ASM Sayem, who had become president in early November 1975.
In 1978, Zia founded the BNP and conducted parliamentary elections in 1979 to end martial law rule, which had imposed restrictions on political activities and freedom of the press.
General Zia was assassinated by a group of army officers in a putsch at the Chittagong Circuit House on May 30, 1981, where he had traveled from Dhaka to resolve a conflict within the party.
Following Zia's death, General HM Ershad, who had been appointed army chief by Zia, oversaw the process of a controversial military trial that resulted in the hanging of a dozen army officers on charges of conspiring to assassinate the president. Another courageous army officer, Maj Gen M Abul Manzur, who had knowledge of the conspiracy against Zia, was extrajudicially killed allegedly on Ershad's orders, with him being falsely accused of being behind the president's assassination.
Four days before the assassination, Ershad met with Lt Col Motiur Rahman at the Chittagong cantonment. Motiur shot the president, leading to his demise.