Shaheed Noor Hossain Day, commemorating the heartrending martyrdom of young man Noor Hossain during the anti-Ershad movement in the late 80s, is being observed with due solemnity.
The ruling Awami League placed wreaths at Noor Hossain Square at 7:30am on Monday.
The party's associate bodies and other political and socio-cultural organisations chalked out elaborate programmes to mark the day.
On November 10 in 1987, when the movement against the then military autocrat HM Ershad was at its peak, Noor Hossain, a leader of Awami Juba League, was killed in police firing at the capital’s zero point near Gulistan. The youth was demonstrating with his chest and back painted with slogan ‘Gonotantra Mukti Pak, Swairachar Nipat Jak’ (Let democracy be freed, down with autocracy).
The killing further fueled the movement, forcing Ershad to step down three years later in 1990.
In a statement on Saturday, Awami League general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam urged all to observe the day in a befitting manner.