President-elect Md Shahabuddin on Tuesday hosted a doa mahfil at his Gulshan residence after Asr prayers on the occasion of the International Mother Language Day and Martyrs' Day.
Prayers were offered for eternal peace of the departed souls who embraced martyrdom to protect the mother tongue Bangla in 1952.
In the munajat, divine blessings were sought for peace and prosperity of the country as well as the welfare of the people and Muslim Ummah. Doa was also offered for good health and long life of President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Special blessings were sought from Almighty Allah for eternal peace of the souls of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other martyrs, who were brutally assassinated in the night of August 15 in 1975, and the martyrs of different democratic movements, including the 1971 Liberation War.
Family members, relatives and well-wishers of the President-elect were present on the occasion, conducted by local mosque Imam Maulana Abdul Kalam. Earlier, Quran Khawni was also held at his residence.
Md Shahabuddin, who was elected as the president of Bangladesh, could not pay his tribute to language heroes at the Central Shaheed Minar due to security reasons. So, he arranged the program at his residence in Dhaka.
Expressing his brief reaction prior to the doa mahfil, President-elect Shahabuddin said: "We got the Bangla language in exchange for the sacrifices of lives . . . Their contribution has been immortalized to the history of Bangali nation."
Meanwhile, in the zero hours on Tuesday, President M Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid tributes to the language martyrs at the Central Shaheed Minar.
Earlier, on February 12, the former Anti Corruption Commissioner (ACC) commissioner and former senior district judge Md Shahabuddin was elected the president of the People's Republic of Bangladesh.
President M Abdul Hamid will finish his tenure on April 24. He has been the President for two consecutive terms.
As the new president, Md Shahabuddin is expected to assume the office of the president within the stipulated time.
