This Victory Day, Bangladesh prepares to break the world record for the largest human flag at the Army Parade Grounds, where more than 30,000 volunteers will stand in formation and hold up red or green placards.
We are all familiar with our beloved red and green banner. But how many of us know the story of its creation?
On June 7, 1970, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was scheduled to attend a march at Dhaka Paltan Maidan, as part of his campaign in the Pakistani general elections.
The day before, a team of student leaders met in Room 118 at Dhaka University’s Zohurul Haque Hall (presently Iqbal Hall), and decided to create a flag for him to fly at the occasion.
Kazi Aref Ahmed proposed removing the crescent and star from the Pakistan flag, and replacing it with the red circle to represent the sun. He also suggested a yellow map of East Pakistan in the centre.
The idea was enthusiastically embraced by those present at the historic meeting, including leaders like ASM Abdur Rob, Shahjahan Siraj, Marshal Manirul Islam and Swapan Kumar Choudhury from Dhaka University; Nazrul Islam from Jagannath University; Comilla Chhatra League’s general secretary and central leader Shib Narayan Das, BUET’s general secretary of Chhatra League Hasanul Haq Inu and Yusuf Salauddin.
With a matchstick and yellow paint, Shib Narayan Das sketched the map of the country onto the green and red design.
Deep into the night, master tailor Khalek Mohammadi sewed the flag at his shop, New Pak Fashion Tailor, located next to the Chhatra League’s office on the third floor of Balaka Tower in the New Market area.
By dawn, the new flag was complete.
Years later, after independence, the flag was redesigned by Quamrul Hassan. The basic design remained the same, but the red circle took on a deeper significance as a representation of the bloody Liberation War.
