Bangladesh Independence Day celebrated in Tripura

Agartala, March 26 (IANS) Bangladesh Independence Day and National Day was celebrated here on Thursday with numerous colourful functions.

The main function was held at Bangladesh mission here - the only diplomatic mission and visa office in northeast India. Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar and many dignitaries attended in the function.

"People of Tripura are always soft and heartfelt towards Bangladesh," Agartala's Bangladesh mission head Mohammad Obaidur Rahman told IANS. "A large number of people always took part in the Bangladesh national days on March 26 and on December 16 every year."

Artists, including renowned singers, from both Bangladesh and India performed in the function.

Local people and various groups also organised functions in many places across the state.

Few days after the Pakistani forces had unleashed massive attacks across that country, Bangladeshi leaders vowed to win their independence on March 26, 1971, when Bangabandhu Mujibur Rehman launched a massive guerilla fight against the then Pakistani rulers.

The Liberation War later turned into a full-scale India-Pakistan War, leading to the surrender of 93,000 Pakistani soldiers in Dhaka on December 16, 1971.

India was the first country to recognise Bangladesh as sovereign nation.

According to Bangladeshi freedom fighters and experts, Pakistani forces during the nine months of Liberation War (March 26 to December 16, 1971) massacred over three million Bengali-speaking people, including children, and gang-raped over six lakh women.

Over one crore families were uprooted from their ancestral homes and lands during that period.