The Daily Morning Voice Online Desk: The historic Homecoming Day of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the greatest Bangalee of all time, will be observed tomorrow across the country in a befitting manner. Bangabandhu, the undisputed leader of the nation and supreme commander of the country’s Liberation War, returned to the sacred soil of independent Bangladesh via London and New Delhi on January 10 in 1972, after 290 days of confinement in Pakistan jail, BSS reports.

Awami League (AL) and its associate and like-minded organisations observe the day with various programmes every year. On the night of March 25, 1971, Pakistan army arrested Bangabandhu from his Dhanmondi residence and sent him to a West Pakistani jail the following day. Bangabandhu was subjected to inhuman torture in the Pakistan jail where he had been counting moments for the execution of his death sentence that was pronounced in a farcical trial. “I was a prisoner in the condemned cell awaiting hanging. From the day I went into jail, I didn’t know whether I would be alive or not. I was mentally ready to die. But I knew Bangladesh would be liberated,” Bangabandhu spoke emotionally about his ordeal in Pakistani prison at a news conference in London.

About the Pakistan army’s genocide on Bangalees, Mujib said: “If Hitler had been alive today, he would have been ashamed.” Earlier, on March 26 in 1971, Bangabandhu proclaimed independence of Bangladesh and urged people from all walks of life to participate wholeheartedly in the nation’s War of Liberation. Immediately after the proclamation of independence, Bangabandhu was arrested by Pakistani military junta and then flown to West Pakistan to keep him in prison there. Though the final victory through the nine-month-long bloody War of Liberation was achieved defeating Pakistani occupation forces on December 16 in 1971, the nation’s expectations were fulfilled and the people got the real taste of victory with the homecoming of Bangabandhu on January 10, 1972.

On reaching Dhaka (Tejgaon) airport in the afternoon on January 10, Bangabandhu was greeted by tens of thousands of jubilant people who had been eagerly waiting to see their beloved leader since the victory on December 16 in 1971. From the airport Bangabandhu was escorted to the Racecourse Maidan (now Suhrawardy Udyan) where he addressed a spontaneous reception accorded to him by the cheerful countrymen believed to be one million. He recalled with deep respect the contribution of all during the war and urged the people to rebuild the war-ravaged country. Bangabandhu took the oath of office as the country’s Prime Minister on January 12, 1972.