The Daily Morning Voice Online Desk: The historic ‘Mass Upsurge Day’, commemorating the 1969’s movement for autonomy from the then East Pakistan that eventually led to the Liberation War and the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971, is being observed on Tuesday in a befitting manner. Marking the day, different political and socio-cultural organisations have taken separate programmes. Awami League, led by party General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges minister Obaidul Quader, placed wreaths at Shaheed Matiur Rahman Smiriti Saudha at Nabakumar Institute in Bakshibazar this morning.

On January 24, 1969 Matiur Rahman Mallik, a standard IX student of the Nabakumar Institution, and Rustam Ali, a rickshaw-puller, were killed in a police firing on demonstrators in Dhaka as Pakistani rulers desperately tried to suppress the popular uprising. The killings spread intense protests across the country that eventually saw  the fall of the autocrat Ayub regime. It is said that the day teaches Bangladeshis the values of democracy and protest against oppression.