Bangladesh on Sunday accorded reception to 68 more foreign ‘friends of Bangladesh and one foreign institution for their contribution to the country’s war for independence in 1971.
The individual recipients include Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, former UK prime minister Harold Wilson and 13 Pakistans.
The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, presented them with citations and awards in a ceremony at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the morning.
Each of the recipients was given a gold-plated silver metallic plaque with the replica of the National Martyrs’
Memorial engraved on it and a citation on a piece of silk cloth.
This time, 68 foreign friends — 41 from India, 13 from Pakistan, 3 each from the United States and Nepal, 2 from Japan and 1 each from Cuba, the United Kingdom., Australia and Sweden were honoured in two categories — Liberation War Honour and Friends of Liberation War Honour.
The Indian Red Cross Society of West Bengal Unit is the only institution to have been honoured this time.
With this round, Bangladesh so far had honoured 277 foreign friends and institutions, beginning in July 2011.
Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro Ruz and former British prime minister Lord Harold Wilson was given the Liberation War Honour and the others were given Friends of Liberation War Honour on Sunday.
The Cuban ambassador in Dhaka, Abelardo Cueto Sosa, and Professor Robin Wilson, son of Harold Wilson, received the awards on behalf of Castro and Lord Harold.
This was the fifth such ceremony since the government began honouring foreign friends on July 25, 2011 as a mark of the nation’s gratitude to them.
The cabinet division, the liberation war affairs ministry and the foreign affairs ministry organised the programme.
Hasina, the foreign minister, Dipu Moni, and the state minister for liberation war affairs, AB Tajul Islam, addressed the ceremony.
Japanese professor Tomio Mizokami gave his speech in Bangla on behalf of the recipients.
The cabinet secretary, M Musharraf Hussain Bhuiyan, conducted the programme and read out the citations.
Ministers, lawmakers, sector commanders, freedom fighters, diplomats, judges, educationalists, politicians, students and civil and military officials attended.
Hasina in an announcement at the programme dedicated the day’s event to the late president Zillur Rahman.
Hasina sought support of the friends of independence war to build a prosperous and non-communal Bangladesh free of hunger, poverty and illiteracy as they did in 1971 to materialise the aspiration of the Bengalis.
Expressing sincere gratitude to the ‘foreign friends’ for their unequivocal support for Bangladesh’s independence, Hasina said that the Pakistani occupation forces launched coordinated armed attacks on unarmed Bengalis on the night of March 25, 1971.
She added that the support the foreign friends gave to Bangladesh’s struggle gave it a different kind of global recognition and an added legitimacy to its cause.
‘We owe you all sincerest gratitude for our hard-earned freedom. We remember your invaluable contribution and today Bangladesh as a nation pays homage to the unsung heroes of our war of independence — the foreign friends,’ she said.
The recipients from Pakistan are politician Begum Nasim Akhtar, lawyer Zafar Malik, rights activist Begum Tahira Mazhar Ali, poet and journalist Faiz Ahmed Faiz, poet and politician Habib Jalib, politician and filmmaker Shamim Ashraf Malik, professor and journalist Waris Meer, politician Kazi Faiz Mohammad, poet and rights activist Ahmad Salim, Sindhi poet Anwer Pirzado, philosopher Eqbal Ahmed, politicians Ghous Boksh Bizenjo and Malik Ghulam Jilani.
The recipients from India include former chief minister of West Bengal Jyoti Basu, former chief of army staff of India Shankar Roy Chowdhury, former general officer commanding in chief of the Eastern Command of India Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora, magician PC Sarker Junior, rights activist Utpala Misra, writer and philosopher Abu Sayid Ayub, former minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi, journalist Jitendra Chandra Pal and former minister Nandini Satpaty.
Freedom fighters instructor Hiranya Kumar Bhattacharyya, professor Mrinmoy Bhattacharya, physician Rupendra Chandra Bhowmik, artist Dhiraj Choudhury, Professor Amiyo Chowdhury, writer Himangshu Mohan Chowdhury, litterateur Rakhal Chandra Ray Chowdhury, social worker Sandip Das, Professor Mihir Kanti Dev, Jagdish Dey, Dhrubajyoti Lahiry, Munshi Mohammad Fazle Kader and others were also honoured.
Poet and social worker Allen Ginsberg, Professor Gustav F and David Nalin from the United States were honoured..
The recipients from Nepal are politician Narayan Khadka, former Nepalese minister and Congress leader Dr Ram Saran Mahat and DB Barma.
Japanese professors and social workers Tomio Mizokami and Heizi Nakamura, Australian professor Herbert Faith and Swedish Sven Lampell also received awards.
Representatives of 37 of the recipients received awards on behalf of them.
As the programme began, a minute’s silence was observed as a mark of respect to the late president Zillur Rahman.
The then Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was the first to be honoured under the plan. Her daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi, also the president of the Indian National Congress, received the Bangladesh Freedom Honour, given to Indira Gandhi posthumously, on her behalf in a special ceremony at Bangabhaban on July 25, 2011.
In the second phase of the awards, 82 foreign individuals and institutions were given awards on March 27, 2012; in the third phase, 61 more foreign individuals and institutions were honoured on October 20, 2012; and in the fourth phase, 60 foreign individuals and institutions were honoured on December 15, 2012.
Apart from this, India’s president Pranab Mukherjee was awarded Liberation War Honour on March 5, 2013.
According to the foreign ministry, more than 500 foreign individuals and institutions would be given the honour gradually.
The list included 40 Pakistanis who defied the then Pakistani junta top support the cause of Bangladesh.
The foreign friends are likely to join a river cruise and visit Shikha Chirantan, the Liberation War Museum, Bangabandhu Memorial Museum and the Rayer Bazar Killing Field in the capital today.
They are scheduled to place wreaths at the National Memorial at Savar on March 26, marking Independence and National Day and take part in other programmes. (Source)
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