Bangladesh’s interim government cancels holiday on National Mourning Day

The interim government of Bangladesh on Tuesday cancelled a national holiday on August 15.

That marks the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, former PM and the father of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

The decision was approved on Tuesday at the advisory council meeting of the interim government at Jamuna government guest house in Dhaka. Several parties, including Hasina’s Awami League attended the meeting. The parties backed the interim government’s decision to cancel the holiday on August 15. The official order is yet to be released.

August 15 is remembered as the National Mourning Day in Bangladesh, marking Mujibur Rahman’s assassination in 1975. Mujib, the founder of Bangladesh, was popularly known as ‘Bangabandhu’, meaning ‘friend of Bengal’.

He was assassinated along with his family in a military coup at his residence. After Mujib’s death, his residence was made into a museum.

After Sheikh Hasina fled the country due to violent protests, the angry mob vandalised Mujib’s statue and set the museum on fire.

Meanwhile, Hasina on Tuesday issued her first statement since her ouster and described the coup against her party Awami League as a grave insult to her father and many martyrs. “The Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, under whose leadership we have gained self-esteem as an independent nation, got self-identity and got an independent country, has been grossly insulted,” Hasina said in the statement issued through her son Sajeeb Wazed.