Bangabandhu recalls martyrs’ sacrifice

MARCH 25, 1972

A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS FUTURE

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman today at a meeting with Rayer Bazar Awami League members says, "The aim of our independence is a happy and prosperous future and therefore we should engage ourselves in rebuilding the Sonar Bangla that is laid to utter waste by the barbarous Pakistan army." He hails the 75 million people of Bangladesh who came together on this night (25 March) a year ago to resist the Pakistan occupation army. The Rayer Bazar Awami League members bring out a big torchlight procession to mark the occasion of organising resistance.

GOVT TAKING STEPS TO BRING DOWN FOOD PRICES

The government has arranged for increased supply of rice through modified rationing in areas not covered by statutory rationing. This month, an additional 11 lakh maunds of rice have been released for distribution through modified rationing, informs Minister for Food Phani Bhusan Majumdar. The price of rice in the country has now started showing a downward trend, although it remains beyond the capacity of the commoners, he adds.

The minister further says that all-party vigilance committees will be formed in border areas to check smuggling of food grains.

GOVT TAKES OVER MANAGEMENT OF ABANDONED PROPERTIES

Bangladesh Ministry of Commerce in an order today brings the management of abandoned properties -- abandoned shops, business establishments and ventures and petrol pumps -- in the country under its control. However, abandoned tea estates and abandoned jute trading organisations will not come under this order. Committees on national, district town and group levels will be formed with representatives of the people, government, labour and the Bangladesh Bank to administer these abandoned properties.

$45M CANADIAN GRANT FOR FOOD IMPORT

Canada has agreed to give a 45-million-dollar grant to meet the immediate requirements of Bangladesh for food imports and implementation of different national projects. An agreement in this regard has been reached between the high-powered Canadian International Development Agency team currently on a visit to Dhaka and the Bangladesh Planning Commission.

VENDETTA AGAINST BANGALEES

A campaign of persecuting Bangalee army officers and men stranded in Pakistan has been mounted in Pakistan. It is reported that Bangalee army men are being herded in concentration camps, tortured, implicated in false cases and imprisoned. The vendetta against Bangalees in Pakistan has taken a sharp edge since the appointment of "Butcher of Bengal" Tikka Khan as the chief of the Pakistan army.

SOURCES: March 26, 1972 issues of Dainik Bangla, The Daily Ittefaq, Azad, Morning News, The Bangladesh Observer and Purbodesh.