Awami League (AL) General Secretary Obaidul Quader Friday recalled the consequences of the six-point demand and said those who have no respect for this historic event, they never believe in the country's independence, reports BSS.
"The historic six-point demand is the turning point of the long struggle of the country's liberation war movement," he said.
Quader, also Road Transport and Bridges Minister, made this remark to the journalists marking the historic six-point day after showing homage at the portrait of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in front of Bangabandhu Bhaban in the city.
On June 7 in 1966, the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman launched a massive movement against the misrule of the Pakistanis on the basis of the six-point demand, the Magna Carta of the Bangalees, seeking autonomy for the then East Pakistan.
Terming this historic event as the milestone in the country's long struggle for independence, the senior ruling party leader said staging a movement for execution of the six-point charter along with the strike on June 7 that killed several labour leaders ultimately triggered 11-point agitation, led by the student forum.
The six-point charter came in the wake of the war that broke out between India and Pakistan in 1965 when the people of East Bengal remained totally unprotected as there was no importance to the central government of Pakistan for protecting this region, he noted.
Highlighting the necessity of six-point demand, the AL general secretary said the mass upsurge in 1969 would not have taken place if it had not been for the six-point demand.
Quader said the assassins of Bangabandhu didn't allow the observance of June 7 or March 7 after 1975. They, who were involved in the assassination of Bangabandhu and most of his family members on August 15 in 1975 and did not accept the country's independence, banned the historic days during their tenure, he added.
"These evil forces not only had killed Bangabandhu but wanted to kill our spirit of the Liberation War and also the ideology of the independence as well and that's why 'Joy Bangla' and also these remarkable days like June 7 and March 7 were exiled along with Bangabandhu," he explained.
Bd-pratidin English/Tanvir Raihan
