News Desk:
The 74th birthday of Prime Minister and Bangladesh Awami League President Sheikh Hasina will be celebrated across the country today.

Sheikh Hasina, the eldest of the five children of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Begum Fazilatunnesa, was born at Tungipara in Gopalganj on September 28 in 1947.

Like previous years, Awami League and its affiliated organisations will celebrate the day through various programmes. But this time there is the added attraction for them that for the first time since returning to power as Prime Minister in 2009, she will be in Dhaka for her birthday.

Previously, more-or-less every year from 2009 to 2019, her birthday was spent in New York City or its surrounding areas, where she would be attending the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly, held every September. This year, the pandemic has forced even world leaders to resort to Zoom or to send in their recorded messages for the centrepiece event that stretches till the end of the month.

Thus the Prime Minister is on home soil this year, among her near and dear ones and her fellow Bangladeshis on her birthday, as she turns 73.

Marking her birthday, different programmes including doa and Milad-mahfils, special prayers, photo exhibitions and discussions will be organised in the capital and different parts of the country maintaining the health guidelines amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

As part of the AL central programmes, a special doa and Milad-mahfil will be held with the participation of a limited number of leaders at the party’s central office in the city’s Bangabandhu Avenue at 3:30 pm.

Besides, the doa and Milad-mahfil will be held at Baitul Mukarram National Mosque centrally and all other mosques throughout the country after Zahr prayer.

Special prayers will also be offered at International Buddhist Monastery (Bihar) at Merul Badda at 9 am, Christian Association Bangladesh (CAB) Mirpur Baptist Church at 10 am, Jakmala Rani Church at Tejgaon at 6 am and Dhakeshwari Temple at 11 am on the day. The AL Central leaders will be present in the function, said a release.

The AL associate bodies will also arrange different programmes including discussions, doa-mahfils, special prayers and photo exhibitions across the country maintaining the health guidelines, it said.

The leaders of all AL units up to ward-level were asked to celebrate taking up similar programmes maintaining the health codes.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended heartiest congratulations to Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina on the eve of her 73rd birthday.