PM Tarique Rahman leads tributes to Ziaur Rahman’s 45th martyrdom anniversary

The Prime Minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairman, Tarique Rahman, have led national commemorations to mark the 45^th martyrdom anniversary of the country’s former president and BNP founder, Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman.

The Prime Minister arrived at the mausoleum in Dhaka’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar at around eleven o’clock on Saturday morning, where he laid a floral wreath at the graveside. Following the placement of the wreath, Tarique Rahman stood alongside senior colleagues in solemn silence to honour the memory of the late president, who was assassinated in Chittagong on the 30^th of May, 1981. The premier subsequently took part in a traditional doa mahfil prayer service held at the site.

Accompanying the Prime Minister were key members of the BNP Standing Committee, including Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Salah Uddin Ahmed, and Professor AZM Zahid Hossain. A broader delegation of senior party officials, including Ruhul Kabir Rizvi and Mir Abdus Salam, alongside representatives from various tiers of the party’s central and executive wings, were also present to pay their respects.

The anniversary, observed by the BNP and its political allies as ‘Martyrdom Day,’ was marked by a series of formal proceedings across the country. National and black flags were hoisted at dawn, whilst the party flag was flown at half-mast at the BNP’s central headquarters in Naya Paltan and the chairperson’s political office in Gulshan. Throughout the morning, successive delegations from the BNP’s city units and affiliated organisations—including the youth, student, and labour fronts—converged on the capital’s mausoleum to lay symbolic wreaths.

The graveside tribute forms part of a wider eight-day commemorative itinerary initiated by the party on the 25^th of May. As part of the scheduled observances, the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) will host a formal discussion in its auditorium on Sunday afternoon. Additionally, party officials confirmed that Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is scheduled to oversee the distribution of clothes and dry food rations at 17 designated locations across the capital as part of the anniversary’s humanitarian outreach programme.