BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia on Friday paid homage to the martyred freedom fighters who made the supreme sacrifice for the country during the Liberation War in 1971 by placing wreaths at the National Memorial in Savar, marking the 46th Victory Day.
Khaleda together with her party leaders and activists placed the wreaths at the National Memorial around 11:30am.
BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, party senior leaders Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, Abdul Moyeen Khan, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Shahjahan Omar, Amanullah Aman, Dr AZM Zahid Hossain and Ruhul Kabir Rizvi were, among others, present.
Later, Khaleda placed wreaths at the grave of BNP founder and her late husband Ziaur Rahman at Sher-e-Banglanagar in the capital.
On this day in 1971, the chief of the Pakistani occupation forces, General AAK Niazi, along with his 93,000 Pakistani troops, surrendered at Ramna Racecourse, now Suhrawardy Udyan, in Dhaka following a miserable defeat to the joint forces of Mukti Bahini and Mitra Bahini.
The Pakistan army had launched a barbarous crackdown on March 25, 1971 in the erstwhile East Pakistan at midnight past, killing innocent and unarmed people.
The nation finally clinched independence on December 16 after the nine-month Liberation War.