Dr Milon Day was observed in Dhaka and elsewhere across the country on Sunday, with political parties and socio-cultural organisations paying tributes to the supreme sacrifice of Dr Shamsul Alam Khan Milon 32 years ago.
Dr Milon, then joint secretary of the Bangladesh Medical Association (BMA), was killed by the henchmen of then military-junta turned politician HM Ershad near the Teacher-Student Centre of Dhaka University on November 27, 1990 during the peak of an anti-autocracy movement.
The death of Milon transformed the anti-autocracy movement into a mass uprising that hastened the fall of the autocratic regime paving the way for the restoration of democracy in the country.
Different political parties, including the Bangladesh Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and other socio-cultural and professional organisations, arranged elaborate programmes to mark the day.
The programmes included commemorative discussions, special prayers and placing of wreaths at Milon's grave on the campus of Dhaka Medical College and at Milon Smrity Chattar near the TSC on the DU campus.
The ruling Awami League and its associate organisations placed wreaths and offered prayers at Dr Milon's grave at about 9:00am.
Leaders of the BNP and Dhaka University Central Students' Union in 1990 and then Students Action Council placed wreaths at the grave at 8:00am and at Milon Square on the DU campus at 8:30am.
The BMA, the Swadhinata Chikitsak Parishad, the Doctors Association of Bangladesh, the Janashasthya Sangram Parishad, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, different professional bodies and Milon's family members placed wreaths at his grave and offered prayers there too.
They also placed wreaths at the monument commemorating Milon near the TSC.
Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal held a discussion at the Feni Samity auditorium at Topkhana Road which was chaired by party president Sharif Nurul Ambia.
Bangladesh JSD general secretary Nazmul Huque Prodhan, party standing committee members Mustaq Husain, medical experts Benzir Ahmed, Saidur Rahman Khasru and others took part in the discussion.
The Janashasthya Sangram Parishad held a discussion at its central office where Faizul Hakim chaired.
The Left Democratic Alliance, the Communist Party of Bangladesh, the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-Jasad, the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-JSD, the Workers Party, the Ganosamhati Andolan, the Socialist Party of Bangladesh, the Workers Party of Bangladesh, the Revolutionary Workers Party, the Jatiya Mukti Council and the Bangladesher Samyabadi Andolan also paid tributes to Dr Milon.
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