Today is the historic Homecoming Day of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the architect of the country's independence.
Bangabandhu returned to a liberated Bangladesh via London and New Delhi on this day in 1972, after 290 days of confinement in Pakistan jail.
On March 25 night in 1971, Pakistan army arrested him from his Dhanmondi residence and sent him to a West Pakistani jail the following day.
In the jail, he had been counting days to the execution of the death sentence he was handed down in a farcical trial.
"I was a prisoner in the condemned cell awaiting hanging. Since the day I went to jail, I didn't know whether I would be alive or not. I was mentally ready to die, but I knew Bangladesh would be liberated," Mujib spoke emotionally about his ordeal in Pakistani prison at a news conference in London.
On reaching Dhaka (Tejgaon) airport in the afternoon of January 10, Bangabandhu was greeted by tens of thousands of jubilant people who had been eagerly waiting to see their beloved leader since the victory on December 16.
From the airport, he was escorted to the Racecourse Maidan (now Suhrawardy Udyan) where he addressed a spontaneous reception.
Two days later, he took the oath of office as the country's prime minister on January 12.
In a statement posted on its official Facebook page on Wednesday, the Awami League said it would observe the Homecoming Day by placing wreaths at his portrait in front of Bangabandhu Bhaban in the city's Dhanmondi.
Besides, the party will place wreaths at his grave in Tungipara. It will also arrange discussions and distribute food and warm clothes among the destitute. It, however, did not say where it will hold the discussion.
The party urged its front and associate bodies to organise similar programmes to observe the day in a befitting manner.