Bangladesh Victory Day celebrated in Portsmouth

The News, Portsmouth

Dozens of Portsmouth’s British-Bangladeshi residents, the lord mayor Jason Fazackarley and some local councillors gathered outside Portsmouth Civic Offices for a special flag raising ceromony organised by the Bangladesh Welfare Association to mark Bangladesh Victory Day on Monday 16th December 2024

Transcript

00:00Thank you all the people who have turned up today's morning.

00:05I do remember the events in 7th Ward.

00:10I'm Councillor Abdul Qadir of Osman City Council and I'm also a Bangladeshi.

00:16Today we gather to celebrate Victory Day for Bangladesh, which is 53 years of independence.

00:25This day, 3 million people sacrificed their lives to achieve this day.

00:32A nation called Bangladesh, which we are so proud of.

00:36It was a brutal war, 9 months of war.

00:39Civilians, mainly civilians took the arms for the independence.

00:45So it's a very important day, a very emotional day for Bangladeshis as well.

00:53So, yeah, I'm proud to be here to celebrate this very special occasion.

01:01You mentioned that you have a connection as well.

01:05What do you want to say?

01:07Okay, I was a young lad, I have witnessed.

01:10I have witnessed refugees fleeing their homes.

01:15I have witnessed the houses burned.

01:18I have witnessed so many struggles.

01:21I have witnessed the fear of death.

01:23I personally saw most of my relatives were all gathered in one home.

01:30So that we can die all together.

01:33This was the fear.

01:35And when we see the war globally now, it brings me my memory back.

01:40And how the war affects you.

01:43Although we are not directly, I wasn't short or nothing like that.

01:46I was very young, I was 7 or 8 years old.

01:49But still memory is there and it will stay with me forever.

01:53I have witnessed Pakistani army burning the villages.

01:58The shot, I have witnessed all this.

02:01I don't know is it good or bad, but it is with me.

02:04It is with me.

02:06And so how important is this kind of event?

02:09It is very, very important.

02:12The thing is, it is very, very important that people like us remember these events.

02:19And we follow on and we teach and share that to our next generation.

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