Abu Dhabi: Bangladeshi expatriates in the UAE yesterday paid tributes to the father of the Bengali nation, Shaikh Mujibur Rahman, on the occasion of his death anniversary, which is commemorated as National Mourning Day.
“For Bangladesh, he was a great leader, like Mahatma Gandhi for India and Marshal Tito for former Yugoslavia,” Mohammad Imran, the Bangladeshi Ambassador to the UAE, said.
He was talking to Gulf News on the sidelines of a commemorative ceremony at the Bangladeshi Embassy in the capital.
The envoy said he was a people’s leader as he lived simply among them. Rahman was assassinated at his private residence while he was president.
“He had rejected the suggestions from officials to move to the presidential palace, saying that ‘nobody would harm me’,” Imran said.
Shaikh Mujib was assassinated along with several family members on August 15, 1975 by a group of disgruntled army officers.
At the ceremony, the ambassador lowered the national flag to half-mast in the presence of a large number of community members. They laid floral tributes on the picture of the departed leader.
The envoy and Bangladesh community leaders addressed the gathering and highlighted Rahman’s contribution to the nation.
Community members told Gulf News that they are indebted to the departed leader for the creation of their homeland.
“If he was not there, Bangladesh would not have been there,” Abdullah Al Mamoon, 30, a restaurant waiter, said. “Our country is known in the international arena by his name only,” he said.
Mohammad Sharif, 29, a security guard, said he had heard of many interesting stories of the leader from his father who was a freedom fighter. He (Rahman) was the only one who inspired hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshis to lay down lives in the war for freedom, Sharif said.
Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhary, 36, a superintendent at a petrol station said, although he died many years ago, Rahman’s influence is still felt in the country because people love him a lot.
About 800,000-strong, the Bangladeshi community is the third largest expatriate community in the UAE, after Indians and Pakistanis.
