Dhaka: The public rally of Awami League marking the historic March 7 began at 2:30pm in city’s Suhrawardy Udyan through recitations from the holy Quran, the Geeta, the Tripitaka and the Bible.

Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is presiding over the huge rally, reports the BSS.

AL General Secretary and Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, in his welcome address, said the March 7 is being observed in the face of a new challenge this year.

‘Observance of historic March 7 is a matter of values, spirit and ideology,’ the minister said, adding the UNESCO recognized the March 7 speech of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as a world documentary heritage in the Memory of the World Register.

AL Publicity and Publication Secretary Hasan Mahmud and Cultural Affairs Secretary Ashim Kumar Ukil are conducting the rally.

Since morning, groups had started to gather in and around the Suhrawardy Udyan.

On March 7 in 1971, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in his historic speech at a mammoth rally in the then ‘Race Course Maidan’, now Suhrawardy Udyan, in the city directed the freedom-loving Bangalees for waging a decisive struggle against the Pakistan occupation forces.