Staff Reporter:
The 20th death anniversary of the Independence Award winning veteran freedom fighter, lawmaker and eminent labor leader Ahsan Ullah Master was observed yesterday.
On this occasion, elaborate programs have been taken by Shaheed Ahsan Ullah Master Foundation and Shaheed Ahsan Ullah Master Smriti Parishad in different areas, including Dhaka and Gazipur.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages paying rich tributes to Ahsan Ullah Master, a true solider of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
In his message, the President recalled Ahsan Ullah Master’s contribution to the country’s democratic movements and politics as a labor leader and a devoted and dedicated leader of Bangladesh Awami League.
Shahabuddin said that Ahsan Ullah was a selfless leader of democracy, who was always vocal in realiz-ing the just rights of the workers and never wavered in realizing the rights of hardworking people.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in her message, said a lifelong devotee to humanitarian service, Ahsan Ullah Master was involved in various national and international social organizations, including teachers association.
The Premier said after the dissolution of the Upazila Parishad in 1992, he filed a case on behalf of the Upazila Parishad Chairmen as the convener of the association and formed a nationwide movement and subsequently he was arrested and imprisoned.
She said Ahsan Ullah Master’s dream was to build a drug-terror- free Tongi-Gazipur, but he had to em-brace death as part of the BNP-Jamaat government’s blueprint of the then ‘Hawa Bhaban’
to wipe out popular Awami League leaders.
Some of his students, like Omar Farooq Ratan, had also to face martyrdom to save their beloved teacher Ahsan Ullah Master, Sheikh Hasina noted.
“Not only that, after the assassination of Ahsan Ullah Master, the police of the coalition government killed two more innocent people by firing on the agitation program and protesting crowds and arrested thousands of leaders and workers of Awami League, Jubo League and Chhatra League,” she added.
Sheikh Hasina prayed for eternal peace of his departed soul.
On May 7, 2004, during the then BNP-Jamaat regime, a group of terrorists gunned him down at a public rally on Noagaon MA Majid Mia High School ground.
