No special celebration on Aug 8

The Council of Advisers has decided to observe July 16 as July Shaheed Dibosh (July Martyrs' Day) and August 5 as "Gono-ovvutthan Dibosh" (Mass Uprising Day), commemorating key events during last year's student-led movement.

There will be no special celebration for August 8, previously declared New Bangladesh Day, Chief Adviser's Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam confirmed in a Facebook post yesterday.

On June 25, the interim government had declared August 5 as "July Mass Uprising Day" to commemorate the student-led protests that toppled the Sheikh Hasina regime that day last year.

It had also declared August 8 as "New Bangladesh Day", marking the formation of the interim government led by Prof Muhammad Yunus, and July 16 as "Shaheed Abu Sayed Day" in memory of Abu Sayed, a student of Rangpur's Begum Rokeya University, who was shot dead by police during protests in the district.

A government source confirmed that the New Bangladesh Day will now be cancelled. However, no gazette has been issued in this regard.

Earlier, three top leaders of the National Citizen Party (NCP) -- Sarjis Alam, Hasnat Abdullah, and Akhtar Hossain -- raised objections to declaring August 8 as New Bangladesh Day.