Information and Broadcasting Minister and Awami League (AL) Joint General Secretary Dr Hasan Mahmud today said the biggest achievement of the AL, which is involved in every achievement of the Bangalees, is bringing independence for the country.  The AL leader said these while exchanging views with journalists at his official residence here after placing wreath at the portrait of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in city’s Dhanmondi-32 area on the occasion of the 74th founding anniversary of the Awami League. Highlighting the achievements and endeavors of incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for developing the country, the minister said today, Bangladesh has been elevated to middle-income country from low-developed one under the leadership of Awami League president and the premier Sheikh Hasina. The country has also been upgraded from a food deficit country to a self-sufficient one and as a result, Bangladesh has earned a prestigious place in the world, he added. “For that reason, if you want to write the history of the Bangalee, you have to write the name of Awami League,” he added. The minister said that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib started the independence movement in 1966 through placing the six-point demand. Following that path of emancipation, Bangabandhu achieved his main goal of having an independent Bangladesh through the mass uprising of 1969, the elections of 1970 and the War of Liberation in 1971, he said. The AL joint general secretary recalled that the War of Liberation was conducted under the first official government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (popularly known as the Mujibnagar Government), he said. There, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was declared the president of the new government, he said, adding that Syed Nazrul Islam was given the charge of Vice-President and Tajuddin Ahmed was made the Prime Minister of that government alongside appointing the sector commanders. “And when Bangabandhu was leading the war-ravaged country forward after independence, he was assassinated,” he said. The sun of Bengal’s independence sat on June 23 in 1757 in the ‘Battle of Palashi’, the information minister said, adding the establishment of Awami League on June 23, 1949 was to bring back that lost independence. And this AL’s leadership brought the country’s independence in 1971, he added. “That’s why this day is very important for the Bangalee nation and Bangladesh,” he continued. Narrating the inception of Awami League to the journalists on this day, Dr Hasan said Awami Muslim League was formed on this day in 1949 in the Rose Garden in Dhaka with Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani as president and Shamsul Huq as general secretary. The young leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the number one joint general secretary there, he added. Under the leadership of Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh will move forward on the path of fulfilling the dreams of the father of the nation, great martyrs and freedom fighters, he said. He hoped the country will become a developed and prosperous country by 2041. About the inception of AL, he further said, in order to sharpen the non-communal spirit, the word ‘Muslim’ was removed and the name of the party became Awami League. Pakistan Awami League was founded in 1950, with Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy as its president while Bangabandhu was elected the president of Awami League in 1966, he said. The Awami League has brought many achievements to the Bengali nation even before independence, Dr Hasan said. Since the central government was formed under the leadership of Awami League President Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy in 1956, the national celebration of Great Language Martyrs Day started on February 21. In 1952, the Pakistani government accepted the demand to make Bengali as the state language but did not establish it, he said, adding that rather, Awami League government did it.