More foreign friends lined up for honour

Former Indian President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and Prime Minister Gulzarilal Nanda will be posthumously awarded with ‘Bangladesh Liberation War Honour’ on Oct 1 in recognition of their contributions to the 1971 War of Independence.

The seventh phase of the awards ceremony will also honour 59 foreign nationals including 43 Indians, four Pakistanis, two British, four American, one Japanese, one Sri Lankan, one Egyptian and one Turkish, and one organisation, Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Organisation, with the “Friends of Liberation War Honour”.

According to the list available with bdnews24.com, Indian singer Suchitra Mitra, poets Subhash Mukhopadhyay and Shakti Chattapadhaya will be awarded posthumously with the “Friends of Liberation War Honour” award.

The Awami League government began recognising foreign nationals and organisations with awards on July 25, 2011 when it conferred ‘Bangladesh Freedom Honour’, the highest among the three categories of awards, on later Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

So far 278 nationals have been honoured, most of them with “Friends of Liberation War Honour” award.

Of them, 13 including Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, Cuba’s former President Fidel Castro and former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson received “Bangladesh Liberation War Honour”.

Pervez Ahmed will receive the award for his father Ali Ahmed, India’s fifth President, while Tejus Naik will receive the award for his father Nanda, who served twice as interim Prime Minister of India.

Sons will receive Pakistani politicians Khan Abdul Wali Khan, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Master Khan Gul’s posthumous award while Professor Tariq Rahman will come to receive his award.

The national committee on Sept 15 said they had sent invitations to 103 individuals and organisations for the seventh phase of the ceremony.