State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam has said the new generation must know the true history of the country's liberation war as they are the country's future leaders.
"The true history of the country's great liberation war has to be projected before the new generation to the greater interest of the nation," he added.
The state minister made the observation while distributing prizes among the winners of the question-answer competition organised to mark the Great Independence and National Day at Charghat Upazila Parishad auditorium in the district as the chief guest today.
He distributed wheelchairs among 21 distressed people with disabilities and bank cheques worth about Taka 23.79 lakh among 51 borrowers of Palli Sanchay Bank on the occasion.
He also distributed bank cheques of Taka five lakh among 11 patients' sufferings from various chronic diseases.
Shahriar Alam, who is also a member of parliament of the Charghat-Bagha constituency, termed the Charghat Thanapara Genocide by Pakistani army on April 13 in 1971 as barbaric and detrimental to the humanity.
On that day, hundreds of people including women and children from Thanpara adjacent to Sardah Police Academy, half-a-kilometer north-west from Charghat Bazar, left their houses and took shelter on the bank of river Padma.
Later, the Pakistan army surrounded them and opened fire indiscriminately, leaving as many as five hundred people dead. The area witnessed mass killing of Bangladeshi freedom fighters during the Liberation War.
The brutal attack by Pakistan invaders killed about 400 unarmed men and injured many others in the Thanapara village that was later declared as a widow village after independence.
Shahriar Alam called upon the young generation to learn Bangladesh's history and uphold the spirit of independence and build "Sonar Bangla" in accordance with the dreams of the Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Upazila Parishad Chairman Fakhrul Islam addressed the meeting as special guest with Upazila Nirbahi Officer Sohrab Hossain in the chair.
Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha