In order to uphold the spirit of non-communal values, an event of non-communalism was held in the Central Shaheed Minar, East London on 21 December 21, organised by Sampriti Concert UK, in the month of victory, with songs of the Liberation War.
Under the direction of the organisation’s spokesperson, Urmee Mazher, and coordinated by Gauri Chowdhury, Swadhin Bangla Betar and Baul Shah Abdul Karim’s songs were performed in a collective voice. Nazrul Islam Okib and Smrity Azad recited poetry at the event.
The event ended with the participants taking the oath and singing the national anthem. The oath was read by the brave freedom fighter Dewan Gous Sultan.
The participants took the oath of working together shoulder to shoulder on the same stage to uphold the thousand-year-old cherished religious and cultural heritage of Bangladesh, to see the implementation of the ideals of non-communalism and secularism, which led to the sacrifice of the lives and dignity of 3 million martyrs and 300,000 mothers and sisters in 1971 and the life-long struggle of millions of freedom fighters, in the great liberation war, everywhere in Bangladesh, to maintain and nurture absolute faith in fundamental human rights and freedoms and unwavering respect for the dignity and values of human beings in our actions, thoughts and consciousness, to end to the repetition of the atrocities that have been committed against people of different religions, castes, sects and backgrounds in Bangladesh from time to time, condemning all the atrocities that have taken place in Bangladesh, from attacks and damage to places of worship of followers of traditional religions to those of other faiths.
The oath went on to say, that we demand a fair investigation, trial and exemplary peace for the perpetrators. We, the people of non-communal Bangladesh, declare that we will always strive to keep communal relations intact everywhere, including our neighbouring countries, and to play any supporting role. We, the British-Bangladeshi people, further declare that we firmly believe in the multicultural society existing among people of different religions, races, cultures, and nations living in the United Kingdom and will always keep an eye on keeping this tradition intact and building friendships and good relations between people of different ethnic groups.
We also declare that our cultural movement will continue. We will join hands with each other and sing the victory song of harmony against all kinds of extremism.
Present were freedom fighter Louqman Hossain, freedom fighter Dewan Gous Sultan, Prashant Purkayastha BME, Syed Enamul Islam, Bijan Bhattacharya, Lipi Chunnu, Mahfuza Talukder, Maruf Chowdhury, Abdul Ahad Chowdhury, Robin Pal, Moynur Rahman Babul, Shahab Ahmed Bachchu, Abdul Hamid, Syed Enamul Islam, Dhananjoy Pal, Joydeep Roy, Mahmud Hasan Mithu, Shampa Kundu, Jewel Raj, Hafsa Islam, Hena Begum and many others.
It is worth noting that for the past few years, Sampriti Concert UK has been organising various programs against communalism in Bangladesh.