Aug 15 as national day of mourning:

Daily Star reports on August 6, 2007:

A Supreme Court lawyer and two other persons yesterday filed a writ petition with the High Court (HC) challenging a cabinet division order issued during the immediate past BNP-led alliance government's regime canceling August 15 as the National Day of Mourning and a public holiday.

The petitioners also sought court directives reinstating the date as the National Day of Mourning and a public holiday.

Advocate Mozammel Huq, a Supreme Court lawyer, filed the writ petition with an HC division bench, which is likely to hear the writ today.

Mentioning the great contribution of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the Liberation War of Bangladesh, the petitioners said Mujib was killed on August 15, 1975. In 1996 the erstwhile government introduced August 15 as the National Day of Mourning and declared the day a public holiday with the national flag flying half-mast to pay respect to the slain father of the nation. But the BNP-led alliance government in August 2002 canceled the earlier decision to observe August 15 as the National Day of Mourning and a public holiday through issuing a notification through the cabinet division.

The petitioners filed the petition as a public interest litigation.

The cabinet division secretary, the principal secretary to the chief adviser, and the secretaries to the ministries of law, information, and education were made respondents in the writ petition.