BANGLADESH has postponed the March 17 grand inaugural ceremony of the birth centenary celebrations of its founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, hours after three coronavirus cases were detected in the country.
Bangladesh on Sunday (8) reported three cases of coronavirus. Two persons brought the disease from Italy, infecting the third one on their return home, officials said.
The year-long celebrations were scheduled to open amid massive festivities at the National Parade Ground in Dhaka, and was expected to be attended by several foreign dignitaries, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Modi will not attend the ceremony, an official statement said.
"The planned celebrations for the Mujib Year have been rearranged in view of worldwide outbreak of coronavirus," Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said.
"We will convey about the rearrangement of the planned opening of the celebrations to the foreign dignitaries, leaving it to them if they would come," he said.
Prime Minister Sheikh directed the organisers to scale down the planned festivities, but the new venue for the inauguration of the celebrations is yet to be decided, chief coordinator of the celebration committee Kamal Abdul Naser said.
Bangladesh has also invited former Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and Nepal's President Bidhya Devi Bhandari to address an extraordinary parliamentary session to mark the celebrations.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman served as the first President of Bangladesh and later as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from April 17, 1971 until his assassination on August 15, 1975.
His daughter Sheikh Hasina is the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
Damian Talbot