Today is historic Six-Point Day, commemorating the movement and sacrifices made in the struggle to realise the demand for autonomy for the then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

No political party or organisation had announced any programme to observe the day as of Saturday evening.

On June 7, 1966, Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman launched a mass movement centred on the Six-Point demand, which is considered the Magna Carta of the Bengali people’s struggle for self-rule in the then East Pakistan.

Eleven people, including Manu Mian, Shafique and Shamsul Haque, were shot dead by the police and members of the paramilitary East Pakistan Rifles in Dhaka and Narayanganj on that day.

They were participating in demonstrations during a general strike called to demand the release of Sheikh Mujib and other leaders who had been detained for launching the Six-Point Movement against Pakistani oppression.

Mujib announced his six-point political and economic programme in Lahore on February 5, 1966, with the aim of securing autonomy for the eastern wing of Pakistan in the face of exploitation and discrimination by the then Pakistani rulers.

One of the key demands was the creation of a constitutional provision for a federation of Pakistan based on the 1940 Lahore Resolution, under which the federal government would be responsible only for defence and foreign affairs.

The other demands included the introduction of two separate but freely convertible currencies for East and West Pakistan, vesting the power of taxation and revenue collection in the federating units, maintaining separate accounts for the foreign exchange earnings of the two wings, and creating a separate militia or paramilitary force for East Pakistan.