Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday urged all to promote the dedicated souls who are selflessly serving the society in different parts of the country.

“I would like to request you to try to find out such dedicated persons in every place who are not in limelight and don’t have any publicity or campaign,” she said appreciating the sacrifice of Ekushey Padak-2024 winning yogurt seller Ziaul Haque, a dedicated man from Chapainawabganj.

The premier said this after conferring the “Ekushey Padak 2024” on 21 eminent personalities in recognition of their outstanding contributions to various fields, at a ceremony at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in Dhaka.

She said Ziaul Haque dedicated his life to spreading the light of knowledge among those who could not acquire education.

Pointing to the social elites, the prime minister said, “It’s the responsibility of those who are in the upper level of the society to find out the persons who are making such great sacrifices.”

She greeted the award recipients and appreciated their dedication for the society.

Ziaul received the Ekushey Padak-2024 for social service as he dedicated his entire life to creating a public library and free book distribution among insolvent students with the little bit of profit he made from selling yogurt.

Despite being a brilliant student, he could not pursue education due to financial insolvency. The great man started shouldering the responsibility of poor students and distribution of free books among insolvent students, creating a family library first (in 1969) and then a public library titled “Ziaul Haque Common Library.”

Sheikh Hasina, also the eldest daughter of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, said she would arrange a permanent land and building for the public library developed by Ziaul as he demanded while receiving the Ekushey Padak.

Besides, she said the government would take a move to nationalise the school established by him, if he wants.

Referring to the history of Bangladesh, the prime minister said her government has successfully freed the nation from distortion of history after coming power in 1996. “Today the people have known the real history of the Language Movement and the Liberation War,” she said.

Talking about the role of Bangabandhu in the Language Movement, she said unfortunately there was an attempt to erase the contribution of the Father of the Nation to the Language Movement from the history.

She said Bangabandhu had been in jail for waging the Language Movement. “Why had he been in jail (at that time) if he had no contribution?” she asked.

The prime minister said it is her government that restored the glorious image of Bangladesh, which had been lost during the 1975-1996 period.

The Cultural Affairs Ministry organised the event on the occasion of ‘Amar Ekushey’ and International Mother Language Day.

Among the award recipients, Ashraf Uddin Ahmed (Posthumous) and freedom fighter Hatem Ali Mia (Posthumous) were honoured with this award for their roles in the Language Movement.

Besides, Jalal Uddin Kha (Posthumous), freedom fighter Kalyani Ghosh, Bidit Lal Das (Posthumous), Andrew Kishore (Posthumous) and Subhro Deb were recognised for their contributions to music while Shibli Mohammad, Dolly Zahur and MA Alamgir for performing dance and acting respectively.

Popular elocutionist Shimul Mustapha and Rupa Chakraborty were also conferred the Ekushey Padak.

Shahjahan Ahmed Bikash and Kawsar Chowdhury were awarded for their contribution to painting and documentary films related to the Liberation War.

Md Ziaul Haque and Rafiq Ahmed were given the award for social services.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Samad, Lutfur Rahman Riton, Minar Mansur and Rudra Mohammad Shahidullah received the award for contributing to language and literature while Jinabodhi Bhikkhu for his contribution to education.