Cultural Affairs Adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki spoke at a media briefing at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in the city today. Photo: BSS

DHAKA, April 9, 2025 (BSS) – Cultural Affairs Adviser Mostofa Sarwar Farooki said that this year’s Bangla New Year would be celebrated seeking peace for the whole world including Bangladesh. 

He said this at a media briefing at the National Theatre Hall Seminar Room of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in the city today. 

Bangla Band musicians and Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy jointly organized the briefing on the occasion of the ‘Chaitra Sangkranti’ and Bangla New Year 1432.

“There’s a genocide taking place in Palestine. In such a time, we cannot celebrate the New Year with well-wishes only for our country. Thus, we will celebrate the-Nababarsha (New Year) this year seeking peace for across the globe,” the adviser said.

As part of the festivities, around 200 musicians from various Bangladeshi bands will participate in the “Mangol Shobhajatra” (procession), Farooki said, adding that the event would begin with performance of the song “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

He hoped that around 500 musicians will join the ‘Shobhajatra’.

The adviser encouraged musicians from across the country to take part in the ‘Shobhajatra’, carrying guitars and Palestinian flags wishing global peace.

Speaking on the occasion, Warfaze band member Sheikh Manirul Alam Tipu said the initiatives taken by the current interim government on the occasion of ‘Chaitra Sangkranti’ and the Bangla New Year this year is highly encouraging.

This year, there are some interesting and different arrangements to make the ‘Chaitra Sankranti’ (last day of the Bengali month of Chaitra) and New Year processions larger and more diverse, he said, adding that the spontaneous presence of youth-oriented band music is one of them. 

Tipu said more than a hundred artists will join the “Shobhajatra” with timely and different messages.