"With due honour we will remember the heroic and supreme sacrifices of our valiant freedom fighters, ... uphold the spirit of the liberation war... work to preserve the correct history ... and strive from our respective positions to attain their unaccomplished tasks," pledged the youth standing on their feet and stretching their hands forward.

The oath-taking ceremony was conducted by Deputy Commander in Chief of the Liberation War Air Vice Marshal (Retd) AK Khondokar at the Muktir Utsab (Celebration of Freedom) where Sector Commander CR Dutta and Trustee of Liberation War Museum Mafidul Huq were also present.

The Utsab started with national anthem followed by oath-taking ceremony and daylong cultural programmes performed by the students themselves.

Celebrities like Bappa Majumdar, Mita Huq and Khairul Anam Shakil could hardly outshine the young performers.

At the Utsab, there were two galleries displaying photographs of liberation war and war heroes, genocide, diaries of slain freedom fighters and newspaper clippings of 1971 to remind the youth that the freedom that they are enjoying now was not easily gained.

While visiting a gallery, one of the participants Swapan, 15, a student of class ten of Ucep School, said, "I have a feeling that all the things happened before my eyes."

Solaiman Hossain, who accompanied his daughter at the programme, said the galleries spoke everything and there was no need to explain anything to her.

With a view to inculcate the spirit of the liberation war into young minds, Liberation War Museum had been organising such programme every year since 1997, said Trustee of the Museum Dr Sarwar Ali.

This year around twelve thousand students from 45 schools of the city participated in the Utsab, which is an outreach programme of the Museum.

The Museum has a plan to extend the Utsab as its outreach programme outside the capital, said Ali.