Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday paid homage to Shaheed Sheikh Russell, the assassinated youngest son of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, to mark his 60th birthday.

Russel, the youngest brother of Hasina, was brutally killed along with Bangabandhu and most of his family members in a carnage on August 15 in 1975. He was then only 10 years old and a grade four student at University Laboratory School.

October 18 is observed as Sheikh Russel Day as per a Cabinet Division decision taken in 2021.

On Wednesday morning, the prime minister along with her younger sister Sheikh Rehana went to Banani graveyard and placed wreath on the grave of Russel. They also spread flower petals on the graves of all martyrs of Bangabandhu's family.

Hasina and Rehana offered fateha and joined a special munahat seeking eternal peace of the departed souls of the Farher of the Nation Bangabandhu, Bangamata and other martyrs of the August 15 carnage.

The two daughters of Bangabandhu escaped the mayhem as they were travelling abroad at that time.

Russell was born on October 18 in 1964 at the historic Bangabandhu Bhaban at Dhanmondi road number 32 in the capital. He was named after Bangabandhu's favourite writer, renowned philosopher and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell, by Bangabandhu himself and Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatun Nesa Mujib.

To mark the day, government bodies, ruling Awami League, its associate bodies and different socio-cultural organisations have taken up various programmes at home and abroad.