New banknotes were released in Bangladesh with new designs, replacing the portrait of the ousted Prime Minister and the nation’s founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, with natural landscape and traditional landmarks, the country’s central bank said.
Till now, all the banknotes feature the portrait of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh to freedom from Pakistan in 1971 until he was assassinated by soldiers in a military coup four years later. Along with the new banknotes, existing notes having Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s portrait and coins will remain in circulation.
“Under the new series and design, the notes will not feature any human portraits, but will instead showcase natural landscapes and traditional landmarks,” Bangladesh Bank spokesman Arif Hossain Khan told news agency AFP.
The new banknotes, released by Bangladesh Bank, will have images of Hindu and Buddhist temples, as well as historic palaces. They will also feature artwork by the late painter Zainul Abedin, depicting the Bengal famine during the British colonial rule.
The notes for three of the nine different denominations were released on Sunday. The others will be put into circulation in phases. “The new notes will be issued from the central bank’s headquarters, and later from its other offices across the country,” Khan said.
This is not the first time that the designs of the banknotes have been modified to reflect Bangladesh’s changing politics.
