Amar Ekushey, the UN-recognized International Mother Language Day, will be observed Monday in the country as elsewhere over the world to pay homage to the Bengali language martyrs.
People from all strata of society will start paying rich tributes to the martyred language heroes by placing wreaths at Shaheed Minars across the country after Sunday midnight.
The Central Shaheed Minar has put on a somberly decorative look marking the great national occasion that has been transcended onto the universal plane for its importance to all the ethnic groups.
President Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will place wreaths at the Central Shaheed Minar after the zero hour followed by the speaker of national parliament.
Opposition leader and ex-PM Khaleda Zia will also pay tribute to the language martyrs in the early hours.
All the diplomats and leaders of political parties will follow in placing wreaths at the Shaheed Minar. Social, cultural, academic and professional bodies and individuals will also pay homage to the martyrs on the eve of the mournful anniversary of the 21st February tragedy at the climax of the 1952 Language Movement.Various socio-cultural organisations have chalked out various programmes marking the day. The Amar Ekushey Observance Committee of Dhaka University has completed all preparations for the nation to observe the language martyrs’ day and decided to restrict vehicular movement in areas around the Central Shaheed Minar.
Salam, Barkat, Rafiq, Jabbar, Safiur and other brave sons of the soil sacrificed their lives this day in 1952 to establish Bangla as a state language of the then Pakistan. Since then, the day has been observed as the Language Martyrs` Day. In 2000, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) declared the day as the International Mother Language Day.
News Source: The Daily Star