The Dhaka Times Desk Today (Friday) is the great 21st February. Great Martyrs Day and International Mother Language Day today. On the initiative of the United Nations, the day is being celebrated with due dignity in memory of language martyrs all over the world including Bangladesh. 68 years of mother tongue movement is completed today.
This day is a day of extreme grief and pain for the Bengali nation. On the other hand, this great February 11th is the day manifested in the glory of supreme sacrifice for the right of mother tongue Bengali.
The noblest and rarest legacy for any nation is the legacy of death—the legacy of knowing how to die and being able to die. On February 1, 1952, the martyrs left that noble and rare legacy to the nation. On this day in 1952, students and youth of Bengal (then East Pakistan) spontaneously took to the streets, ignoring the eye-painting of the ruling group and section 144 of the administration, on this day in 1952 to demand 'Bangla' as the national language.
Durbar's pace in the movement to establish the mother tongue alarmed the Pakistani rulers that day. Salam, Jabbar, Shafiq, Barkat and Rafiq were martyred when the Pakistani authorities opened fire on the student march that day. As a result of which we can speak Bengali today. I can write in Bengali. Bengali language is our mother tongue today.
We salute the unknown martyrs on this day. We pray for the forgiveness of the souls of the martyrs.
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