DHAKA: Bashundhara Group, one of the largest business conglomerates of the country, paid profound homage to the martyrs of the historic Language Movement by placing wreaths at the Central Shaheed Minar at the wee hours of Saturday.

A representative team from Bashundhara Group (BG) placed wreath at the dais of the central Shaheed Minar at 3:21am.

Bashundhar Group Chairman’s Adviser Major General (retd) Mahbub Haider Khan, Press and Media Adviser of BG Abu Tayeb, East West Media Group Publisher Moinul Hossain Chowdhury, Adviser (Public Relations) of Bashundhara Group Lieutenant Colonel (retd.) Khandaker Abdul Wahed, Executive Director of BG Captain (retd) Sheikh Ehsan Reza along with others were present there.

Amar Ekushey and the International Mother Language Day is being observed from the first minute of Saturday with paying tribute to the language movement martyrs who fought and died on February 21 in 1952 to make mother tongue Bangla a state language.

The whole country is observing the 63rd Martyrs’ Day to commemorate the Language Movement martyrs through various programs.

The Central Shaheed Minar and its adjacent areas on Dhaka University campus got a different look with street paintings and hanging Bangla alphabets from branches of trees and pasting on walls.

February 21, the day has also been observed simultaneously as International Mother Language Day since 2000 after UNESCO announced the decision in November 1999.

People from all walks of life also reached there barefooted and placed wreaths at the Shaheed Minar singing the chorus ‘Amar Bhaiyer Rakte Rangano Ekushey February, Ami ki Bhulite Pari’, stand in solemn silence for a while.

On this day in 1952, students and people from all strata of society took to the streets in Dhaka to protest the then Pakistan government’s refusal to recognize Bangla as one of the state languages and its attempt to impose Urdu as the only official language of Pakistan.

Salam, Barkat, Rafiq, Shafiur, Jabbar and a few other brave sons of the soil sacrificed their lives to establish Bangla as a state language of the then Pakistan.

BDST: 0830 HRS, FEB 21, 2015