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Amar Ekushey observed

Staff Correspondent
Barefoot they came out of their homes. Wearing black badges and holding bouquets tight to their bosoms, they marched towards the Shaheed Minars throughout the day yesterday. It was their day to pay homage to those who laid down their lives sixty years ago to safeguard the glory of their mother tongue, Bangla.
It was Amar Ekushey yesterday. Tens of thousands of people from all walks of life crowded Shaheed Minars in the capital and elsewhere in the country singing the Ekushey anthem -- amar bhaiyer rokte rangano Ekushey February, ami ki bhulite pari — and showered the hallowed monuments with flowers, mourning the martyrs of the 1952 Language Movement.
On February 21 that year, Pakistani police fired on the peaceful protesters, who had taken to the Dhaka streets demanding that Bangla be made one of the state languages of the then Pakistan.
The police brutality killed many people, mostly students, including Salam, Barkat, Rafiq, Jabbar and Shafiur.
The day has since been observed as Language Martyrs' Day. In November 1999, UNESCO declared it the International Mother Language Day.
President Zillur Rahman
and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina were the first to place wreaths at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka at 12:01am.
They offered a moment of silence, bowing their heads, to remember the sacrifices of those brave hearts.
A sea of people then started paying tributes to the language heroes.
At daybreak, they streamed towards the Central Shaheed Minar through every street on the Dhaka University campus leading to the monument, leaving hardly any room for traffic.
Imbued with the spirit of patriotism, many demanded introduction of Bangla at all levels and enforce correct use of Bangla. Others sought a quick completion of the war crimes trial.
Bangladesh missions abroad observed the day in a sombre mood.
Street paintings, festoons, banners and other forms of placards inscribed
with popular poems on the Language Movement were seen around the Central Shaheed Minar and on adjacent streets, adding to the solemnity of the occasion.
Some foreign citizens also placed wreaths at the Central Shaheed Minar.
The day was a public holiday. The national flag was hoisted at half-mast and black flags flew on government, autonomous and private offices.
State-run Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar and private TV chan-nels aired special programmes while BTV telecast the wreaths laying ceremony live from the Central Shaheed Minar.
Newspapers published special supplements highlighting the significance of the day.
From the Shaheed Minar, many went to the Bangla Academy, where the month-long Amar Ekushey Boi Mela, organised to commemorate the Amar Ekushey, is going on.