All set to observe Amar Ekushey [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

All set to observe Amar Ekushey

Local February 20, 2016

The nation will pay homage to the martyrs of the language movement of 1952 a minute after midnight past today by placing wreaths at Shaheed Minars across the country amid beefed up security.
The Central Shaheed Minar has been well decorated with Bangla letters against the backdrop of a rising sun, for the observance of Shaheed Dibas, or February 21, which has also been observed simultaneously as the International Mother
Language Day since 2000 after UNESCO announced the decision in November 1999.
On February 21, 1952, which fell on Phalgun 8, 1359 on Bangla calendar, the rulers of the then united Pakistan banned protests against the announcement that Urdu would be the only state language even though a majority of the combined population spoke Bangla.
Salam, Jabbar, Rafiq and Barkat who were killed in police firing on a students’ procession brought out defying the ban demanding Bangla as a state language on February 21, 1952.
The events of the language movement led to other landmark movements, including the historic Six-point Movement of 1966, and culminated into the War of Independence in 1971.
Like other years, Dhaka University is supervising the Amar Ekushey observance programmes. Observance committee member secretary AM Amzad said that they completed all preparation for observing the day.
Fine arts faculty students had decorated altar of the Shaheed Minar and the walls around the Shaheed Minar monument with floral designs. Roads, dividers and islands have been decorated with the national flag, festoons and cardboard cut-outs with Bangla letters.
People from all walks of life will place wreaths at Shaheed Minars singing the chorus ‘Amar Bhaiyer Rakte Rangano Ekushey February, Ami ki Bhulite Pari’, standing in solemn silence for a while and file past the altar in honour of language movement heroes.
President Abdul Hamid is expected to lead the nation to pay tribute to language heroes at Central Shaheed Minar in the capital, built in memory of the martyrs, a minute past midnight. The president will be followed by prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her cabinet colleagues, the speaker and teachers of Dhaka University, language movement heroes and others.
Soon after the departure of the VVIPs, tens of thousands of people from all walks of life would throng the area to pay floral tributes to the martyrs.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia and leader of the opposition in parliament Raushan Ershad are also expected to pay tribute to the language movement heroes.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Asaduzzman Mia said that the police had planned special security for the Central Shaheed Minar and in its vicinity for the observance of Amar Ekushey.
Bomb disposal squads, police personnel in plain clothes, special weapons and tactics personnel, patrol and roof-top security will be deployed to maintain law and order around the Central Shaheed Minar, the police said.
The police will set up checkpoints at strategic places, including all entry points to the campuses of Dhaka University and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, and Dhaka Medical College Hospital premises. Closed-circuit television cameras have also been installed.
Traffic will not be allowed on roads passing by the Shaheed Minar between 9:00pm Saturday and 2:00pm Sunday except for vehicles with authorised stickers.
Residents of Nazimuddin Road, Babupura and College Road have been asked to use Dewanbazar Road, Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, Nilkhet and New Market Gate 1 on their way to the Azimpur graveyard, officials said.
People coming from Lalbagh, Azimpur, Plassey crossing, Chawkbazar, Bakshibazar, Urdu Road and Dhakeswari Road area will have to travel through the new gate of the graveyard beside Gate 1 of New Market via Azimpur Road, New Market crossing and Peelkhana Road.
People will have to go by the roads in front of Sir Salimullah Hall, Jagannath Hall, Supreme Court building, Doyel Square, Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, TSC crossing, Nilkhet crossing, New Market, Old Railway Road, Azimpur Road, Azimpur crossing and Palassy to visit the Shaheed Minar. The police have asked people not to set up any awning on the roads.