Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Tuesday paid homage to the 1952 Language Movement martyrs marking Amar Ekushey, the Language Martyrs Day, and the International Mother Language Day.
The party’s central leaders, led by its standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, reached the Central Shaheed Minar around 12:30 pm after waiting for nearly five hours and placed a wreath at its altar, according to UNB.
The leaders and activists of the party gathered in front of Balaka Cinema Hall at Nilkhet at 7:30am wearing black badges. Later, they first offered fateha at the graves of Language Movement martyrs at Azimpur Graveyard.
BNP leaders said it took around five hours for them to go to the Central Shaheed Minar to pay tributes to the martyrs.
Talking to reporters there, Mosharraf alleged that they were subjected to political vengeance as they came to pay homage at the Central Shaheed Minar on the occasion of Language Martyrs Day and International Mother Language Day.
"We start moving towards the Shaheed Minar with a procession at dawn from Balaka building at 7:30 am. We had to stand in front of Salimullah Hall for almost five hours to reach the Shaheed Minar,” he said.
The BNP leader said the names of some organisations have been repeatedly announced through the loudspeakers and they did not leave the altar intentionally as they wasted time unnecessarily.
“It is the failure of those who were in charge of administration here. Even today we’re subjected to political vengeance here (at Shaheed Minar). It is very sad. We strongly protest and condemn it. They have deliberately made it happen,” he alleged.
BNP standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan, chairperson’s advisers Aman Ullah Aman, Abdus Salam, Habibur Rahman Habib, joint secretaries general Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Khairul Kabir Khokon, Habib-Un-Nabi Khan Sohel, acting office secretary Syed Imran Saleh Prince and publicity affairs secretary Shaheed Uddin Chowdhury Anne were, among others, present there,
Earlier on Monday, the party arranged a discussion at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, marking the day.
BNP also kept their party and national flags at half-mast and hoisted black flags at its Nayapaltan central office at 6 am in observance of the day.
Besides, BNP’s different units across the country also observed the day with due respect amid various programmes.
Ekushey February is observed simultaneously as Shaheed Dibas and International Mother Language Day in recognition of the Bengali nation’s supreme sacrifice to the cause of their mother tongue. In 1999, UNESCO declared the 21st of February as the International Mother Language Day.