The nation observes the 21st February, the International Mother Language Day, today with scores of martyrs still unbeknownst to the nation.
Those who laid down their lives in the Language Movement in 1952 were mostly common people from different walks of life but it was they who moulded our country into what it is today.
But after as many as 64 years, Ahmad Rafiq, the veteran language hero, with deep regret told the Dhaka Tribune: “Many years have passed by but it is very unfortunate that many language martyrs are yet to be identified.”
He recalled a number of incidents in this regard.
Dr Ahmed said: “I could clearly recall a man known as Chheraj Miah who told me that a boy was bullet-hit near Manashi Cinema Hall in front of him. The boy requested him to inform his family in Tantibazar area about his being injured. Chheraj searched for his house in the area but failed to find the location as he did not know the boy’s name.”
The language hero also recalled another such incident: “I saw a bullet-hit youth named Fazlul Haque Ameni next to a Alia Madrassa just opposite the Dhaka Medical College near Dhaka University Gymnasium field. He was immediately taken away by the East Pakistan Rifles. After a few days I looked for his name in the register of the DMCH emergency unit but I could not find his name.”
“It is very unfortunate that those who were killed on those days would never be known. The nation would never know the names of the martyrs of those days.”
I am sure that at least 12 people were killed on those days, he said.
He blamed the then government and journalists for not investigateing those murders.
Dr Ahmed said it was the responsibility of the governments of independent country to find out the number but they had never been interested.
Asked if they can record those names he said they could not do that as they were on the run because of the cases filed against them for their involvement in the Language Movement.
Apart from this, people then were not so much conscious of preserving history. Even the liberation war history could not be preserved properly, he said.
When contacted, Language Movement researcher and Jatiya Mukti Council Chief Badruddin Umar told the Dhaka Tribune that he had also witnessed such incidents on February 21.
“It was on a Nawabpur Road Crossing at Bangshal where a youth got bullet-hit and I rushed to the spot after a while but I could not find him as the ruling party men took the bullet-hit boy away,” he said.
Both the language hero and the Language Movement researcher said the nation had lost the real spirit of the day.
Once the day was observed to restore the spirit to do something better with a pledge to move forward.
But now-a-days the day is observed only to shed tears for losing some best sons of the soil. The day was not the same as it is today. The day is a lesson that teaches us to overcome all kinds of obstacles and this is the spirit of the day, Badruddin Omar noted.
Dr Ahmed said it is often seen that the new generation who the nation would rely on in future are standing at the foot of the Shaheed Minar wearing shoes.
