ZCZC
BSS-30
HASAN-BANGABANDHU
Bangabandhu placed demand to make Bangla as state language: Hasan
DHAKA, Feb 21, 2021 (BSS) – Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud today said
young students’ leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had raised the
demand to make Bangla as the state language.
“Bangabandhu’s contribution to the 1952 Language Movement remains
everlasting…the then young students’ leader, Sheikh Hasina, presented the
demand for making Bangla as the state language,” he said.
Hasan, also joint general secretary of Awami League, was talking to
reporters after paying homage, along with AL leaders and workers, to the
language movement martyrs at the Central Shaheed Minar here in the morning,
marking Amar Ekushey and the International Mother Language Day.
Earlier, at the midnight, an AL delegation led by its General Secretary and
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader placed wreaths at the
Shaheed Minar on behalf of AL President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Hasan said the country’s independence and the movement of self-governance
were achieved following the path of the Language Movement with the blood of
martyrs.
Noting that the government is working for introduction of Bangla at all
levels, he said Bangla is the sixth language of the world in terms of Bangla-
speaking population.
“Our government is moving forward with a goal of establishing Bangla as the
official language of the United Nations,” the AL joint general secretary
said.
Before placing a wreath at the central Shaheed Minar, Hasan accompanying
with the AL leaders visited Azimpur graveyard and paid homage at the graves
of language movement martyrs Abul Barkat, Abdul Jabbar and Shafiur.
After placing wreaths and offering prayers in silence, they marched
towards the Shaheed Minar.
AL presidium members Lt Col (retd) Faruk Khan and Abdur Rahman, its
culture affairs secretary Asim Kumar Ukil, and office secretary and the prime
minister’s special assistant Barrister Biplob Barua were present on the
occasion.
Earlier, at a rally in the month of the Language Movement, Hasan said
Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman arranged a protest
rally in Dhaka in 1948 immediate after Mohammad Ali Jinnah declared that
“Urdu would be the only state language of Pakistan”.
“He (Bangabandhu) also presided over the meeting and he was arrested for
this movement. In the jail, he continued the movement for language through
hunger strike,” he said.
“We have a responsibility to history to highlight the remarkable
contribution of Father of the Nation to the great Language Movement,” the
information minister said.
BSS/PR/MRI/RY/1835hrs