International Mother Language Day was observed Wednesday amidst a renewed pledge to establish Bangla in all spheres of national life and promote multilingual culture across the world.

Hundreds of thousands of barefoot people, wearing black badges, visited the Central Shaheed Minar in Bangladesh's capital Dhaka since early hours of the day paying glowing tributes to the language martyrs.

Strains of the immortal song resounded through the sprawling Dhaka University campus as people streamed towards the memorial.

This day in 1952, Barkat, Salam, Rafiq, Shafiur, Jabbar made their sublime sacrifice for establishing Bangla as a state language of the erstwhile Pakistan.

The Language Movement inspired the Bengali nation to fight against injustices and exploitation unto achieving national independence in 1971.

In recognition of the Language Movement in Bangladesh, UNESCO ( United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has declared Feb. 21 International Mother Language Day to promote linguistic and cultural diversity in the UN member-states. The declaration was made on Nov. 17, 1999.

A total of 188 countries across the world observed the day with the commitment to promote linguistic diversity and multilingual education and raise awareness of cultural traditions based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.

Bangladeshi President Iajuddin Ahmed and Chief Advisor of Caretaker Government Fakhruddin Ahmed led the nation in commemorating the martyrdom of the 1952 Language Movement heroes.

Around 8,000 law-enforcers were deployed in the capital from Tuesday evening to maintain security during the observance of the historic day. No untoward incident was reported.

Source: Xinhua