Ukraine said yesterday it was pausing evacuations of civilians from war-scarred regions of the country because intelligence reports suggested invading Russian troops were planning attacks on humanitarian routes.

Language Martyrs' Day and International Mother Language Day were observed in Finland with the utmost respect and remembrance of the martyrs of 1952 Language Movement.

Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi today paid tributes to the 1952 language martyrs through probhat feri and placing wreaths at a Shaheed Minar at the chancery.

For the first time since Language Movement, Chittagongians paid their tributes to the language martyrs at a makeshift Shaheed Minar -- at Chattogram Municipal Model School and College grounds -- today, on the occasion of International Mother Language Day.

The nation is paying deep respects to the martyrs of 1952 Language Movement, marking 'Amar Ekushey', the Language Martyrs’ Day and International Mother Language Day.

Seventy years ago, on this day, an act of bravery and defiance against the oppressive state machinery of Pakistan paved the way for what later cemented the Bengali identity before the world.

Dear mother tongue, a whole month, the entire February is reserved exclusively for you. From the very beginning of this month, intellectuals, home and abroad, start to lament in their write-ups, talk shows, and in social media saying that you are not the de facto state language of Bangladesh.

The implications of the language movement were multifaceted and far-reaching in the social, cultural and political life of Pakistan and later on in Bangladesh from 1971 onwards.

Prime Minister Khwajaj Nazimuddin visited East Bengal in January, 1952, and addressed a public meeting on the 26th of January where he declared that Urdu alone must be the State Language of Pakistan.

I sincerely sympathise with the efforts of Dhaka Tamaddun Majlish in trying to make Bangla the state language of East Pakistan. 

The language that the people of a country speak is the natural language for that country. This poses the question then, how could there be a problem when it comes to the language of East Pakistan?

In her memoir, translated into English as An Unknown Woman (2016), Jowshan Ara Rahman describes how the first poem on February 21, 1952

From the later decades of the last century, a new worry has descended on mankind — that about the endurance, decay and death of the language.

We did not fight against any language, not even Urdu. Our language movement was a fight against a ruler of a ruled nation. Language itself has no power to exploit others.

Shortly after the establishment of Pakistan, differences between the two wings came out as startling facts. In the intellectual quarters of East Pakistan, their mother tongue Bangla was being totally ignored. Protests were organised outspokenly.

In 1950, just a little more than two years into the partition of the South Asian subcontinent, the octogenarian Abdul Karim Sahityavisharad (1871-1953) delivered a lecture in Chittagong, on the language and heritage of the Bangla language in the context of newly founded Pakistan.

Badruddin Umar: As a general student, I participated in every public event of the Language Movement in 1952. On February 21, for example,