<i>Love for mother tongue brings them together</i>
Parliament member from Jessore-1 Sheikh Afil Uddin, former Indian Lok Sava member Amitav Nandi, West Bengal Land Minister Abdur Rezzak Molla, Planning Minsiter Rekha Goswami arrive in Benapole to place wreaths at the temporarily built Shaheed Minar on the 'no man's land' to pay respect to the 1952 Language Movement martyrs on International Mother language Day yesterday.Photo: STAR
Thousands of Bangla speaking Indians and Bangladeshis came together breaking barrier of national borders and sang "Amar bhaier rokte rangano ekushe February` to pay their tribute to the martyrs of Language Movement. To mark the International Mother Language Day the border guards of the two nations also shook hands and laid floral wreaths at a makeshift Shaheed Minar on no-mans land at Benapole-Petrapole border. The day long programme began in the morning with the hoisting of the national flags and singing the national anthems of the two countries. The function turned into a union of thousands of Bangla speaking people from both sides of the border. They hugged each other and some talked about Salam, Barkat, Rafique Zabbar, and many others who sacrificed their lives for establishing Bangla as our national language. Close up one singers Beauty and Muhin sang in the function which has been organized every year since 2002. The programme was jointly organized by Bongaon Ekush udjapan committee of West Bengal and Benapole Ekush udjapan committee of Bangladesh. West Bengal ministers Abdur Razzak Mollah, Srimoti Rekha Goshwami and Bangladesh parliament member Sheik Afil Uddin of Jessore-1 constituency were present at the function. BSF and BDR allowed peoples from both countries to pay homage to the martyrs together.
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