Bangalees started getting united to thwart possible attempts to undermine Bengali in July 1947, a month before the establishment of Pakistan and India based on religion, as they sensed the political leadership in West Pakistan would prioritize Urdu.

They were right. The initiatives, taken by the West Pakistani rulers and supported by some Bangalee Muslim politicians until January 27, 1952, proved that their efforts to establish Urdu as the state language of Pakistan would not stop. The Pakistani prime minister, Khawaja Nazimuddin, reiterated his resolve to establish Urdu as the state language and hailed the initiative to write Bengali by using the Urdu alphabet.

His speeches ignited the resistance in the fifth year of the movement. On January 30, the Dhaka University wing of the State Language Revolutionary Council (Rashtro Bhasha Sangram Parishad) declared a general strike, rallies and processions for February 21, and students observed strikes and processions almost every day.

On February 20, the administration slapped Section 144 on processions and rallies for a month to thwart the movement. In the morning, police charged batons and detained some students who took to the streets in small groups from the main gathering at Aamtola on the Dhaka University campus.

The police also lobbed tear gas canisters to disperse the students. But when the protesters turned rebellious in the afternoon, they fired bullets at the protesters in the medical college hostel and Fuller Road areas. “The police fired bullets with an intent to kill,” said the report by the Ellis Commission, headed by Justice Thomas Hobart Ellis.

Abul Barkat, Rafique Uddin and Abdul Jabbar sustained critical injuries inside the hostel and were later declared dead at the hospital. Abdus Salam was hospitalized with bullet wounds and died after one and a half months. Shafiur Rahman was killed by the police on February 22.

Only five martyrs recognized
They are the five well-known martyrs of the Language Movement, recognized by the government in 2000 from a list of eight deceased compiled by veteran journalist and writer M.R. Akhtar Mukul. The three others shot dead by the police were Abdul Awal, 10-year-old Ohidullah and an unidentified teenager.

The Pakistani government press note, however, admitted the deaths of Barkat, Rafique, Jabbar and Shafiur (identified as Shafiqur Rahman), and claimed that Awal and Ohidullah died in road accidents without giving details of the events.

The graves of Rafique, and the trio could not be identified.

The Daily Azad newspaper reported nine deaths and the disappearance of many bodies, while the Sainik said it was seven. Kolkata’s Anandabazar said nine people were dead during the protests.

The US consulate in Dhaka tallied the deaths at 14, exiled Pakistani writer Lal Khan at 26, and movement activist Kabir Uddin Ahmed at eight.

Tajuddin Ahmad wrote in his diary about the reported deaths of four people on February 21 but added that it would be 10-11 as per unofficial sources. The following day, police and the military killed five people in areas around the High Court, the Judge’s Court and other parts of Old Dhaka, while the unofficial figure was 12.

The police snatched the bodies from the DMCH on February 21, and the following day, they snatched several dead bodies and injured protesters from the streets who were never seen again.

Several others remain unidentified
Language Movement veteran Ahmed Rafiq reported that a youth aged 20-22 was shot near the DU playground on February 21, according to madrasa student Lokman Ahmed, who was standing beside the injured at the time of occurrence. The Ellis Commission also acknowledged the death of a person hit by bullets at this place.

Another youth was hit by a bullet to the head and died on the spot in front of Chowdhury Petrol Pump, located on the other side of the medical hostel. The Ellis Commission learnt about the incident from a witness named Kamal Hossain but did not accept his deposition.

The then-general secretary of Dhaka Medical College Central Students Union, Sharfuddin Ahmed, said he had seen a youth dying at the place.

Kamal and Sharfuddin also reported the death of an unidentified teenager at Fuller Road the same day. The other deceased who could not be traced or identified include one Salahuddin.

On the other hand, Ahmed Rafiq said several people had been shot on the street in front of Khosh Mahal restaurant in Old Dhaka on February 22.

Details about the identities of teenagers Abdur Rahim and Ohidullah, and how they died have not yet been known.

Rahim’s body was never found, while the Pakistani government claimed that 10-year-old Wahidullah (presumably Ohidullah as mentioned by the movement organizers) was the son of a mason. He died in a road crash and was buried at Azimpur Graveyard after a namaz-e-janaza. Dresser at the graveyard Suruzzaman said he had buried a teenager and several others on the night of February 22.

Newspapers did not learn about the youth named Sirajuddin, who was shot near Nishat Cinema Hall at Bangshal. He hailed from Basabari Lane in Tantibazar area, according to Serajuddin alias Nanna Miah of Koltabazar area. Both of them joined the condolence march of the day, brought out in defiance of Section 144.

Nanna Miah and another witness named Abdur Rahim said they had seen police taking away a person with bullet injuries from the street in front of Studio H on Nawabpur Road. People who participated in the procession also reported that police vans had taken away dead bodies and injured persons from the streets.

The government press note at the time said Barkat, Rafique, Jabbar and Shafiqur had been buried at the Azimpur graveyard under the supervision of magistrates. But the grave of Rafique could not be traced though he had been buried by the military around 3am on February 22.

Story of the first Shaheed Minar at medical barracks

The demand for inclusion of Bangla as an official language of Pakistan first surfaced in 1947, but the resistance was suppressed by different means, including baton-charge on demonstrations and arrest of organizers and activists, till 1952.

The student-led movement peaked in late January 1952 after the then prime minister, Khawaja Nazimuddin, visited Dhaka and reiterated the government’s policy that Urdu would be the language of the state.

Following this, students enforced strikes and processions across Dhaka and declared a hartal or general strike, rally and processions for February 21. All political parties participating in the All-Party State Language Revolutionary Council (Sorbodolio Rastro Bhasha Sangram Parishad) supported the program.

This time, the government had stricter measures planned to suppress the movement. On February 21, students defied Section 144, issued the previous day for a month, banning rallies and processions. Police opened fire on them indiscriminately, killing half a dozen protesters in the medical barracks (hostel) and Fuller Road areas. More were killed on February 22 as the police and East Pakistan Rifles (EPR) sprayed bullets on condolence processions. On the other hand, the law enforcers arrested dozens, stole dead bodies from the hospital, and took away injured protesters from the streets in police vans.

On the morning of February 23, the medical students planned the construction of a monument to commemorate the martyrs and completed the 10-foot structure by dawn; a plaque on it read: “Martyrs’ Monument”.

The students requested Mahbubur Rahman, father of martyr Shafiur Rahman, for the inauguration. At the time a staffer at the High Court, Shafiur was shot while going to the office from his Laksmibazar house on his bicycle on February 22.

In the next few days, thousands of people visited the Shaheed Minar to place floral wreaths and pay respect to the sacrifice of the martyrs. The monument gave them the strength to come together and speed up the movement.

How they built it overnight
On the morning of February 23, the movement leaders were discussing their next course of action while sitting in front of their barracks with the police and military enforcing a curfew on the streets.

DMC Central Students Union General Secretary Sharfuddin Ahmed recalled: Someone among the students proposed making a monument; vice president Golam Mawla supported it and soon artist Badrul Alam was called in and briefed about the plan. Sayeed Haider joined Badrul to finish the design of the memorial, Language Movement veteran and writer Ahmed Rafiq has written.

Everyone present at the hostel joined the construction work on that night with much enthusiasm; even the peons and support staff lent a hand. Bricks and sand were aplenty on the college premises kept for construction work, while contractor Piaru Sarder donated cement from his warehouse immediately.

They formed a long human chain to carry the materials to the hostel through a pocket gate. Stretchers were used to carry the sand and cement. A mason was managed somehow; but no one remembers his name.

It was erected to the east of barrack number 12 of the hostel, close to the room of the martyr Aleem Chowdhury and the gate on the Fuller Road side. Now the spot falls under the hospital’s outdoor dispensary building. After it was built, the monument lay covered by a piece of cloth till morning.

Dismantled in two and a half days
Around 11:30am on February 26, the memorial was inaugurated officially by the Daily Azad editor, Abul Kalam Shamsuddin. The program was organized as the Muslim League leader had resigned from the Legislative Assembly in protest against the police action, medical student Ahmed Rafiq recalled in his writings.

In the afternoon, a heavily-armed police team barricaded the hostel; some of the policemen entered the premises with tools to destroy the monument. While leaving the place, they took away the pieces of bricks and cement structure on their truck.

Police also detained a medical student named Nesar Uddin. Previously, they took away the loudspeakers from the hostel’s control room of the movement, where the medical students had launched a blood bank and from where they managed to take the injured to the hospital.

In the next few days, many monuments were built elsewhere, especially at educational institutions across the country. But no steps were taken to rebuild the Shaheed Minar of the medical barracks until 1956.

How the Central Shaheed Minar design evolved

The police and military shot dead dozens of protesters and arrested many others on February 21-22 in 1952 to suppress the Language Movement that reached a peak demanding the inclusion of Bangla as an official language of Pakistan.

On the morning of February 23, the medical students who were organizers of the movement planned the construction of a monument to commemorate the martyrs. Three of them were shot on the hostel premises. Two students—Badrul Alam and Sayeed Haider—designed it the same day, and the 10-foot structure was completed overnight.

In the afternoon on February 26, a heavily-armed police team barricaded the hostel; some entered the premises with tools to destroy the monument. While leaving the place, they took away the brick chips and cement structure on their truck.

The previous day, the government closed down Dhaka University for an indefinite period, had the dormitories that became the powerhouse of the movement vacated, and continued the arrest of the organizers and activists of the protests. Eventually, the movement lost its momentum due to a lack of active leadership. But the martyrs’ sacrifice was to play a role in the victory of the Jukto Front alliance at the provincial elections in 1954.

Monuments erected everywhere
In the days following the sacrifices of the protesters on February 21-22, 1952 many monuments were built elsewhere, especially at educational institutions across the country. Students observed Martyrs’ Day and organised rallies and processions on the premises of their institutions.

But no steps were taken to rebuild the Shaheed Minar of the medical barracks until 1956.

In 1953, the medical students set up a temporary replica of the first Shaheed Minar, using paper and covering it with black cloth. They placed flowers at the altar and began organising Probhat Feri or barefoot march towards the monument.

The same year, another symbolic monument was built on the Curzon Hall premises. But similar attempts by the students of Eden College and Dhaka College were thwarted by the government and college authorities.

Bangla finally got recognition as a state language on May 7, 1954. Later, the constitution of Pakistan, adopted in 1956, acknowldged Bangla as the second official language after Urdu on February 29 of the year.

Hamidur’s design
In early 1956, the Abu Hossain Sarkar-led government announced the construction of a permanent monument at the medical college hostel, known as the “medical barracks”, and declared a holiday on February 21 as Martyrs’ Day.

On the night of February 20, enthusiastic students and the commoners had the foundation stone laid by Barison, the daughter of rickshaw-puller Abdul Awal, who was martyred in police firing on February 22, 1952.

The next morning, the construction work was inaugurated officially by Chief Minister Abu Hossain Sarkar, Awami Muslim League President Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani and martyred Dhaka University student Abul Barkat’s mother Hasina Begum.

The construction of the Shaheed Minar finally began in 1957 following the design and instructions of acclaimed painter and academic artist Hamidur Rahman and Novera Ahmed. He designed a massive Shaheed Minar complex on a large tract of land.

In the design, there was a half-circular column as a symbol of the mother and her martyred sons standing on the dais in the main part of the monument, Language Movement veteran Ahmed Rafiq writes. “Many yellow and deep blue pieces of glass were to be embedded in the column as symbols of eyes from which the rays of the sun would be reflected. Besides, there was to be a railing adorned with the Bangla alphabet in front of the monument complex and also two footprints, one red and one black, symbolizing the two opposing forces.”

The design also included a museum, a library and a series of mural paintings. At one end, there was supposed to be an eye-shaped fountain with a high undulating platform.

Hamidur Rahman, assisted by sculptor Novera Ahmed, supervised the construction. During this time, the basement, platform and some of the columns were completed. The rails, footprints, some of the murals, and three sculptures by Novera Ahmed were also finished. “However, the construction was stopped after martial law was promulgated in 1958. Despite this, people continued to visit the Shaheed Minar to place floral wreaths and hold meetings,” writes Ahmed Rafiq.

The construction work resumed in 1962 under the initiative of the then governor of Pakistan, Lt Gen Azam Khan, but it ended in a hurry, curtailing the main design. It was inaugurated by Barkat’s mother Hasina Begum on February 21, 1963. The Ayub Khan regime was in power at the time.

Yet the incomplete structure became the symbol of the Language Movement spirit.

The unfinished monument
During the 1971 Liberation War, the Pakistani military in its genocidal fury destroyed the monument and hung the sign of a mosque at the spot, but it could not stop the people from visiting the place.

In 1973, the government rebuilt the Shaheed Minar, but artist Hamidur’s design was not followed.

The subsequent military regime also approved a new design of the monument, but the plan was not executed. The regime took another extensive initiative to build a complete Shaheed Minar in 1983, but the plan faltered too.

In an article, Language Movement activist Ahmed Rafiq said: “The unfinished Shaheed Minar has still been standing afoot, carrying the signs of negligence. It is shameful and unfortunate that the monument has faced wreaths of opponents even after independence…its humiliation at the hands of selfish politicians has not stopped.

“It stands like a massive tree giving shade…inspiring and strengthening…nourishing the roots of nationalistic spirit. For this, the Shaheed Minar has faced the ire of the fundamentalists…we are not aware of it enough. Yet the Shaheed Minar is alive and will remain alive. The Shaheed Minar…the monument of the memories [of the martyrs] has no death in this country.”

What was the role of newspapers?

The movement for establishing Bangla as an official language in East Pakistan reached a momentum in 1952, four years after the historic general strike of March 11, 1948, that shook the nation due to police torture and arrest of the organizers.

In 1952, it began with the then prime minister, Khawaja Nazimuddin, reiterating the government’s resolve to establish Urdu as the state language and hailing the initiative to write Bengali in Urdu script from a rally at Paltan Maidan on January 27.

It provoked a response from students and leaders of different parties, prompting the announcement of a general strike (hartal) and demonstrations for February 21. On February 3, Nazimuddin told a press conference that his statement reflected nothing but Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s stance and that the Constituent Assembly would decide the matter.

In those turbulent days, the pro-government newspaper the Morning News published false news and editorials condemning the movement.

Students were enraged by the newspaper’s stance, and chased its vehicles whenever they were seen on the streets.

After the killings in Dhaka, the government claimed that the movement aimed at the secession of Pakistan by the communists, terming them subversive and highly ambitious, and some disgruntled local politicians and Indian agents. The Morning News also spread the canard that Indian Hindus had gathered in the medical hostel on February 21.

The daily Sangbad was also uncritical of the Muslim League government at that time.

According to Language Movement veteran Ahmed Rafiq, it resorted to falsehood and acts that violated journalistic rules and norms though some progressive journalists used to work there.

Because of the newspaper’s controversial position, infuriated protesters chased and attempted attacks from processions on its vehicles and reporters from February 22.

Pro-movement media
Meanwhile, the newspapers and weekly magazines that pressured the government through news and editorials were the Daily Azad and the Daily Insaf, and three weeklies — Sainik, Ittefaq and Sylhet’s Naubelal.

The Daily Azad tried to utilize the public vibe; it launched an evening telegram edition centering on the movement, which surprised many of the protesters, Ahmed Rafiq said. From February 21, the newspaper published many reports on the movement and published the names of the deceased and injured persons.

An editorial on February 22 demanded an investigation into the police firing while questioning whether it was necessary to impose Section 144 and open fire on the protesters. It also asked the authorities whether shooting on the upper part of the body was a wise decision.

On the third day, its editorial demanded the resignation of the Nurul Amin-led cabinet of East Pakistan, apparently because of the rivalry within the ruling party. Hence, the newspaper also published the statements of opposition leaders Abul Hashim and Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, who condemned the police action.

Muslim League leader Abul Kalam Shamsuddin was its editor. He resigned from the East Bengal Legislative Assembly on February 26, protesting the February 21-22 police action. On the same day, he inaugurated the first Shaheed Minar built on the medical college hostel premises.

Writer Ahmed Rafiq thinks Shamsuddin’s resignation was part of a political tactic. The newspaper started supporting the movement because of its shady past. This is why it changed its stance soon after the movement lost momentum, and the government chose to take stricter action to tame the protesters.

Soon, news reports and editorials in the Daily Azad became very similar to the government press notes. Thus, the newspaper lost credibility.

Reactions in West Pakistan
Political journalist ZA Suleri, editor of the Karachi-based Evening Times, visited Dhaka to learn firsthand the events of February 21-22 because of the rumours spread by the government and Morning News newspaper.

“The demand for establishing Bangla as a state language has full public support. Patriotism is the main source of this demand,” Suleri said in a statement.

The Evening Times and Evening Star, another Karachi-based newspaper, demanded an investigation into the deaths of protesters and expressed condolences to the families of the martyrs.

The February 23 editorial of Dawn supported the cause behind the movement, saying that the deaths could have been averted had the police refrained from opening fire.

“A vast section of the student community has demonstrated being inspired by their heartiest belief… Through these events, we have noticed how deeply our relatives in East Pakistan feel about the language-related problem,” it read.