DHAKA, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- At one minute past midnight for the Internatioanl Mother Language Day, Bangladeshi President Mohammed Shahabuddin and Bangladeshi interim government's Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus laid wreaths at the country's Central Shaheed Minar, an iconic monument here Friday.

A contingent of the Bangladesh Armed Forces gave a state salute, while a bugle played a dirge to commemorate those who sacrificed for the language movement of Bangladesh in 1952.

Many walls on the Dhaka University campus in front of the monument have been inscribed with quotations from Bangla literature befitting the occasion, and poets were heard reciting poems as they sat on street islands.

Women wore black and white sarees, Bangladesh's national dress for females, in their own traditional style, while men in Panjabi and Payjama, long white tunic-like shirts worn over close-fitting or baggy white pants, gathered at the central monument to pay tribute to the country's martyred language heroes.

As part of the commemoration activities, Bangladeshi people, not just in the capital city but also elsewhere in the country, which became independent in 1971, also placed floral wreaths at thousands of monuments across the country.

At the 1999 UNESCO General Conference, Feb. 21 was designated as International Mother Language Day to honor the supreme sacrifice of language martyrs.

Since 2000, the International Mother Language Day has been observed throughout the world every year to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. Enditem

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