Dhaka: Bangladesh President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid their rich tributes to the martyrs of the historic Language Movement on the occasion of 'Amar Ekushey' and the International Mother Language Day at the Central Shaheed Minar here.

President Hamid, in a message to the nation on the occasion, said “The aim of the Language Movement was to establish the right of our mother tongue as well as to protect self-entity, cultural distinction and heritage.

"Being a source of ceaseless inspiration, Amar Ekushey inspired and encouraged us to a great extent to achieve the right to self-determination and struggle for freedom and war of liberation,” he said.

“As the spirit of Amar Ekushey is now the incessant source of inspiration for the protection of own languages and cultures of people around the world, let the bond of friendship among multilingual people be strengthened, world’s almost defunct languages be revived-it is my expectation on Shaheed Day and International Mother Language Day,” he said, bdnews24 reported.

Several youths were killed in police firing on Feb 21, 1952 to quell protests against the then Pakistan government's decision to impose Urdu as the state language on the people of erstwhile East Pakistan, who wanted Bangla to be recognised as the mother tongue, bdnews24 reported.

The Language Movement began the intense alienation of the Bengalis and finally led to the Liberation War in 1971.

The UNESCO in November 1999 had declared Feb 21 as the International Mother Language Day.