The first Shaheed Minar

The medical college hostel was the de facto control room of the language movement from February 21-24, 1952. Gaziul Haque, Shahidullah Kaiser, Oli Ahad, Kazi Golam Mahbub joined several meetings at the hostel.

From the afternoon of February 21, students and general people in Dhaka started coming out spontaneously ignoring Section 144.

The next day, a gayebi janaza was held for the martyrs.

After the prayers, the procession started. The police tried to stop them. They opened fire again. Shafiqur Rahman died in front of the High Court.

On the same day, it was decided in our discussion at the medical college hostel that we would build a monument in memory of the martyrs.

I had the good fortune to design the first Shaheed Minar. The construction of the monument continued throughout the night.

There was plenty of brick and cement for the expansion work of the hospital. As far as I remember, there was not a single one of the more than 300 students in the hostel who did not take part in the construction work.

Sharfuddin, who was known to us as the engineer, made a special contribution to the construction of Shaheed Minar. We built a 12-feet high Shaheed Minar overnight.

Shaheed Shafiqur Rahman's father unofficially inaugurated the Shaheed Minar on February 23.

The first Shaheed Minar was a concerted effort of all the medical college students irrespective of their political affiliations.

On February 24, Ataur Rahman was elected as the convener, and the All-Party State Language Action Committee was reconstituted. Golam Mawla and Ahmed Rafiq were associated with the Committee on behalf of the medical college.

Sayeed Haider along with Badrul Alam designed the first Shaheed Minar in 1952.

Source:  Bhasha Andolon Shatchallish theke Baanna (Ed. Mostofa Kamal, Bangladesh Co-operative Book Society Ltd., 1987)

Translated by Shamsuddoza Sajen