Rajshahi City Press Club and Bangladesh Sangbadik Sangstha, Rajshahi, jointly organised a discussion on Press Club premises on Monday in remembrance of 11 Bangla language-movement martyrs of Assam on May 19, 1961.
On that day, 11 of Bangla Language movement protesters were killed in police gunfires at Shilchar Railway station area in Barak Valley of Assam.
Presided over by Rafique Alam, President of Rajshahi City Press Club, the meeting was addressed, among others, by Rashed Rusho, Sujauddin Chhoton, Saidur Rahman, Monjuara Khatun, Mohammad Zulfiqur and Paritosh Chowdury Adittyo.
Speakers at the meeting informed that it was the second time sacrifice of lives of the people of Assam after the Language Movement of 1952 in then East Pakistan demanding to establish Bangla language as the State Language of Assam.
The speakers further informed a staunch movement demanding Bangla as the second State Language of Assam in India was launched and 11 Bangalee youngmen including a female had sacrificed their lives in the bloodshed when police opened fires on the agitators at Shilchar Railway station of Assam on May-19, 1961. The martyred were identified as Kanailal Neogi, Chandicharan Sutradharm, Hitesh Biswas, Satyendranath Deb, Kumud Ranjan Das, Sunil Sarkar, Tarani Debnath, Sachindra Chandra Paul, Birendra Sutradhar, Sukomol Purakaystha, and the only female Sukamal Bhattarcharhee. International Mother Language Day is observed every year in Bangladesh and other countries of the world with due respect for the martyred on the 21st of February but the valiant Bangalees of Assam who also demanded the Bangla Language be the second language of Assam and 11 youths were killed in police fire during a protest against the Assamese government's decision to make Assamese language as the only state language remains obliterated.
After the incident, the Assam government ultimately gave the Bangla language as the official language status in the three districts of Barak Valley.
