HC asks govt to prepare list of real language heroes

The High Court directed the government on Monday to appoint a committee to identify the actual heroes who fought in the language movement of 1952.

It also asked for notification of the language heroes in the official gazette after making the list by January 31, 1012.

The court also asked the government to decorate the language heroes posthumously and provide financial assistance to the surviving language heroes, if they ask for it.

It also asked the government to invite the language heroes in all state functions and to provide them with all state facilities.

The court asked all the universities and other educational institutions to build Shaheed Minars on their campuses to show respect to the language martyrs of 1952.

It asked the government to build a museum and a library beside the Central Shaheed Minar in the capital, so that the tourists could know about the language movement.

It also asked for proper maintenance of the sanctity and dignity of the Shaheed Minar.

In the directives, the court asked for ensuring the sanctity of the Shaheen Minar by prohibiting all sorts of meetings, processions and congregation on the main dais of the Shaheen Minar.

But, it said, congregations could be allowed at the foot of the main dais.

The court asked for posting three guards by the information ministry to stop drug addicts and anti social elements for using the Central Shaheed Minar as their den and as a sleeping place by floating people.

A bench of Justice M Momtaz Uddin Ahmed and Justice Naima Haider issued the directives following a public interest litigation writ petition.

It had on February 9 asked the mayoyr of Dhaka, the secretaries to the cabinet division, and cultural affairs and liberation war affairs ministries, Dhaka University vice-chancellor, and the chief engineer and the chief architect of the Public Works Division to explain why they would not be directed to maintain the sanctity and dignity of the Central Shaheen Minar.

The court had issued the rule after hearing the writ petition filed by a rights organization, Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, seeking preservation of sanctity and dignity of the Central Shaheen Minar.

The petitioners’ counsel told the court that drug addicts, anti social elements and floating population used the Central Shaheed Minar as their den or for sleeping round the year, except for on February 21.

The counsel argued that Article 24 of the Constitution of the Republic entrusted the government with the responsibility to preserve and safeguard the sites of national heritage.

Lawyer Manzill Murshid appeared for the petitioners while the deputy attorney general Mostafa Zaman Islam represented the state.