A thousand expected for martyrs day tomorrow
BANGLADESHI East Enders will gather to remember those who gave their lives to defend the Bengali language more than 50 years ago tomorrow.
Altab Ali Park in Whitechapel Road will be filled with people paying their respects to those who laid down their lives to protect their right to freedom.
More than a thousand are expected to gather for the midnight ceremony by the Shaheed Minar monument.
On 21st February1952, dozens of students and political activists were killed when police opened fire on protesters in East Pakistan, which later achieved independence as Bangladesh.
The demonstrators were marching to demand equal status for their native tongue, Bengali, after the government tried to impose Urdu on them despite it being a minority language in East Pakistan.
You may also want to watch:
Bengali is now recognised by the United Nations as an international mother language.
Most Read
- 1 Cops break Covid-19 rules to have haircuts at Bethnal Green police station
- 2 Murder arrest after woman stabbed to death in Whitechapel this morning
- 3 Lovely Day for Aldgate School picked to sing on Billy Ocean's new single
- 4 Police e-fit expert retiring after 15 years at Bethnal Green
- 5 Fury as family homes vanish when Isle of Dogs landlord converts to bedsits
- 6 Covid hero who did charity walk in Bow aged 100 now has vaccine
- 7 Man sentenced after teenage boy groomed on Snapchat to sell heroin
- 8 Two men arrested after police officers assaulted in Limehouse rave
- 9 'Racist consultation' protest rejected on Tower Hamlets street closures as Labour sticks to its manifesto
- 10 Death of woman, 75, in Mile End fire could have been avoided