February 21st commemorates the day in 1952 when lives were sacrificed to make Bengali one of the national languages when Bangladesh was part of Pakistan. The West Pakistani regime tried to force Urdu as the national language, a fact that was strongly contested by Bengalis. On that fateful day a procession by Bengalis was shot at by police resulting in the death of 4 martyrs'.

The Shaheed Minar (Martyrs Memorial) was built to commemorate the language martyrs'.

Every February 21, people from all walks of life walk barefoot to the Minar and lay wreaths of flowers to commemorate the martyrs.