The International Day for Other Languages is 1999 1 1, which was announced by the UNESCO General Conference. Since 2000, February 2 1 day has been designated as International Mother Language Day, aiming at promoting linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingual use. February 2 1 day was designated as World Mother Language Day, which was related to Bangladesh's struggle for independence that year. 1952, when Bangladesh still belonged to Pakistan, people demonstrated for Bengali to be listed as one of the official languages. On February 2 1, the police opened fire on a group of demonstrators, and five demonstrators were killed. After Bangladesh's independence, a monument was built for these "language martyrs".