A CEREMONY to mark International Mother Language day was held in Swindon on Friday.

The flower laying ceremony took place outside Miah Restaurant in Shaw Ridge.

The day, popularly known as Ekushe, is held annually on Feburary 21 worldwide to promote awareness of linquistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.

The date represents the day in 1952 when the students of Bangladesh laid down their lives for the right to use their mother language Bangla.

International Mother Language Day was first proclaimed by UNESCO in 1999.

It is a great recognition for Bangladesh, the only nation in the world to have fought and to have the right to speak in its own mother tongue.