Soon aftermath of the bloodshed on the street of Dhaka on February 21, 1952, when many young students including Salam, Rafique, Jabber and Borkat were killed brutally by the mercenaries of Pakistan, hundreds of students of various educational institutions of Rajshahi assembled in front of Rajshahi College the same afternoon to raise a protest against the massacre.
Agitated students of Rajshahi College impromptu formed a Student Movement Association (Chhatra Sangram Parishad) to express solidarity with students killed in Dhaka and to strengthen the language movement. Senior student of the then Rajshahi Medical School S.M. Gaffer presided over the meeting.
Students there temporarily set up a Shaheed Minar iin front of F-Block of Muslim Hostel of the college with bricks and clay the same evening and offered floral tributes there in memory of the students who sacrificed their lives in Dhaka. But, the next morning police rushed to the spot and demolished the Shahid Minar. This Shahid Minar is learnt to be the first Shahid Minar ever built in the country. Some of the veterans who were involved in that language movement in Rajshahi are still alive. They demanded the State recognition of the first Shahid Minar in Rajshahi.
Advocate Golam Arif Tipu, who was a Language Movement Veteran of 1952, said in an earlier interview with the Bangladesh Post that on February 21, 1952, when Police opened fire on the agitated people in Dhaka, many people including students died there. Hearing this news, students and people of Rajshahi also took to the streets and started agitation. The same night, agitated people here started a Torch Procession which paraded various streets of Rajshahi town. Later, they collected bricks, cement and sand and then erected the first ever Shahid Minar of the country at Rajshahi College Muslim Hostel premises to pay tribute to the martyrs in Dhaka. But, the next morning police declared an emergency in Rajshahi and other places of the country and demolished the Shahid Minar.
Veteran journalist Mustafizur Rahman Khan Alam who is also another Language Movement activist said on the night of February 21, 1952, agitated students with local people established the first Shahid Minar of the country with bricks and mortars at Rajshahi College Muslim Hostel premises and named it as' Shahid Smriti Stombho' ( Martyred Memorial Plaque). However, the next morning police demolished the establishment. Aftermath of the incident of demolition, on February 22, several thousand people from diverse professional groups including students thronged at the local Bhubon Mohon Park and held a meeting there. Among others, Captain Samsul Haque and Madar Baux spoke in the meeting.
After the demolition of the country's first Shahid Minar- The 'Shahid Smriti Stombho', no other Shahid Minar was made in that place of Rajshahi College for a long time. In 2008, many Language Movement veterans asked the government to establish a new Shahid Minar in that place and Rajshahi College authorities built a new Shahid Minar over the ruins of the first-ever Shahid Minar there. Mr Alam also demands the state recognition of the first ever Shahid Minar of the country built at Rajshahi College.
Dr. Ali Reza Md. Abdul Mazid, former Principal of Rajshahi College said, that Rajshahi College authorities had built the Shahid Minar over the same place where the first Shahid Minar of the country was erected. He hopes the government will recognise this Shahid Minar as the first Shahid Minar of the country.