Dhaka, Nov. 7 -- Leaders of the National Citizen Party (NCP) have torn down a signboard bearing an heir's name at the Cumilla home of Language Movement veteran and 1971 martyr Dhirendranath Dutta.

They say they learnt the owners were trying to sell the house and want it preserved as a memorial museum.

The NCP leaders went to the house beside Dharmasagar in Cumilla city after dusk on Friday, witnesses said. They first spoke on the need to preserve the house, then smashed the signboard.

A video of the act has spread on social media.

Dutta is remembered for demanding on Feb 23, 1948, that Bangla be made a state language of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly alongside Urdu and English.

Pakistani troops took him and his son Dilip Kumar Dut...