Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.

What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

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Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service.

All this week we're looking back at the Bangladeshi War of Independence,

which ended 50 years ago.

It was a conflict which killed hundreds of thousands of people

and redrew the political map of South Asia. We're starting though with one of the seeds of the

war. In February 1952, unarmed students were shot by police

in Dhaka as they marched in defense of the Bengali language. Claire Bowes spoke to a protester who wrote a song which became the anthem of the independence movement. I'm This lines means that 21st February is covered by the blood of my brothers.

This song is known to everyone in Bangladesh and in February you'll hear it ringing out across the country as people remember an event which

change their country forever. Now the mothers who lost their son, their tears is associated with this debt.

Now the mothers who lost their son,

their tears is associated with this debt and we must fight.

Abdul Guffordri was just 18 when he wrote this song.

This first line came to him as he looked down at the face of a fellow teenage boy who'd been shot in the head by police.

They'd both taken part in a protest, along thousands of others in defense of the Bengali language.

It took place on the 21st of February 1952.

It was midday and sunshine and everything and there was no fear that I can say because we did not

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