Shaheed Minar, Sylhet, Central Martyr Monument, Sylhet

Sylhet Central Shaheed Minar stands on 8 of the 33 decimals of its Chouhatta site, where a 100-foot-wide undulating platform rises from level ground. Three concrete pillars clad in white stone stand on it, the central one 45 feet high and bearing a red steel sun 5.5 feet across; the two flanking pillars have four window-like openings. The three pillars together are 30 feet wide.

The monument was built in 1988 in the Chouhatta area at the initiative of freedom fighters Yamin Chowdhury Bir Bikram, Iftekhar Hossain Shamim, Sadaruddin Chowdhury and Md. Shawkat Ali. It was damaged by a group of protesters on 22 February 2013. Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith then had it rebuilt under Sylhet City Corporation at a cost of three crore taka, and inaugurated it on 10 December 2014.

The name Shaheed Minar refers to those who died for the nation, and the monument is used for public mourning: wreaths are laid at its base, as on 10 December 2014 when Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith inaugurated the rebuilt structure by placing a floral tribute. Its design draws on Sylheti imagery, with a red steel sun on the central pillar recalling sunrise over the tea gardens.

The monument stands in the Chouhatta area of Sylhet city, on a 33-decimal site of which the minar itself occupies 8 decimals. It was rebuilt after the February 2013 vandalism and inaugurated on 10 December 2014 by finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, so the present structure dates from that reconstruction.

The central pillar carries a red steel sun 5.5 feet across, placed there to mark sunrise and the promise of a new day. The two flanking pillars each hold four window-like openings, read as symbols of a free Bengali life.