The litter is scattered all around the Unknown Martyrs Graveyard including the pool of water in front of the monument.

The National Martyrs Memorial situated in Nabinagar, Savar and approximately 35 kilometers (km) from Dhaka was designed by architect Moinul Hossain. The memorial is in honour of the millions of unknown martyrs who gave up their lives in the fight for liberation.

The Memorial symbolising Bengali nationalism is set on 108 acres of land. With only three policemen patrolling the area on each shift every day, it has not been possible to curb the nuisance created by the unreasonable number of visitors to the site.

On a visit to the memorial, this correspondent asked a visitor why he littered the area.

"Look at this vast area. There is not a single bin where we can throw litter into," said the visitor. "The security is sparse and there is no one to admonish us, which makes it easy for us to litter where we wish," he added.

One policeman on guard said that tight security measures are taken only on special occasions like the Victory Day.

"The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and extra police personnel from beats out of Dhaka are brought in on such occasions. But the number of guards is still insufficient," he said.

Visitors believe that the monument is of great scenic beauty with well-draped gardens and a lake surrounding it. The pinnacle of the monument reaches 150 feet from where seven triangular arms flow down. It is considered one of the great architectural structures of the country.

Patrolling police officers and a few visitors complained that a many visitors not only dirty the area with litter but also walk on the platforms with their shoes on even though it has been strictly prohibited. Little children could be seen walking over the monument structure -- the pillars, showing no respect to the martyrs.

"Sight seeing groups to the Memorial vary -- families, couples, groups from educational institutions and package tours are seen aplenty," said one security guard.

"To relate a recent incident," said the guard, "students of an educational institution were throwing nutshells on one of the graves. When I told them not to and requested that head teacher take action, he said: It is possible that these graveyards of unknown martyrs are fake. These are just for show".

Another policeman said: "If this is a teacher's attitude, how can we maintain discipline in this place?"

Some parents had brought their children to visit the monument shown prior to the news telecast. Although the visit had a noble thought behind it, the adults were seen comfortably sitting on one of the graves and littering it with nutshells while the children were playing on it.

A few cleaners said that the Memorial site is a much clean now as a lot of work had been done before the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit that just concluded.

Another visitor said because of its location, the memorial is better maintained than other monuments in Dhaka.

"This is the only place where there are ramps for easy movement of the handicapped. My father is in a wheel chair and I bring him here every year. The ramps make movement of the wheel chair easy," he said.