By Our Reporter The people in general could not see any important celebrations on the occasion of the Martyrs’ Day this year. The only thing they got was the public holiday on this day. It has been years since the country started marking Magh 16 as the Martyrs Day to commemorate the great four Martyrs who got martyrdom during the Rana rule in 1997. The four heroes—Surka Raj Shastri, Dharma Bhakta, Dashartah Chand and Gangala Shrestha were killed by the Ranas in January in 1941 for trying to abolish the family rule of the Ranas. However, of late as the political parties started declaring everyone of their workers killed as martyrs, the value of martyrs has diminish sharply. See, the political parties have declared those who were killed while committing crimes as martyrs. As a result, the people started giving little importance to the Martyrs Day. How could you take a person who killed your father and brother as martyrs? Many people who lost their near and dear from the hands of the Maoist militias during the conflict period are not in a position to take murderer as martyrs.  The relatives of the police personnel who were killed brutally during the Terai unrest of 2015 can never show respect to the murders as martyrs. Even dons and those killed in road accidents have been included in the list of the martyrs. As such, it is natural that the people’s participation in the functions orgainsed to mark the Martyrs Day has decreased. Moreover, the leaders and political parties have their own martyrs instead of having common martyrs.  This is why the Martyrs Day function has stopped making the news headlines as in the past.