We pay our rich tributes to the Martyred Intellectuals, who were picked up from their residences blindfolded and murdered brutally during December 10 to 14 in 1971, just two days ahead of the country’s victory day. With due respect and heavy heart, we will observe the Martyred Intellectuals’ Day today (Tuesday) to commemorate and pay homage to its illustrated sons brutally killed by the Pakistani forces and their collaborators on this day in 1971.
Martyred Intellectuals Day is a black day in our history as we lost our valiant and illustrated sons. On this day in 1971, sensing an imminent defeat, the Pakistani forces and their local collaborators like Al-Badr, Al-Shams and Razakar forces murdered the intellectuals systematically to annihilate the country’s intelligentsia and cripple the emerging Bangladesh intellectually at the fag-end of the Liberation War in 1971.
We hope the government will prepare a
correct and complete list of the martyred
intellectuals and publish it as early as possible
Most of the eminent academics and professionals like doctors, engineers and journalists were dragged out of their homes, blindfolded and taken to unknown places and then brutally tortured and slaughtered to make the newborn nation to a state of brainlessness. Their bodies were later dumped at Rayerbazar, Mirpur and some other killing fields in the capital Dhaka and other places in the country.
Many intellectuals including 991 teachers, 13 journalists, 49 physicians, 42 lawyers, and 16 writers, artists and engineers-- were picked up between December 12 and 14 in 1971 from different places and most of them did not return. Of them, Prof Muneir Chowdhury, Dr Alim Chowdhury, Prof Muniruzzaman, Dr Fazle Rabbi, Sirajuddin Hossain, Shahidullah Kaiser, Prof G C Dev, JC Guha Thakurta, Prof Santosh Bhattacharya, Mofazzal Haider Chowdhury, journalists Khandaker Abu Taleb, Nizamuddin Ahmed, SA Mannan [Ladu Bhai], ANM Golam Mustafa, Syed Nazmul Haq, Anwar Pasha and Selina Parvin were brutally tortured and killed by the anti-liberation force.
And just after two days, on December 16 in 1971, Bangladesh was born as an independent country under the leadership of Bangabandhu at the cost of supreme sacrifice of three million people and the honour of nearly half a million women.
Earlier, the Liberation War Affairs Ministry formed a committee to prepare the list of martyred intellectuals who sacrificed their lives on December 14, 1971.
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We hope the committee will prepare a correct and complete list of the martyred intellectuals and publish it as early as possible. Besides, we all people imbued with the spirit of the Liberation War must remain alert as the anti-liberation forces, war criminals and killers of Bangabandhu are trying to create political unrest again to play with the fate of people.