The nation will observe the Martyred Intellectuals’ Day today (Monday) to commemorate and pay homage to its illustrated sons brutally killed by the Pakistani Army and their collaborators on this day in 1971.
President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday paid deep respect and rich tributes to the best sons of the soil on the occasion of the Martyred Intellectuals Day.
In separate messages on the eve of the day, the President and the Prime Minister urged the people to come forward being imbued with the ideology of the martyred intellectuals and spirit of the Liberation War to build a non-communal, happy and prosperous ‘Sonar Bangla’.
President Abdul Hamid, in his message, said the intellectuals, as the conscience of the nation, had played a very significant role with their sharp writings and intellect-based spirit to create public opinion in favour of the Liberation War, provide suggestions to the war-time Mujibnagar government in advancing the war towards its successful end.
In her message, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said at the fag end of the Liberation War, the Pakistani occupation forces, anti-liberation forces and their local collaborators had hatched conspiracies to turn the nation into a brain-empty state.
She said when the country was close to the final victory under the leadership of the greatest Bangalee of all times, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the intellectuals were killed by the occupation forces and their local cohorts like Al-Badars, Al-Shams and Razakars.
Maintaining proper health guidelines due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the grateful Bengali nation has taken various programmes at national level to observe the day with due respect and solemnity.
With due respect and heavy heart, the grateful Bengali people will remember the country’s intellectuals on their 49th anniversary of martyrdom today (Monday).
Apart from the national level, different political parties, socio-cultural organisations and people from all walks will also recall the martyrs in many ways.
They will also place wreaths at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial, honouring the greatest souls of the nation.
Martyred Intellectuals Day is a black day in the country’s history as it lost its valiant and illustrated sons by the Pakistan occupation forces and their infamous local cohorts.
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.
The history’s heinous, barbaric and brutal murders took place just two days ahead of the country’s victory. On December 16, Bangladesh became an independent 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, including capital Dhaka, and most of them did not return.
These eminent personalities were dragged out of their homes, blindfolded and taken to unknown places and then brutally tortured and slaughtered. Their bodies were later dumped at Rayerbazar, Mirpur and some other killing fields in the capital Dhaka and other places in the country.
Sons and daughters are still yearning for lost fathers and grown men and women are sobbing raw grief on the hard stone bearing the names of slain intellectuals at Mirpur and Rayerbazar in capital Dhaka and other mausoleums across the country.
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.
However, most of the war criminals, who managed to make their room in the national politics with the patronage of influential vested quarters emerged after the August 15, 1975 assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, were hanged.
A memorial erected in memory of the martyred intellectuals at Mirpur in the capital has been readied as national leaders and people from all walks of life will pay tributes by placing wreaths there.
The state-owned and private television channels and radios will broadcast special programmes, highlighting the Liberation War.
On the other hand University of Dhaka authorities have taken various programs on the occasion of Martyred Intellectuals Day.
This year, these programs will be carried out to a limited extent in the case of corona virus and following hygiene rules.
The program of Martyred Intellectuals Day includes hoisting the black flag in the main building of the university including the Vice-Chancellor’s building at 8:15am today.
Meanwhile, the Liberation War Affairs Ministry has formed a committee to prepare the list of martyred intellectuals who had sacrificed their lives on December 14, 1971.
The committee has been formed comprising with researchers, freedom fighters and officials of the liberation affairs ministry to scrutinize the enrollment of the martyred intellectuals.
The committee has been formed to prepare a list of the martyred intellectuals and will give opinion after completing necessary verification of name and particulars of the martyred intellectuals based on different research books, newspaper cuttings, television reporting and other sources, said the gazette notification.
The committee will also determine the names of the martyred intellectuals who will be included as the liberation war martyred.
