News Desk :
The nation will observe the Martyred Intellectuals Day today (Monday) to commemorate the intellectuals killed systematically by Pakistan occupation forces and their local collaborators at the fag-end of the Liberation War in 1971.
On this day in 1971, the country’s renowned academicians, doctors, engineers, journalists, artists, teachers and other eminent personalities were dragged out of their homes, blindfolded and taken to unknown places and then brutally tortured and murdered.
Their bodies were later dumped at Rayerbazar, Mirpur and some other killing fields in the capital.
Sensing an imminent defeat, the Pakistani forces and their local collaborators like Al-Badr, Al-Shams and Razakar committed the cold-blooded mass murders aiming to annihilate the country’s intelligentsia and cripple emerging Bangladesh intellectually.
Among the martyred intellectuals are Prof Munier Chowdhury, Dr Alim Chowdhury, Prof Muniruzzaman, Dr Fazle Rabbi, Sirajuddin Hossain, Shahidullah Kaiser, Prof GC 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 and Selina Parvin.
The government has chalked out elaborate programmes to commemorate the December 14 tragedy. Bangladesh Television and private television channels will broadcast special programs highlighting the significance of the day. President, PM pay rich tributes to martyred intellectuals
President Md 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, reports BSS.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 the 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, 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.
But it is unfortunate that the occupation forces and their local collaborators had brutally killed the country’s eminent intellectuals, including academicians, physicians, litterateurs, journalists and artists just on the eve of victory, causing an irreparable loss to the nation, he added.
The president called upon all to be imbued with the ideology of the martyred intellectuals and build a non-communal society based on the spirit of the Liberation War.
In her message, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said at the far 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 Bangali of all time, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the intellectuals were killed by the occupation forces and their local cohorts like Al-Badr, Al-Shams and Razakars.
The prime minister said Prof Mofazzal Haidar Chowdhury, Munier Choudhury, Anwar Pasha, Shahidullah Kaisar, Gias Uddin, Dr Fazle Rabbi, Abdul Alim Chowdhury, Siraj Uddin Hossain, Selina Parveen and Dr Joytirmay Guha Thakurada were among those who were killed by the occupation forces and their collaborators.
Hasina also said the anti-liberation forces assassinated Bangabandhu and most of his family members on August 15 in 1975.
They carried out repression and tortures on free thinkers, teachers, writers, journalists and politicians, she added.
She said the terrorist and militant groups also carried out a reign of terror in the country from 2001 to 2006. They also unleashed arson terrorism in the country to thwart the national election of January 5, 2014, and they are still hatching conspiracies.
“We have the killers of the martyred intellectuals under trial and have been executing the verdicts. No conspiracy can divert the nation from this process. Those who wanted to save the heinous war criminals will also be brought to justice one day,” she said.
She said the country and the nation will be freed from the stigma through implementation of all verdicts of war crime cases.
The prime minister called upon the people to be united against the conspiracies of the killers of 1971, war criminals and the Jamaat-clique.
