President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have paid rich tributes to the martyred intellectuals by placing wreaths at the Martyred Intellectuals’ Mausoleum at Mirpur.
The president placed the wreaths at first around 8am on Sunday and the prime minister followed him to show homage to the great heroes of the country.
Both the president and the prime minister stood in solemn silence there for some time.
The president and the prime minister also talked to the war-wounded freedom fighters there and enquired about their well-being.
Earlier, on his arrival at the mausoleum site, the president was received by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Later, Sheikh Hasina placed another wreath at the Martyred Intellectuals’ Mausoleum as the Awami League chief.
This year’s observances are different because four of the masterminds behind the systematic killings – Motiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed, Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin and Syed Ashrafuzzaman – have been sentenced to death for the crimes by the war crimes tribunals. The verdicts are awaiting execution.
The government and different socio-cultural organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes to observe Martyred Intellectuals Day.
On this day in 1971, the illustrious sons of the soil were brutally killed at the fag end of the Liberation War.
The intellectuals were taken to torture cells blindfolded in Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Nakhalpara, Rajarbagh and other locations in the city and later executed en masse at different killing grounds, most notably Rayerbazar and Mirpur.
Since then, the day is being observed as the Martyred Intellectuals Day.
