The nation yesterday observed the Martyred Intellectuals Day yesterday by paying tribute to the brave sons of the soil who were killed by Pakistani soldiers and their local collaborators in 1971.
President Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia paid tribute to the martyred intellectuals by placing wreaths at the Martyred Intellectuals’ Memorial at Mirpur in the capital.
Other political parties, socio-cultural organisations and citizens of various walks of life among others also paid homage to the martyred intellectuals.
President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina placed floral wreaths at the pedestal of the Martyred Intellectuals’ Memorial in the capital early in the morning.
Both of them stood in solemn silence there for some time. The president and the PM also talked to the war-wounded freedom fighters there.
On his arrival at the memorial, the president was received by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Members of the cabinet, the chiefs of the three services and high civil and military officials were also present.
Flanked by central leaders of the party, Sheikh Hasina, also the president of Bangladesh Awami League, laid another wreath at the memorial.
Hasina then went to Dhanmondi and placed wreaths at the portrait of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on road 32.
Around 10am, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia along with the party’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and other central leaders paid homage to the martyred intellectuals by placing wreaths at the memorial.
On the night of December 14 in 1971, over 200 Bangali intellectuals including professors, journalists, doctors, artistes, engineers and writers were picked up in Dhaka by the Pakistani occupation forces, aided by their local collaborators.
The intellectuals were taken blindfolded to torture cells in Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Nakhalpara, Rajarbagh and other locations in different parts of the city and most notably Rayerbazar and Mirpur. Since then, the day is being observed as the Martyred Intellectuals Day.
Hundreds of people gathered at the memorial to honour the intellectuals who were murdered in the killing fields of Rayerbazaar during the last days of the Liberation War.
Yesterday, a group of children staged a symbolic act, replicating the Rayerbazar killings.
This year’s observances are different because four of the masterminds – Motiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed, Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin and Syed Ashrafuzzaman – have been sentenced to death by the war crimes tribunals. The verdicts are awaiting execution.
