On Martyred Intellectuals Day, the nation recalls the prominent individuals who were heinously murdered on December 14, 1971.
Their brutal murders by death squads of the Pakistani military and its collaborators during the closing week of Bangladesh’s struggle for independence, are infamous for their cynical timing and targeted nature.
While recent years have seen a lifting of the sense of impunity for crimes against humanity committed during the Independence War, we still have much to accomplish as a nation going forward.
No one can claim that everyone in the nation is now safe from abduction. In the last decade, we have witnessed a rising number of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial executions, under successive governments of different complexions.
It is a matter of grave concern that so many forced disappearances can take place in our country. Whether carried out for extortion or other criminality, or to stifle political competition, there must be zero tolerance for this appalling activity.
The government’s foremost duty is to protect the lives of all citizens. It must do more to investigate and prevent enforced disappearances. Only by ending impunity for enforced disappearances can we deter them effectively.
We should act on this day to commemorate and honour the nation’s martyrs by ending human rights abuses and working to make independent Bangladesh a better place for all our people.
