It used to be a barbaric act, pushed by a sadistic and calculated opinion to cripple a nation for generations.
On the darkish and tragic night of 14 December 1971, because the Pakistani forces and their collaborators faced imminent defeat within the Bangladesh Liberation Struggle, they resorted to a ruthless final act, weeding out the brightest minds of the country.
The massacre focused students, lecturers, medical doctors, journalists, lawyers, engineers and artistes – participants who represented the psychological and cultural energy of the nation.
These participants weren’t simplest considerable in shaping the cultural and educational panorama of Bangladesh, nonetheless they were additionally key gamers within the resistance against Pakistani rule.
On that night, the Pakistan occupation forces and its local collaborators kidnapped these participants from their properties, taking them to undisclosed locations the establish they were murdered in frigid blood.
Their bodies were discarded at Rayerbazar, Mirpur and different killing fields all the procedure through Dhaka.
The brutality of the killings used to be evident, with many of the victims discovered with their fingers certain within the abet of their backs and their bodies mutilated. Some had their intestines torn out – a gruesome reflection of the barbarity they continued.
Whereas 14 December is remembered because the day of the massacre of intellectuals, the systematic elimination of these participants began as early as 25 March, going the entire manner to 10 December. Over 200 intellectuals were killed on those days, nonetheless the entire quantity of intellectuals killed surpasses 1,000.
Amongst the martyred intellectuals are Prof Munier Chowdhury, Dr Alim Chowdhury, Prof Muniruzzaman, Dr Fazle Rabbi, Sirajuddin Hossain, Shahidullah Kaiser, Prof Govinda Chandra Dev, Jyotirmoy 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 architect of this fallacious marketing campaign used to be Predominant Current Rao Farman Ali Khan, who played an considerable aim in orchestrating the killings. As the manager armed forces officer responsible for overseeing the local militias, or razakars, all over the battle, Rao Farman used to be right away occupied with deploying these collaborators to enact the murders.
After the battle, a chilling discovery used to be made — a checklist of intellectuals, reasonably a number of whom were accomplished on 14 December, used to be discovered in Farman’s diary on the Governor Home (now Bangabhaban).
Human Rights Fetch out about, commenting on the persona of these atrocities, acknowledged the systematic elimination of Bangladesh’s intellectuals used to be a “teach attack on the nation’s future and its collective reminiscence”.
Irina Bokova, a dilapidated director-typical of UNESCO, called the lack of these intellectuals an attack on the “very soul of the nation”.
Despite this calculated are attempting and fracture Bangladesh’s psychological and cultural capital, the perpetrators failed in their mission. As a replacement of breaking the spirit of the nation, the massacre galvanised the inhabitants, strengthening their unravel to stable independence.
The sacrifices of these intellectuals change into a robust image of the nation’s resistance and resilience. In the aftermath of the battle, the country emerged victorious and autonomous, nonetheless the scars left by the genocide were deep.
To honour the reminiscence and sacrifices of the martyred intellectuals, Bangladesh declared 14 December as Martyred Intellectuals Day in 1992. The most necessary memorial used to be in-built Mirpur, Dhaka in reminiscence of the martyred intellectuals.
In 1991, building of one more memorial named the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial began in Rayerbazar, Dhaka, which used to be inaugurated on 14 December 1999.
The importance of the day has deepened because the nation heals from 15 years of autocratic rule, marked by a mass insurrection that claimed over a thousand lives and left a total lot of others injured and maimed.
On Martyred Intellectuals Day, the nation comes together to pay tribute to those luminaries.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin and Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus placed wreaths on the Mirpur Martyred Intellectuals Memorial, and folk from all walks of life participated in laying wreaths on the memorial, starting from 8:30am.
Leaders and activists of different political and social organisations, including the BNP and its affiliated organisations, additionally paid homage to the martyred intellectuals. BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman issued a message to honour the intellectuals’ reminiscence.
