President Mohammed Shahabuddin and Chief Adviser Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus have paid tributes to martyred intellectuals at the Mirpur Martyred Intellectuals’ Memorial.
President Mohammed Shahabuddin paid rich tributes to the martyred intellectuals by placing a wreath around 7:04 am and Dr Yunus around 7:22am today (December 14) at Mirpur.
Bangladesh is remembering its brightest minds who were systematically targeted by the occupation forces and their local collaborators and killed in cold blood just as the new nation was gaining independence. Their goal was to intellectually cripple the newborn nation.
Bangladesh Television as well as other private TV channels, will broadcast the programme live.
Family members of the martyred intellectuals and the wounded and present freedom fighters will place wreaths at the Mirpur Martyred Intellectuals Memorial am and at Rayer Bazar Killing Ground Memorial today.
Special prayers will be offered at all mosques, temples, churches, pagodas, and other places of worship in observance of the Martyred Intellectuals’ Day.
Martyred Intellectuals Day is the most poignant day in the history of the country’s independence and struggle for freedom.
At the end of the nine-month bloody liberation war, when the people of the entire country were on the verge of final victory, the members of Razakars, Al-Badr, Al-Shams and the Peace Committee indulged in the massacre of intellectuals on that day.
From the nationally published Martyred Intellectuals Day collection in 1972, news published in various publications and the write-up of internationally renowned journalist Nicholas Tomalin at the international news magazine “Newsweek”, the total number of martyred intellectuals is as high as 1,070.
In the long liberation struggle of the Bengali nation, these intellectuals inspired the organisers of independence through their intellect, thinking and writing.
They showed the path to liberation. They inspired the entire nation in the struggle for rights.
The birth of an independent state was not tolerated by the anti-liberation clique at all.
Although December 14 is remembered as the day of the massacre of intellectuals, this most heinous crime in history actually began on December 10.
Throughout the week, the names of intelligent and courageous people appeared one by one on their list.
Originally, on December 10, the listed intellectuals were blindfolded and taken from their homes to Rayerbazar and Mirpur killing grounds in the dark of night and brutally killed.
The first Martyred Intellectuals Memorial was built in Mirpur, Dhaka, in memory of the martyred intellectuals.
