President, CA pay tributes to martyred intellectuals

President Mohammed Shahabuddin and Chief Adviser Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus paid profound tributes to the martyred intellectuals on the occasion of Martyred Intellectuals Day. They also observed a moment of silence in honour of the nation’s eminent sons.

They laid wreaths at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial in Mirpur on Sunday (December 14) morning. A smartly turned-out contingent of the Armed Forces presented a guard of honour, while a mournful tune was played on the bugle.

After paying the tributes, the Chief Adviser exchanged greetings with other advisers, the chiefs of the three services, senior civil and military officials, wounded freedom fighters, and people who had come to pay their respects to the martyred intellectuals.

On December 14, 1971, the Pakistani occupation forces and their collaborators—Razakars, Al-Badr and Al-Shams—killed the nation’s finest intellectuals, dealing a devastating blow to the intellectual backbone of the Bengali nation. Two days later, on December 16, the barbaric Pakistani forces led by General A A K Niazi surrendered, paving the way for the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent country.

The objective of the brutal killings was to cripple the newly emerging independent Bangladesh by mercilessly murdering teachers, writers, journalists, researchers, physicians and cultural activists, thereby rendering the nation devoid of intellect. For this reason, every year the nation remembers the martyred intellectuals with deep sorrow, grief and respect.

Martyred Intellectuals Day remains one of the most painful chapters in the history of Bangladesh’s independence and liberation struggle. At the final stage of the nine-month-long bloody war, when people across the country were on the threshold of final victory, traitorous Razakars, Al-Badr, Al-Shams and members of the Peace Committee unleashed a campaign of mass killings of intellectuals. This heinous attempt to deprive the Bengali nation of its intellect at such a critical moment shocked and stunned the entire world.