Bangladesh pays tribute to martyred intellectuals

President Md Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have paid tribute to the martyred intellectuals by visiting the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial in Mirpur on Saturday morning.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 14 Dec 2019, 04:04 AM
Updated : 14 Dec 2019, 04:04 AM

Both the president and the prime minister have placed wreaths at the altar of the memorial and stood there in solemn silence for a while.

A team of the armed forces offered armed salute as the bugle played a sombre tune.

The Awami League led by the prime minister then paid their homage to the martyred intellectuals.

President Md Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina pay tribute to martyred intellectuals at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial at Mirpur in Dhaka on Saturday.

Thousands of people of all ages poured in with flowers in hand to pay their respects to the martyred intellectuals after the memorial opened to all.

Different political parties, social and cultural organisations and peoples from all walks of life paid their homage to the martyrs at the Rayer Bazar Monument on Friday morning.

Members of the martyrs’ families and the freedom fighters will also pay respect to the victims of the massacre.

Staring at a crushing defeat in the war, the Pakistani occupation army and its collaborators killed many university teachers, doctors, artists, writers, journalists and other prominent Bengalis just two days before their surrender, in a desperate act of vengeance.

They were systematically rounded up from their homes in the middle of the night, taken to torture cells throughout the city, brutalised for hours, and finally assembled on various killing fields and executed en masse.

The bodies of the slain intellectuals were found with marks of tortures in the capital’s Mirpur and Rayer Bazar where the monuments have been built to immortalise them.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, along with Awami League leaders, pays tribute to the martyred intellectuals at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial at Mirpur in Dhaka on Saturday.

Bangladesh has already hanged war criminals accused of mass killings, including those of the intellectuals.

This year, the observation of the Martyred Intellectuals Day assumes a special significance as Bangladesh is celebrating the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and set to celebrate the golden jubilee of independence.

The state-run Bangladesh Television, Bangladesh Betar and other private TV channels will broadcast special programmes commemorating the day. Discussions will also be organised along with cultural events.