Bangladesh to pay homage to martyred intellectuals Friday

Bangladesh is all set to pay tribute to the sharpest of its minds lost at the dawn of its independence from Pakistan.

Staring at 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.

On Friday, Bangladeshis will place flowers at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial in droves.

This year’s Martyred Intellectuals Day will be observed when the Awami League, the party which led the nation in the struggle for independence, to respond to the anti-liberation forces’ misdeeds through ballot on Dec 30.

The Jamaat-e-Islami, the party which opposed Bangladesh’s independence and had some of its top leaders hanged recently for war crimes, is contesting in the parliamentary election with the BNP’s paddy sheaf symbol after losing registration.

President Md Abdul Hamid in a message called upon all to be imbued with the spirit of patriotism of the martyred intellectuals and work together to develop a merit-based nation.

In her message, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the Martyred Intellectuals’ Day is a painful occasion in the history of the liberation struggle.

The anti-liberation forces wanted to rid the nation of its sharpest minds by killing them, the prime minister said.

“We have brought the killers of the martyred intellectuals to trial and verdicts of most war criminals have already been executed. Verdicts of other war criminals must be executed,” she said adding, none can throw the nation off this process.

The country will be freed from stigma through implementation of all judgments of war crime cases, the prime minister said.

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

It has also raised the demand in the international arena for recognition of the genocide carried out by the Pakistani forces and their local collaborators.

The day’s observations will start through placing of wreaths by Hamid and Hasina at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial in Mirpur in the morning.

After ministers and freedom fighters pay respect to the martyred intellectuals, the memorial will be open for all.

The political parties, and social and cultural organisations have announced a series of programmes to observe the day.

The Ministry of Liberation War Affairs has urged all not to use loudspeakers at any programme to maintain the sombre mood of the day.