The nation is set to observe the Martyred Intellectuals Day on Monday in a befitting manner.
Just two days ahead of the country’s victory on this day 49 years ago, the marauding Pakistan army in collusion with their local collaborators, Al-Badr, Al-Shams and Razakars, killed the most prominent intellectuals of the country in a bid to cripple the newly-emerging nation.
A memorial erected in memory of the martyred intellectuals at Mirpur in the capital has been readied as national leaders and people from all walks of life will pay tributes by placing wreaths there, reports BSS.
The Pakistani troops and their Bengali-speaking collaborators belonging to Razakar or other auxiliary forces killed a number of intellectuals during the nine-month-long Liberation War.
But, they visibly engaged the infamous Gestapo like Al-Badr and Al-Shams forces on December 14, 1971 to carry out a systematic campaign to kill the most eminent academics and professionals like doctors, engineers and journalists to make the newborn nation to a state of brainlessness.
The then Bangladesh government and victorious freedom fighters, however, came to know about their last brutal massacre only when the Pakistani troops surrendered on December 16, 1971 and their top accomplices mostly belonging to Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing went into hiding to resurface years later.
Those who were exposed to the killers’ wrath on December 14, 1971 included Dr Alim Chowdhury and Dr Fazle Rabbi, Journalists Shahidullah Kaisar, Sirajudddin Hossain, Nizamuddin Ahmed, SA Mannan and Selina Parveen and litterateur Monier Choudhury.
Most of the December 14 victims were picked up from their residences blindfolded and killed between December 10 and 14 in 1971.
President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages on the eve of the day, paying homage to the martyred intellectuals.
Elaborate programmes, including paying homage to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, hoisting the national and black flags at half-mast and placing wreaths at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial at Mirpur and Rayerbazar Killing Ground at Mohammadpur in the city, have been taken to observe the day.
The programmes marking the Martyred Intellectuals Day, however, will be observed following the health and hygiene rules due to the coronavirus pandemic situation.
Marking the day, ruling Awami League (AL) also chalked out various programmes.
As part of the programmes, the national flags and AL’s party flag will be hoisted half-mast at its central office, Bangabandhu Bhaban and all party offices across the country at dawn on Monday while Black flags will be hoisted at AL’s all party offices, including the central office and Bangabandhu Bhaban, across the country.
The ruling party will place wreath at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial at Mirpur in the city at 9 am while it will pay tribute to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by placing wreath at his (Bangabandhu) portrait in front of Bangabandhu Bhaban in the city at 9.30am.
Later, AL will place wreath at the Rayerbazar Killing Ground at Mohammadpur in the city at 10 am on the day.
After assuming the state power in 2009, the ruling AL has brought the perpetrators of intellectuals killing and the war criminals of 1971 under justice.
Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Matiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and assistant secretary generals Abdul Qader Mollah and Mohammad Qamaruzzaman have already been executed for committing crimes against humanity during the country’s Liberation War and killing intellectuals in 1971.
However, the trials of two masterminds — Chowdhury Mainuddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan — behind the killing of intellectuals are yet to be completed as they remain fugitives in the United Kingdom and the United State of America (USA) respectively.