The nation is observing the Martyred Intellectuals Day on Wednesday paying tributes to the intellectuals killed systematically by the Pakistan occupation army and their local collaborators at the fag-end of the country’s Liberation War in 1971.Renowned academics, doctors, engineers, journalists, teachers and other eminent personalities were dragged out of their homes, blindfolded, and taken to unknown places and then brutally tortured and slaughtered on the day in 1971.Their bodies were later dumped at Rayerbazar, Mirpur and some other killing fields in the capital.Sensing an imminent defeat, the Pakistani occupation army and their local collaborators carried out the cold-blooded mass murders under a carefully thought-out plan to cripple the emerging Bangladesh intellectually.Among the martyred intellectuals are Prof Muneir Chowdhury, Dr Alim Chowdhury, Prof Muniruzzaman, Dr Fazle Rabbi, Sirajuddin Hossain, Shahidullah Kaiser, Prof GC Dev, JC Guha Thakurta, Prof Santosh Bhattacharya, Mofazzal Haider Chowdhury, journalists Khandaker Abu Taleb, Nizamuddin Ahmed, SA Mannan (Ladu Bhai), ANM Golam Mustafa, Syed Nazmul Haq and Selina Parvin.In separate messages, the President and the Prime Minister urged the people from all strata to come forward being inspired with the spirit of War of Liberation to build a knowledge-based society.The President called upon all to be imbued with the spirit of patriotism of the martyred intellectuals and work together to develop a merit-based nation. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in the history of the liberation struggle of the Bangalee nation, the Martyred Intellectuals’ Day is a painful event.The government has chalked out elaborate programmes to observe the Martyred Intellectuals Day to commemorate the December 14 tragedy.Awami League and other political parties like the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD), Workers` Party and their associate organizations and different cultural and social organizations have chalked out various programmes.