President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday paid rich tributes to the martyred intellectuals on the occasion of the Martyred Intellectuals Day.
First the president and then the prime minister placed wreaths at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial at Mirpur in the capital.
They stood there in solemn silence for a while as a mark of profound respect to the memories of the illustrious sons of the soil.
A smartly-turned out contingent of the Bangladesh Armed Forces gave a state salute, while the budge played the last post at that time.
Later, flanked by the party's central leaders, Sheikh Hasina, also the president of Bangladesh Awami League, laid another wreath at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial as the party chief.
On the night of December 14, 1971, over 200 intellectuals including educationists, journalists, litterateurs, writers, physicians, scientists, lawyers, artists, philosophers and political thinkers had been picked up in Dhaka by the Pakistani occupation forces, aided by their local collaborators.
The intellectuals were taken blindfold to torture cells in Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Nakhalpara, Rajarbagh and other locations in different parts of the city and later executed en masse at different killing grounds, most notably Rayerbazar and Mirpur.
Those who were exposed to the killers’ wrath on December 14, 1971 included Alim Chowdhury and Fazle Rabbi, journalists Shahidullah Kaisar, Sirajuddin Hossain, Nizamuddin Ahmed, SA Mannan and Selina Parveen and litterateur Munier Choudhury.
Since then, the day is being observed as the Martyred Intellectuals Day.