President-PM pay respect to martyred intellectuals

President Md Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday paid profound respect to the best sons of the country at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial at Mirpur on the occasion of Martyred Intellectuals Day.

President Abdul Hamid placed wreaths at 8am to pay his homage to the great heroes, who sacrificed their lives for the cause of the country and the nation.

After the President, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina placed wreaths there. The President and the Prime Minister stood there in solemn silence for some time.

A smartly turned out contingent of Bangladesh Armed Forces gave a state salute as the bugle played the last post.

After placing the wreaths, the President talked to war-wounded freedom fighters and family members of the martyred intellectuals there and inquired about their well-being.

Earlier, on his arrival at the mausoleum site, the President was received by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Liberation War Minister AKM Mozammel Haq. Cabinet members and the chiefs of three services were present.

Flanked by central leaders of the party, Sheikh Hasina, also the President of Bangladesh Awami League, laid another wreath at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial as the party chief.

She also talked to the war-wounded freedom fighters and inquired about their well-being.

On the night of December 14, 1971, over 200 Bangalee intellectuals, including professors, journalists, doctors, artistes, engineers, and writers were picked up in Dhaka by the Pakistani occupation forces, aided by their local collaborators.

The intellectuals were taken blindfolded 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.

Since then, the day is being observed as the Martyred Intellectuals Day.

The nation will observe the Martyred Intellectuals Day on Monday to pay rich 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.

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.