Martyred Intellectuals Day

Today on Martyred Intellectuals Day we remember with great sorrow the barbaric murders of many of the brightest and most enlightened men and women of this land at the hands of the occupying Pakistani Army and their collaborators during the Liberation War of 1971. This is a day of national mourning as the void left by so many intellectuals can never be filled no matter how much time has passed. While we observe the Martyred Intellectuals Day on December 14 the process of physical elimination of the brightest sons and daughters of this land started with the crackdown on March 25, 1971. On that day the Pakistani Army targeted the university hostels and staff quarters, rounding up students and teachers, mercilessly torturing and murdering them. Throughout the war, this was the strategy taken by the Pakistani forces. The occupation army with active support of their local cohorts decided to destroy the spirit of the people by annihilating one of their most precious possessions—their intelligentsia.

When the Pakistani forces realised that their defeat was imminent and Bangladesh will emerge as an independent country, they hatched an evil plan. They embarked on a killing spree rarely witnessed in the annals of history. On the eve of victory the nation stood stupefied to know about the Pakistani forces genocidal mission here culminated in systemic murder of its most enlightened people. Many intellectuals were abducted, tortured, killed and their bodies dumped in various places. In the marshy land at Rayerbazar and at Mirpur, a huge number of dead bodies were found scattered in the ditches, plains and inside the heaps of bricks. The dead bodies, eyes covered and hands tied on the back, were found bruised all over, bullet shots on the chest, head or back and bayonet injury all over the body. Those martyred intellectuals included teachers, writers, singers, journalists, doctors, etc., people who would have been invaluable to a brand-new nation ready to fulfil the dreams of its liberated people.

The martyrs included Prof Munier 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 Nizamuddin Ahmed, Khandaker Abu Taleb, SA Mannan, ANM Golam Mustafa, Syed Nazmul Haq, Selina Parvin, et al. During the misrule of Pakistan, our writers, journalists, artistes and intellectuals were the voice of our conscience. They protested against wrong. They used their knowledge, wisdom and intellect to guide the nation. It is difficult even to imagine what the nation lost with the murder of these intellectuals.

There definitely was an evil design behind this carnage. The Pakistani forces and the Bengali collaborator wanted to ensure that the Bengali nation remain crippled forever, so that we can never stand tall in the comity of nations. 

The shadow of the tragedy of the Martyred Intellectuals Day lingers on to make the celebration of the Victory Day somewhat subdued for obvious reasons. It is deplorable that the treacherous local collaborators helped the Pakistanis to hunt down the intellectuals. They wanted to prove that the Bengalis were incapable of governing themselves. They wanted to create a leadership void and destroy the nationalist spirit of the Bangladeshis.  The pain and loss will never be assuaged but at least the Bangladeshis have proved the Pakistanis and the local conspirators wrong. Today Bangladesh is a proud nation often cited as an example of a successful country.

However, while Bangladesh’s economic growth has been impressive the country lags behind in terms of achieving equality and socio-cultural enlightenment. We are yet to accomplish fully the ideals and values the best sons and daughters set for us to inculcate. We need to the study the lives of those martyrs in order to shape our individual life and the society at large.