President, PM pay tribute to 1971 heroes

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.

The President and then the Prime Minister placed wreaths at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial at Mirpur in the capital in the morning.

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.

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

Later, the prime minister talked to the war-wounded freedom fighters and the family members of the martyred intellectuals.

Sheikh Hasina then went to Dhanmondi in the capital and placed a wreath at the portrait of Bangladesh’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in front of Bangabandhu Memorial Museum marking the Martyred Intellectuals Day.

After placing the wreath, she stood there for some time as a mark of profound respect to the memory of Bangabandhu, the architect of independence of Bangladesh.

On the night of 14 December, 1971, over 200 intellectuals including educationists, journalists, litterateurs, 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.

Since then, the day has been observed as the Martyred Intellectuals Day.