President, PM pays homage to martyred intellectuals

President Abdul Hamid and prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday paid tributes to the martyred intellectuals by placing wreaths at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial at Mirpur on the occasion of the Martyred Intellectuals Day, reports UNB.

On behalf of the head of the president, his military secretary Major General S M Salah Uddin Islam placed wreath at the monument this morning to pay tributes to those who lost lives days before Bangladesh's final victory in the War of Liberation in 1971.

On behalf of the prime minister, military secretary to the prime minister Major General Naquib Ahmed Chowdhury placed the wreaths at Memorial at 7:05am.

On the night of 14 December, 1971, over 200 intellectuals, including educationists, journalists, litterateurs, writers, physicians, scientists, lawyers, artists, philosophers and political thinkers had been picked up in Dhaka by Pakistani occupation forces, aided by their local collaborators.

The intellectuals were taken blindfold to torture cells in Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Nakhalpara, Rajarbagh and other locations 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.

Like last year, the day is still being observed in a limited scale due to Covid-19 pandemic situation.