The bloody liberation war was almost over then. One after another news kept coming from different parts of the country to defeat the Pak aggressors. Bangladesh is on the verge of victory at the cost of millions of lives. Freedom-loving people are counting the dawn of victory. Just then there was a knock on the door of the talented sons of the nation .... then in the history of the country ruthless massacre! One by one, the talented sons of the nation including doctors, academics, researchers, scientists and cultural personalities were killed. Mass graves are made all over the country. Exactly two days after this pile of corpses of the brilliant sons of the country, the barbaric Pakistani forces led by General Niazi surrendered on December 16 and Bangladesh emerged as an independent country.
Monday (December 14) is Martyred Intellectuals Day. On this day in 1971, the infernal massacre was planned and carried out in a planned manner to make the country incompetent. ‘They are asleep, let them sleep ..... / They are asleep, we will stay awake.’ Poet Shamsur Rahman said in his poem to let these martyrs sleep in peace. Those who had to join the war of liberation, support the freedom fighters and speak for an independent sovereign country had to give their lives.
‘Speaking of return, none of them came back / we will go through their bloody path today.’ The Pakistani aggressors and their local allies Razakar, Al-Badr, Al-Shams members blindfolded and took away these meritorious sons of the nation; loved ones could not even see their bodies. Some have fallen into the lap of death due to waiting hours. Today, Bengalis have found a way to move forward with the message of those brilliants.
Detailed programs have been taken up nationally on the occasion of the day. President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave separate messages.
However, this time due to Corona pandemic, the program of Intellectuals' Day will be celebrated in accordance with the health rules. The program includes hoisting the national and black flags at half-mast, laying wreaths at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial in Mirpur and Rayer Bazar Massacre ground, paying homage to the portrait of Bangabandhu.
The Awami League's program includes hoisting black flags at the party's central office, Bangabandhu Bhaban and offices of organizations across the country at sunrise and hoisting national and party flags at the half mast. On the occasion wreath-laying at Mirpur Shaheed Buddhijibi Memorial will be held at 9 am.
Tribute was paid to the portrait of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Bangabandhu Bhaban at 9.30 am and at Rayer Bazar massacre ground at 10 am.
The selective killing of intellectuals among the 30 lakh martyrs in 1971 carried special significance. They were martyred as part of a far-reaching plan. Knowing that their defeat was imminent, the invading Pakistani forces planned to kill the intellectuals in order to make the Bengali nation incompetent.
According to Basanti Guhathakurta, wife of Shaheed Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta, a teacher at Dhaka University, the blueprint was drawn before the 1st of March, 1971 or much earlier. First they were killed at random, then in the city, in the village, in the village, the rich, the businessmen, the intellectuals were killed and dumped in the river.
Many think that the ultimate catastrophe is imminent, the defeat is imminent - that's when they implement that plan. Listed intellectuals were blindfolded and killed. They tried to darken the future of independent Bangladesh in this way.
In the name of Operation Search Light, when the Pakistani aggressors killed Bengalis on the night of March 25, 1971, there was a concern in the country and abroad that the best intellectuals of the nation might be killed in this way. There is a fragment of the concern of the intellectuals of Kolkata in a famous prose work by Shankha Ghosh, a professor at Jadavpur University, born in Barisal and working.
It was actually a fifteen minute speech, broadcast from Kolkata shortly after the war escalated. Later it was published in Chatunga.
Shankha Ghosh wrote ‘Where are the poets from Jasim Uddin to Shamsur Rahman now, right now? Did Yahya's troops demolish Ittefaq's office and destroy his journalist staff? If so, Al Mahmoud? Where? Where is he now? Rangpur bombed. Kaysul Haque? Did Yahya's tank enter Jasimuddin Road in Dhaka? The liberation war of Bangladesh is fifteen days old today, in which we know how the military oppression is rushing towards any intellectual. Yahya's team understood that the first fire of this incredible liberation has started from here. '
The verdicts of many people involved in the killing of war criminals and intellectuals in 1971 have been executed. Among them, the death sentence has been announced against many people accused of crimes against humanity. Jamaat's Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Mollah has been sentenced to death in a murder case. The death sentence of Kamaruzzaman and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, one of the masterminds of the intellectual assassination, has been carried out.
On 11 May 2016, the execution of Matiur Rahman Nizami, the chief of the Al-Badr force and the Amir of Jamaat, who carried out the blueprint for the assassination of intellectuals, was carried out. However, the trial of Chowdhury Moinuddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan, who were directly involved in the killing of intellectuals, could not be carried out as they are fugitive.
Chowdhury Moinuddin is a fugitive in the United Kingdom and Ashrafuzzaman Khan is a fugitive in the United States. They were sentenced to death on November 3, 2013 by the International Criminal Tribunal-2.
During the war of liberation, with the help of Al-Badr, an allied force of Pakistan, prominent people of various professions including teachers, journalists, doctors and cultural activists were abducted from the campus of Dhaka University and other places. They were later tortured to death in Rayerbazar and Mirpur. These two places are now reserved as slaughterhouses.
In the last days of the War of Liberation, between 10 and 14 December, Al-Badr forces captured many more intellectuals and tortured them at the Al-Badr base at the Mohammadpur Physical Training Institute, killing them at the Rayerbazar massacre site and Mirpur graveyard.
Among the martyred intellectuals are, Professor Munir Chowdhury, Dr. Alim Chowdhury, Professor Muniruzzaman, Dr. Fazle Rabbi, Journalist Siraj Uddin Hossain, Shahidullah Kaiser, Professor GC Dev, Jyotirmoy Guha Thakurta, Professor Santosh Bhattacharya, Mofazzal Haider Chowdhury, Professor Gias Uddin, Professor Anwar Pasha, Professor Rashidul Hasan, Dr. Abul Khair Mia, Journalist Khondoker Abu Taher, Journalist Nizamuddin Ahmed, Sports organizer SA Mannan (Ladu Bhai), ANM Golam Mostafa, Syed Nazmul Haque, Selina Parveen and many more.