Martyred Intellectuals Day being observed

Staff Correspondent: The nation is observing the Martyred Intellectuals Day to commemorate those intellectuals who were killed systematically by the Pakistan occupation army and their local collaborators at the fag-end of the country's Liberation War in 1971.

Placing wreaths at the Martyred Intellectuals' Mausoleum in Mirpur, President Abdul Hamid paid tributes to the martyred intellectuals on Thursday morning. The president stood in solemn silence there for some time as the bugle played the last post.

Later, Deputy Speaker Fazle Rabbi Miah, Jatiya Party, cabinet members, several political parties and people from all walks of life paid their tribute.

Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader and other senior leaders paid tributes to the martyred intellectuals.

On this day in 1971, country's renowned academicians, doctors, engineers, journalists, artists, teachers and other eminent personalities were dragged out of their homes, blindfolded and taken to unknown places and then brutally tortured and slaughtered. Later, their bodies were dumped at Rayerbazar, Mirpur and some other killing fields in the capital.

Sensing an imminent defeat, the Pakistani forces and local collaborators like Al-Badr, Al-Shams and Razakar forces committed the cold-blooded mass murders aiming to annihilate the country's intelligentsia and cripple the emerging Bangladesh intellectually.



risingbd/Dhaka/Dec 14, 2017/Nur/Nasim/Mukul