Staff Reporter

The nation will pay glowing tributes to the memories of those illustrious sons and daughters of the soil who made the supreme sacrifice at the fag end of the Liberation War in 1971.

Sensing an imminent defeat, the Pakistani occupation army and their local collaborators-Al-Badr, Razakar and Al-Shams-abducted frontline Bangali intellectuals and professionals on December 14 in 1971 and killed them under a design to cripple the newborn nation intellectually.

The killers dragged renowned academics, teachers, litterateurs, doctors, engineers, journalists and other eminent personalities blindfolded out of their houses and killed them before dumping the bodies in Rayerbazar, Mirpur and other killing fields.

The martyred intellectuals include Prof Munir 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 Khandaker Abu Taleb, Nizamuddin Ahmed, SA Mannan (Ladu Bhai), ANM Golam Mustafa, Syed Nazmul Haq and Selina Parvin.

Political parties, cultural and civil-society organisations will commemorate the tragedy that took place only two days before the surrender of the Pakistani Army on December 16 (1971) after the bloody war that took a heavy toll of lives of some three million Bangalis.

To mark the day, different political parties and socio-cultural organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes, including seminars, discussions and wreath laying at Mirpur and Rayerbazar monuments in Dhaka.

The President and the Chief Advisor will place wreaths at the Mirpur Martyred Intellectuals Mausoleum at 6:00am today. Leaders of other organisations will place wreath at the Mausoleum

President Prof Dr Iajuddin Ahmed and Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed issued separate messages yesterday on the eve of the Martyred Intellectuals Day.

In his message, President Prof Dr Iajuddin Ahmed expressed his deep respect to the memory of the martyred intellectuals and prayed for their eternal peace.

Prof Iajuddin termed the intellectuals as the conscience of the nation and precious resource of the country and said, “The occupation forces had caused an irretrievable loss to the nation by slaying country’s illustrious educationists, physicians, journalists during the Liberation War.”

The President expressed his optimism that the great sacrifice of the intellectuals would inspire the people to build a patriotic and meritorious nation.

Major political parties, including the BNP, AL, Bikapla Dhara, CPB, Workers Party, JSD, different factions of Jatiya Party, and Gano Forum, Dhaka University, Jatiya Press Club and BFUJ, Bangla Academy, Sammilita Sangskritik Jote and other socio-cultural organisations have chalked out various programmes to observe the day.

Jamaat-e-Islami, which is blamed for the slaying of the intellectuals, has also organised a discussion meeting.

Dhaka University Vice-chancellor Prof SMA Faiz along with the teachers and students will place wreaths at the Mausoleum at Mirpur.

Newspapers will bring out special supplements highlighting the significance of the day while Bangladesh Betar, Bangladesh Television and different private television channels air special programmes on this occasion.

The New Nation