Numerical calculation of 1971 martyrs not possible: PM

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said calculation of the number of 1971 martyrs or people who were killed during the Liberation War could not be done largely because of high number casualties in a short span of time. 
‘We try to calculate mathematically how many people embraced death for independence. But, I think, it is not possible to gauge the figure numerically,’ she told a Martyred Intellectuals Day discussion.
The premier added that there were very few countries like Bangladesh where so many people embraced martyrdom in such a short span of time for freedom.
Bangladesh Awami League organised the discussion at the Krishibid Institution auditorium in the afternoon.
‘We cannot calculate how many mothers, sisters, brothers have shed blood. It was genocide,’ Sheikh Hasina said.
She said millions of people were brutally killed by the Pakistani troops and their collaborators in a short span of time as they aspired for liberation defying the wishes of the military dictators. 
The premier said people still shiver with fear when they remember the brutality on intellectuals by the Pakistani army and their local collaborators. 
‘It was not possible on the part of the Pakistani army alone to pick up our best sons unless local betrayers assisted them in doing so,’ she said.
The premier urged everybody to work for building the country with the ideals of the Liberation War saying ‘bloods of the martyrs and intellectuals would never go in vein’.
‘We want to build next generation in such a way so that they can know the real history of the nation and would love and respect the martyrs and deceased intellectuals, follow their ideology and be patriotic,’ she said. 
Renowned journalist and writer Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury, also the author of the immortal song on Ekushey Fenruary ‘Amar Bhaiyer Rokte Rangano Ekushey February’, Shahin Reza Nur, son of martyred intellectual journalist Sirajuddin Hossain and Nuzhat Chowdhury Shampa, daughter of martyred intellectual Aleem Chowdhury, took part in the discussion.
Awami League general secretary and road transport minister Obaidul Kader gave introductory speech while the party’s publicity secretary Hasan Mahmud and deputy publicity secretary Aminul Islam conducted the programme.

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