Martyred Intellectuals Day today

The nation commemorates today the countless intellectuals who embraced martyrdom in the hands of Pakistani occupation army and its local killing squads on this day in 1971.
An unknown number of Bangali intellectuals were abducted and killed in cold blood by the occupation army of Pakistan and its local cohorts only two days before the occupation army surrendered.
Following abductions the intellectuals never returned.
On the dawn of independence, the discovery of blindfolded and mutilated bodies of many of them in the killing fields of the occupation army across the country shocked the world.
National flag will be hoisted at half-mast atop government buildings and educational institutions to mark the day.
Security has been tightened in and around the killing fields at Rayerbazar and Mirpur in the capital preserved as sacred memorials.
Since 1972, the nation has been pressing the demand to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The infamous Al-Badr and Al-Shams forces comprising Jamaat’s the then student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha acted as the Pakistan occupation army’s  squads for the systematic elimination of Bangali brains as Bangladesh was headed to clinch independence.
Bangladesh could never overcome the shock.
Found guilty killing intellectuals as a key leader of Chhatra Sangha and the Al-Badr force, Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed’s death sentence was recently executed.
Sentenced to death for providing the incitements to kill the intellectuals Al-Badr force’s ex-officio chief  Motiur Rahman Nizami, now Jammat chief,  sought review of his conviction.
Key Al-Badr leaders Md Ashrafuzzaman Khan alias Nayeb Ali and Chowdhury Mueenuddin, were sentenced to death in absentia for abducting and killing the intellectuals in cold blood.
Immediately after independence, December 14 was declared as the Martyred Intellectuals’ Day by Tajuddin Ahmed, the country’s first prime minister.
Giant banners of Awami League, its front orgnaisations Juba League and Chhatra League,  have virtually eclipsed  the Rayerbazaar Martyred Intellectuals Memorial.
At daybreak, wreaths would be laid at all the killing fields across the country, now preserved as memorials.
In separate messages, president Abdul Hamid, prime minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP  chairperson Khaleda Zia paid homage to martyred intellectuals.
Discussions to mark the day would be hosted by political parties, educational and cultural institutions, Sector Commanders Forum, Rukhe Darao Bangladesh, Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, Bangla Academy, Liberation War Museum, Dhaka University and  Jagannath University.

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