Why Martyred Intellectuals Day is celebrated in Bangladesh?

Martyred Intellectuals Day (শহীদ বুদ্ধিজীবি দিবস) is seen on 14 December in Bangladesh to honor those intellectuals who were killed by Pakistani forces and their associates during the 1971 Liberation War, especially on 25 March and 14 December 1971.

The killings were attempted with the goal of annihilating the intellectual class of what was then East Pakistan. Two days after the occasions of 14 December, on 16 December, Bangladesh got independent through the give up of Pakistani forces.

In 1971 the Pakistan Army and their local colleagues, most outstandingly the outrageous right-wing Islamist militia group Al-Badr, occupied with the systematic execution of Bengali pro-liberation intellectuals during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, a war crime.

Intellectuals were killed all through the whole term of the war. The biggest number of executions occurred on 25 March and 14 December 1971, as it became clear that Bangladesh would get independent. 14 December is recognized in Bangladesh as Martyred Intellectuals Day.

Similarly, as the war was arriving at its inevitable decision with the joint Bangladesh and India forces racing for the capital Dhaka, Pakistani forces and their local partners like Al-Badr, Al-Shams and Rajakar went on an executing binge planned for demolishing the nation’s intellectuals and eliminating the future leaders of the new country.

Several intellectuals and professionals including teachers, columnists, doctors, artists, engineers, and authors were gathered together taken blindfolded to different areas in the Dhaka. They were later executed as a group, most strikingly at Rayerbazar and Mirpur.

The country is recognizing Martyred Intellectuals’ Day today, marking one of the most awful days in the nation’s history when the Pakistan army and its local collaborators severely killed the intellectuals just before their defeat in 1971.

The educationists, doctors, writers, and artists – who were a controlling light for the Bangalees – were instrumental in the developments against disparity and oppressive proportions of the Pakistani rulers, in this manner adding to the Liberation War.

The intellectuals had all through been focuses of the Pakistani rulers, who started killing them with the military crackdown in Dhaka on the night of March 25 and proceeded with it all through the nine-month war.

In any case, the planned killing of the intellectuals arrived at its peak only two days before December 16.

On the night of December 14, more than 200 intellectuals were kidnapped from their homes in Dhaka; the killings were started in Dhaka and step by step spread over the nation.

The Bangladesh Liberation War against the nation West Pakistan started on 26 March 1971, developed into the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and finished with the triumph of Bangladesh on 16 December 1971.

On 14 December, detecting impending defeat, Pakistani forces and their local colhgbnlaborators—Shanti committee, Razakars, Al-Badr, and Al-Shams—abducted and killed front-line Bengali intellectuals and experts so as to cripple the new country intellectually.

Renowned academics, teachers, intellectuals, doctors, engineers, writers, and other prominent personalities were hauled out of their homes, blindfolded, and executed. Their bodies were dumped in Rayerbazar, Mirpur, and other killing grounds in Dhaka only two days in front of the last triumph of the war.

During the nine-month length of the war, the Pakistani Army, with the help of local associates systematically executed an expected 991 teachers, 13 columnists, 49 doctors, 42 lawyers, and 16 writers, artists, and engineers.

Considerably after the official completion of the war on 16 December, there were reports of killings being submitted by either the armed Pakistani fighters or by their partners. In one such occurrence, striking producer Jahir Raihan was killed on 30 January 1972 in Mirpur purportedly by the armed Beharis.

In memory of the people who were killed, 14 December is seen in Bangladesh as Shaheed Buddhijibi Dibosh (“Day of the Martyred Intellectuals”).