Homage paid to martyred intellectuals

The nation on Sunday observed the Martyred Intellectuals' Day paying deep tributes to a galaxy of intellectuals systematically killed at the fag end of the Liberation War in 1971 to cripple the Bengalis aspiring after nationhood, reports UNB.

On this day in 1971, renowned academics, doctors, engineers, journalists, teachers and other eminent personalities were dragged out of their residences, blindfolded, and taken to unknown places to be brutally tortured and slaughtered.

Their bodies were later dumped at Rayerbazar, Mirpur and some other killing fields in the capital.

The cold-blooded mass murders were carried out under a carefully thought-out plan to cripple the emerging Bangladesh intellectually, as the Pakistani occupation army and their local collaborators sensed an imminent defeat.

President Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia paid their tributes to the martyred intellectuals by placing wreaths at the Martyred Intellectuals' Mausoleum at Mirpur in the morning.