Today is Martyred Intellectuals Day. The most heartbreaking day in the history of the country’s independence and liberation struggle. On this day, on December 14, 1971, at the dawn of victory, it is a day of sorrow and pain for the country’s best sons, intellectuals, to lose. At the end of the nine-month bloody liberation struggle, when the people of the whole country were on the verge of final victory, these domestic murderers Razakars, Al-Badr, Al-Shams and members of the Peace Committee indulged in the massacre of intellectuals.
At the final moment of victory, this brutal massacre of Bengalis to deprive them of their intellectuals shocked the entire nation and the entire world that day. On the occasion of the day, President Md. Shahabuddin and Chief Advisor Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus gave separate messages expressing deep respect for the memory of the martyred intellectuals.
Just two days before the surrender of the Pakistani occupation forces, on the dark night of December 14, 1971, a gang of assassins blindfolded and took about 150 intellectuals and people of various professions to an unknown location in Dhaka city alone. That night, under the evening curfew, teachers, journalists, doctors, engineers, lawyers, artists-literate people, cultural workers and high-ranking government and private officials were dragged out of their homes by taking a list. Later, they were killed and left in the silent, ghostly darkness.
The next morning, many lifeless bodies were seen lying scattered in the drains and drains of Mirpur and Rayerbazar brickyards in Dhaka. Some had bullet wounds, some were injured by inhuman torture. Many were stabbed to death with their hands tied behind their backs. People who were looking forward to independence were shocked to learn about that dark night of losing their relatives. Everything came to a standstill.
The information that they were tortured before the murder also came to light. In 1972, the compilation of the National Intellectuals’ Day in Bangladesh, the news published in newspapers and the international news magazine Newsweek, written by journalist Nicholas Tomlin, reveals that the total number of martyred intellectuals was 1,070. In the long liberation struggle of the Bengali nation, these intellectuals inspired the organizers of independence through their intellect, thinking and writing. They showed the path to liberation. They inspired the entire nation in the struggle for rights. The birth of an independent state was not tolerated at all by the anti-independence circle.
Although December 14 is remembered as the day of the massacre of intellectuals, this most heinous crime in history actually began on December 10. Throughout the week, the names of intelligent and courageous people appeared one by one on their list. Basically, from December 10, under the cover of darkness, the listed intellectuals were blindfolded and taken from their homes to the Rayerbazar and Mirpur slaughterhouses and brutally killed. The first Martyred Intellectuals Memorial was built in Mirpur, Dhaka in memory of the martyred intellectuals. In 1991, construction of another memorial called the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial began in Rayerbazar, Dhaka, which was inaugurated on December 14, 1999. Every year, December 14 is celebrated as Martyred Intellectuals Day in an atmosphere of mourning. The national flag is kept at half-mast all over the country. The black flag, a symbol of mourning, is flown.
14 Dec 2025
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