Memory1971

About Memory 1971

Intellectual assassination refers to the deliberate killing of intelligent and free-spirited people of Bangladesh by the Pakistani aggressors during the entire period of Bangladesh's liberation war in 1971. At the end of the War of Independence in December 1971, when the Pakistani forces began to realize that it was not possible for them to win the war, they began to plan to weaken and cripple the newly formed country culturally, socially and educationally. According to that plan, on the night of December 14, the Pakistani forces, with the help of their local collaborators Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams, abducted the best children of the country from their homes and killed them after brutal torture. This planned genocide is known as the intellectual genocide in the history of Bangladesh. Intellectuals were killed in various massacres while in captivity. After the independence of the country, their mutilated and mutilated bodies were found in Rayerbazar and Mirpur slaughterhouses. Many bodies could not be identified, many bodies were not found. Martyred Intellectuals' Day is celebrated in Bangladesh on 14 December every year to commemorate the brutal massacre of 14 December 1971. An intellectual memorial has been set up in Dhaka, Bangladesh to commemorate the killing of intellectuals. Besides, the Bangladesh Postal Department has issued a series of commemorative stamps in memory of the intellectuals.

According to the conventional notion, those who give mental labor or intellectual labor instead of physical labor are intellectuals. The definition of intellectuals given in the book Shaheed Shaheed Buddhijibi Kosh published by Bangla Academy is:

Intellectual means writer, scientist, painter, vocalist, teacher of all levels, researcher, journalist, politician, lawyer, physician, engineer, architect, sculptor, government and private employee, person involved in film and drama, social worker and cultural worker.

Ever since the formation of the undemocratic and unscientific state of Pakistan, the state apparatus of West Pakistan has been discriminating against the Bengalis or the East Pakistanis. They hurt the language and culture of the Bengalis. As a result, resentment began to accumulate in the minds of the Bengalis and the Bengalis started a political and cultural movement against this injustice.

All these movements were led by intellectuals from all walks of life. They socially and culturally instilled in the Bengalis a sense of Bengali nationalism. As a result of their cultural movement, the people gradually became aware of their demands and rights, which in turn led to their political movement. For this reason, from the very beginning, the intellectuals became the target of the military rulers of Pakistan. So from the beginning of the war, Pakistani forces started selectively killing intellectuals. Besides, when the defeat of Pakistan in the last phase of the war was just a matter of time, the Bengali nation seemed to be weakened in education, culture and society, so they made a list and killed the intellectuals with the aim of making the Bengali nation incompetent. In this context, the argument given in the book Shaheed Shaheed Buddhijibi Kosh is relevant and reasonable: -

It is inevitable that the intellectuals awaken the conscience of the nation, awaken them through their writings, through the pens of journalists, to the tune of songs, to teaching in schools, to medicine, to engineering, to politics, and so on. The first way to sterilize a nation is to make it ignorant. On the night of March 25, the process began abruptly, then slowly, and quickly, from December 10 to December 15, knowing that defeat was inevitable.