Another 14th December is approaching us with the gruesome memories of the genocide by the Pakistan occupation forces on the intellectuals of our country who were killed just two days before the victory of Bangladesh in 1971. The Pakistani troops in collaboration with their local compradors carried out one of the most heinous massacres of history eliminating the country's most meritorious teachers, journalists, authors, poets and social organizers. The Pakistani forces on the eve of losing the war against Bangladesh, committed these murders to terminate our think-tank and to obliterate our intellectual resources. Killing fields were found in the wake of the glorious Liberation War in different parts of Dhaka city and in some more places of Bangladesh where the cowardly armed forces of Pakistan tortured and killed lots of unarmed civilians of Bangladesh including scholars, writers, playwrights and educationists. The Pakistani forces and their accomplices wanted to cripple us by eradicating the intellectual garrisons of our country through the holocaust of 14th December 1971.
The vicious aim of the Pakistan forces to kill intellectuals was executed through evil backup from some traitors of our own country known as Razakars, members of Al Badar, Al Shams and some more local outfits who used to work for the Pakistan military forces. These humanlike beasts picked up lots of intellectuals from their homes and handed them over to the camps of Pakistan army. In this way a brutal carnage took place on 14th December 1971 through the killings of intellectuals. We feel sad when this date comes back every year to remind us of the supreme sacrifices and martyrdom embraced by the most resourceful and patriotic heroes of our country. At the same time, it's also true that Bangladesh became independent through the self-dedication of three million freedom fighters including the martyred intellectuals. The crimson sun of independence and the laurels of sovereignty were achieved through enormous bloodshed and a fierce war that lasted for nine months.
The present government of Bangladesh has in the meantime executed the death penalties of several war criminals who committed hideous murders, atrocities and many more sorts of vices during 1971 to thwart the target of the Liberation War. Through the trials and executions of the war criminals it has been proven that nobody is above the law and all culprits working against the interest of the country have to face punishments for their misdeeds. Trials are still going on to prosecute some more backstabbers who murdered innocent people during 1971 while working in favor of the Pakistan army at that time. Some of the eminent intellectuals that got killed during the genocide of 14th December 1971 include Munier Chowdhury, Anwar Pasha, Shahidullah Kaiser, Mufazzal Haider Chowdhury, Govinda Chandra Dev, Humayun Kabir, Rashidul Hasan, Nizam Uddin Ahmed, Selina Parvin, Altaf Mahmud and many more illuminated figures. While the freedom fighters were fighting with guns and ammunitions on the battlefields to liberate Bangladesh, the poets, authors, teachers and journalists were fighting with their intellect and creativity for the same purpose. Not just in Dhaka, intellectuals were abducted, excruciated and murdered by Pakistan army and their collaborators in Sylhet, Chittagong, Rajshahi and several other districts during the Liberation War of 1971.
The corpses of the murdered intellectuals were disfigured by dogs, vultures, foxes and other scavengers. That's why when the dead bodies of the martyrs were recovered from the killing fields after the war, some of them could not be identified. Intellectuals faced tribulations at the time of war in some other countries too. Federico Garcia Lorca, one of the best-known Spanish poets was killed by the soldiers obedient to General Franco in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War. Pablo Picasso's paintings were also burnt during the Spanish Civil War as he illustrated the ghastly scenario of the war through his artworks. The German Nazi forces killed thousands of intellectuals in Germany and Poland during the World War II. The German officials who carried out this genocide were prosecuted through the Nuremberg Military Tribunals after the war.
Intellectuals and unarmed citizens were killed in Bosnia and Kosovo too during the ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia under the dictatorship of Slobodan Milosevic during 1993 till 1999. The ethnic carnage and atrocities in Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia were finally halted through attacks on the Yugoslav troops by the armed forces of NATO under a special drive called "Operation Noble Anvil". As a result of the war across Yugoslavia, things totally fell apart and Yugoslavia got disintegrated into several independent nations like Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and some more states. The Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic who conducted all those murders and human rights violations in his country was later on put on trial in The Hague, the Netherlands for his crimes against humanity. But he died in 2006 before the trial was over.
Educationists, authors and reporters were killed in Cambodia too during the murderous regime of Khmer Rouge under the tyrannical Cambodian government from 1975 to 1979. Like Bangladesh, killing fields were spotted in Cambodia as well following the genocide where corpses of thousands of Cambodian people were found.
When military junta grabbed state power of Chile in 1973 after forcibly ousting democratically elected president Salvador Allende, inhuman mass murders took place all over the country. The autocratic government under Augusto Pinochet allegedly killed thousands of ordinary Chilean citizens who did not support autocracy in their country. There were lots of intellectuals among those who were persecuted and killed by the Chilean army during the reign of Augusto Pinochet.
We salute the noble-hearted and valiant sons and daughters of our soil who were killed during 1971 for the creation of independent Bangladesh. At the same time, we need to make consolidated endeavors to materialize the spirit of 1971.
Marufa Mazhar is a Copy Editor of The Asian Age.
Latest News