GAIBANDHA, December 14, 2023 (BSS): The Martyred Intellectuals Day was observed in the district as elsewhere in the country today with due respect and amid paying much tributes to them.

Marking the day, the district administration, Zilla Parishad, Gaibandha Municipality, Bangladsh Awami League district unit and socio-cultural organizations chalked out the elaborate programs.

In the morning at 10 am, deputy commissioner (DC) Kazi Nahid Rasul along with senior officials of the district and upazila administrations paid rich tributes at the Shahid Memorial in front of Old DC office of the town here through placing of floral wreaths.

The programme was followed by a discussion at the auditorium of Zila Shilpakala Academy of the town here with Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Abdul Awal in the chair marking the day.

Chief Executive Officer of the Zila Parishad Abdur Rouf Talukder, police super (SP) Kamal Hossain, mayor of Gaibandha Municipality Matlubur Rahman, former commander of district Muktijoddha sangshad freedom fighter Mahmudul Haque Sajada and renowned freedom fighter Ali Akbar Miah spoke at the meeting among others.

The speakers said on this day in 1971, the illustrious sons of the soil were brutally killed at the fag end of the Liberation War as the Pakistani occupation army with the help of their local collaborators-Razakar, Al-Badr and Al- Shams -- abducted the intellectuals and professionals sensing their imminent defeat.

The intellectuals were taken in blindfolded to the torture cells in Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Nakhalpara, Rajarbagh and other locations in different parts of the capital and later executed en masse at different killing grounds, most notably Rayerbazar and Mirpur to cripple the nation intellectually, they also said.

The Pakistani troops and their Bengali-speaking collaborators killed a number of intelligentsia throughout the nine-month long Liberation War and most of them on December 14 victims were picked up from their houses blindfolded and killed between December 10th and 14th in 1971, they added.

A large number of people including district and upazila level officials, freedom fighters, political leaders, public representatives, teachers, cultural personalities, and social workers including journalists took part in the meeting.