The nation is yet to know for certain how many intellectuals were killed
by the Pakistani occupation forces and their local collaborators even
43 years after the country’s independence as the government is yet to
prepare a comprehensive list of martyred intellectuals.
The
liberation war affairs ministry has documents listing only 24 martyred
intellectuals while others government and private documents have put the
figure ranging from 232 to 1,111.
Independence war researchers estimated that even 1,111 figure was not correct as it should be 10 times this figure..
Members
on the Buddhijibi Nidhan Tathyanusandhan Committee, set up in 1972,
compiled a list that named 20,000 of the finest minds of the nation who
were killed.
Researchers and historians say that documentation is one
of the first things needed to preserve a well-documented history. In
the absence of proper history, the new generation will never come to
know, how the country was liberated in 1971.
They blamed the
government for not having a list of martyred intellectuals and added
that there was still time to prepare a well-documented list.
Liberation
war affairs ministry officials said that they would take step to have a
list before Martyred Intellectuals Day in 2014.
Sensing defeat at
the fag end of the war for the country’s independence, the Pakistani
occupation forces and their local collaborators Razakar, Al-Badr and
Al-Shams abducted members of the Bengali intelligentsia blindfolded,
with hands tied, from their houses to camps or other places. They never
returned.
The main spots of execution in the capital Dhaka were the
marshy land at Rayerbazar near Mohammadpur and Mirpur and across the
country where a huge number of bodies were found scattered in ditches,
the plains and inside heaps of bricks.
Shaheed Buddhijibi
Koshagrantha, a biographical encyclopaedia of martyred intellectuals
published by the Bangla Academy and reprinted in 1994, put the number of
intellectuals executed then at 232 but said that list was neither
complete nor comprehensive.
The encyclopaedia defined martyrs as
people who had been either killed by the Pakistani army or their
collaborators or had gone missing between March 25, 1971 and January 31,
1972.
It also defined intellectuals as writers, scientists,
artistes, singers, teachers, researchers, journalists, lawyers,
physicians, engineers, architects, sculptors, government and
non-government staff, people involved with film and theatre, and social
and cultural workers.
‘Bangladesh,’ a documentary publication of the
government in 1972, said that the Pakistani occupation forces and the
local killing squads unleashed by them had killed 1,022 — 21 university
teachers, 59 college teachers, 270 secondary schoolteachers, 637
primary teachers and 41 lawyers.
Banglapedia, or the National
Encyclopedia of Bangladesh, estimated that 1,111 intellectuals were
killed — 991 educationalists , 13 journalists, 49 physicians, 42
lawyers, 16 others (litterateurs, artistes and engineers).
A high liberation war affairs ministry official said that they had only a list of 24 intellectuals who were killed in 1971.
‘There
are no list either complete or comprehensive containing names of
martyred intellectuals. Listing is one of the first things for a well
documented history’ said Muntassir Mamoon a historian and liberation war
researcher.
‘No government is genial to have proper research and
documentation of liberation war. The ministry should take responsibility
of to have a comprehensive list of martyred intellectuals’ he said.
There should be an extensive survey to get the exact figure, he added.
Liberation
War Museum trustee Sarwar Ali said that the nation should have a list
of martyred intellectuals immediately after the independence war.
The liberation war affairs secretary, KH Masud Siddiqui, said that they had a list but it is not ‘concrete and comprehensive.’
‘The
information ministry used to carry out the responsibility for
documentation of the independence war before the liberation war affairs
ministry was set up in 2001. We did not get any kind of list from the
information ministry,’ he said. ‘We will take necessary steps to have a
concrete and comprehensive list.’
The ministry’s senior assistant secretary Babul Mia said that the list would be prepared before December 14, 2014. (source)