The nation observed the Martyred Intellectuals Day yesterday paying tributes to the intellectuals killed systematically by the Pakistan occupation army and their local  collaborators at the fag-end of the country's Liberation War in 1971, reports UNB. Renowned academics, doctors, engineers, journalists, teachers and other eminent personalities were dragged out of their homes, blindfolded, and taken to unknown places and then brutally tortured and slaughtered on the day in 1971. Sensing an imminent defeat, the Pakistani occupation army and their local collaborators carried out the cold-blooded mass murders under a carefully thought-out plan to cripple the emerging Bangladesh intellectually.
The government held elaborate programmes commemorating the December 14 tragedy. Besides, different socio-cultural and political organisations observed the day with elaborate programmes. President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid profound tributes to martyred intellectuals by placing wreaths at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial at Mirpur on the occasion of Martyred Intellectuals Day  The President and the Prime Minister stood there in solemn silence for some time.
Sheikh Hasina, also the President of Bangladesh Awami League, laid another wreath at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial as the party chief. Besides, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also paid rich tribute to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by placing a wreath at his portrait in front of Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi today. Meanwhile, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia paid tributes to martyred intellectuals by placing wreaths at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial at Mirpur. Khaleda Zia placed wreaths at 10:20am to pay her homage to the great heroes, who sacrificed their lives for the cause of the country and the nation.