Shahid Buddhijibi Sriti Shoudho

14th December is observed as Martyred Intellectuals Day every year in Bangladesh. The best brains of the country were killed on 14th December, 1971 and to commemorate their death the people in our country pay respect to them on this day. Shahid Buddhijibi Graveyard or Martyr Intellectuals. Graveyard is the place where the remains of intellectuals who were murdered by Pakistan Army and their collaborators in 1971.

So this is a common place to gather on Shahid Buddhijibi Day. During the Liberation War of Bangladesh the retreating Pakistan army, certain of their defeat, chalked out a heinous plan to eliminate the Bengali intelligentsia. Killing of Intellectuals was one of the most brutal and savage carnages in the history of Bangladesh. It was a planned killing of the Bangali intellectuals- educationists, journalists, litterateurs, physicians, scientists, lawyers, artists, philosophers and political thinkers - executed by a group of collaborators under the directive and guidance of the Pakistani military rulers during the war of liberation in 1971. The blue print of crippling the intelligentsia is said to have been chalked out by Major General Rao Farman Ali, the military adviser to the governor of East Pakistan.

The armed cadres of al-badr, a para-military force, are alleged to have executed the brutal killing having been provided with arms and support by the Pakistan army. The main spots of execution in Dhaka city were the marshy land at Rayerbazar near Mohammadpur and another at Mirpur, where a huge number of dead bodies were found scattered in the ditches, plains and inside the heaps of bricks. The dead bodies, eyes covered and hands tied, were found wounded and swelled all over their bodies and bullet shots on the chest, head or back. The number of intellectuals killed is estimated as follows: educationists 991, journalists 13, physicians 49, lawyers 42, others (litterateur, artist and engineer) 16.

After the victory over Pakistan, the Bangladesh government constructed a monument at the place at Mirpur where the decomposed bodies of the martyr intellectuals were found. On 14th December the people gather at the Mirpur Badhya Bhumi to mourn the deaths of the best brains of the country. The political parties hold processions to the place. Many onther cultural and intellectual groups also hold processions and march towards the Badhya Bhumi. There is a scent of sadness in the air throughout the day as people sing patriotic songs remembering the martyrs.

Address: Rayerbazar, Mohammadpur Thana