The New Nation - Internet Edition

WITH the celebration of the historic Victory Day only a day away, the nation today mourns once again the martyrdom of the most illustrious sons of the soil who were murdered by the occupation forces and their collaborators when they sensed their defeat in our War of Independence in 1971. Accounts of the families of the martyred intellectuals indicate that the collaborator forces of Al-Badr made a list of the intellectuals in a systematic way and killed them with the malicious intention of crippling the nation intellectually. The intellectuals were called out of their residences in different parts of the city and taken to the Rayer Bazaar killing ground.

Nobody knows for sure when another philosopher of Prof. GC Dev's stature, or a litterateur of the like of 'Prof Munir Chowdhury would be born again on this soil. Shahidullah Kaiser, Jotirmoy Guha Thakurta, Dr Fazle Rabbi were all legends in their own fields of concentration. The occupation forces knew about their patriotism and their potentials to contribute to the growth and development of the nation born through a glorious War of Liberation. When the occupation forces saw their surrender to the allied forces imminent they committed the most heinous crime of murdering the unarmed intellectuals who posed no threat to their security. Some of the bereaved families found bodies of Shaheed Intellectuals after the surrender of the Pakistani occupation troops. Some other families could not trace bodies of the intellectuals and only recalled the memories of how they were picked up by the collaborators of the occupation army before they were taken to undisclosed destinations.

A grateful nation observes the Shaheed Intellects Day today to pay respects to the most illustrious, sons of the soil. They did not live to see the liberation-of Bangladesh, but their ideals inspired the war of liberation and are continuing to inspire the nation to achieve the ideals they cherished. The intellectuals dreamt of a democratic Bangladesh where the people could enjoy all rights and achieve progress and prosperity in economic spheres. They looked forward to seeing a society where there would be no exploitation of man by man, and no discrimination between man and man. Their dream of a democratic Bangladesh has been established through the enactment of a consensus Constitution in 1991. But in the absence of political tolerance and corruption the democratic system faces obstacles from time to time. The nation has also surged ahead a long way towards economic development with the economic growth rate being above six per cent, and more positive outlook being forecast by relevant national and international agencies. International banking finance organisation Goldman Sachs has ranked Bangladesh among the next 11 countries which would turn developed in the next one decade and a half. Foreign big businesses and multinationals are showing interest to invest in Bangladesh. But while all the indicators are in the positive, the inability of the political leaders to accommodate themselves not only hurt the nation but also dampened the enthusiasm of the people to work even harder to develop the country. On this day our leaders should take oath that they would not continue to fail the nation.