Frustration among the families of martyred intellectuals is increasing year by year as the government is yet to compile a complete list of these intellectuals who fell victim to targeted killings at the hands of the Pakistani army and its local collaborators during the War of Independence in 1971.

‘It is a very important task to make a full list of martyred intellectuals to ensure their proper honour. But we do not see any sincere effort from the government in this regard,’ Nuzhat Choudhury, daughter of Abdul Alim Chaudhury, one of the martyred intellectuals during the 1971 War of Independence, told FP.

She said that ensuring justice for these brutal killings was a fundamental responsibility of the Bangladesh government, but the families of the martyred intellectuals were still crying for justice.

Martyred musician and freedom fighter Altaf Mahmud’s daughter, Shaon Mahmud, said that Bangladesh celebrated 50 years of the country’s victory against the Pakistani occupation forces, yet the governments did not prepare a complete  list of martyred intellectuals.

‘This failure is frustrating for us as well as the people of Bangladesh’ she said.

Expressing her disappointment over the issue, she said that the governments were busy with ‘physical development’ works, ignoring some fundamental tasks like preparing lists of freedom fighters, martyred intellectuals, and collaborators.

The son of martyred intellectual Munier Chowdhury, Asif Munier, said that it was regrettable that the nation did not yet have a complete list of martyred intellectuals and professionals.

In March 2021, the government published a corrected partial list of freedom fighters and a fresh list of martyred intellectuals, with the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and four other national leaders at the top of the list.

The liberation war affairs ministry, in the first phase, recognised 1,47,537 persons as freedom fighters and 191 persons as martyred intellectuals.

In 2020, 49 years after independence, the liberation war affairs ministry formed a committee to compile a list of martyred intellectuals, and the committee, in its first meeting, decided to define martyred intellectuals based on the definitions contained in Shaheed Buddhijibi Kosh published by the Bangla Academy and Banglapedia brought out by the Asiatic Society.

According to Bangla Academy’s Shaheed Buddhijibi Kosh, martyred intellectuals are those writers, scientists, artists, teachers, researchers, journalists, lawyers, doctors, engineers, architects, government and non-government employees, people involved in film and theatre work, social workers and cultural activists, who were victims of targeted killings at the hands of the Pakistani army and their collaborators during the war in 1971.

Banglapedia applied the term ‘martyred intellectual’ to those educationists, journalists, litterateurs, physicians, scientists, lawyers, artists, philosophers and political thinkers, who were executed by collaborators under the directive and guidance of the Pakistani military rulers in 1971.

The government in November 2020 formed an 11-member committee comprising renowned researchers, freedom fighters, and cultural activists as its members, to finalise the list of martyred intellectuals.

Families of martyred intellectuals, freedom fighters and members of civil society welcomed the government’s move but at the same time expressed their frustration over the absence of such a list for so many years.

They said that the contributions of the martyred intellectuals were marginalised after independence, even though they created the grounds for independence through their literary works, music, and various other creative forms and social activities.

In December 1972, the government published a partial list of 1,111 martyred intellectuals, including 991 teachers, 13 journalists, 49 physicians, 42 lawyers, and 16 writers, as victims of a systematic execution campaign carried out by the Pakistani army and their collaborators between March 25, 1971, and January 30, 1972.

Most years, in December, the authorities concerned announce that they will bring back convicted war criminals Chowdhury Moinuddin and Ashrafuzzaman to the country, said families of martyred intellectuals, adding that the nation now sees no hope of a trial of the killers of martyred intellectuals.