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The nation still awaits a comprehensive list of its intellectuals killed by the Pakistani occupation army and their local collaborators to deprive the people, who were at war for independence, of their intellectual leadership. 

The nation is still in dark about the number of its bright sons and daughters who made their supreme sacrifice for the independence of the country as successive governments in the 53 years of independence could not finalise the list of intellectuals martyred during the war of independence. 

Families of the martyred intellectuals accused the successive governments of sheer neglect as they, along with the nation, observe Martyred Intellectuals Day today.

It is extremely regrettable that the nation is yet to have a complete list of martyred intellectuals and professionals, Martyred intellectual Munier Chowdhury’s son Asif Munier told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·.

‘Our expectations have not been fulfilled and the discussion on the martyred intellectuals is limited to the observance of the intellectuals day,’ he said.

‘Our fathers made supreme sacrifice for the state, so, I think the initiative should come from the state, not only from our families only.’

After 49 years of independence, the previous Awami league government in November 2020 formed an 11-member committee to finalise the list of martyred intellectuals. 

The committee, however, failed to publish a full list of the martyred intellectuals in the past four years.

Committee member retired Lieutenant Colonel Quazi Sazzad Ali Zahir, Bir Protik, said, ‘We tried our level best to complete the job but there were some challenges to identify the martyred intellectuals due to the long gap of time.’

Based on the committee findings, the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs has published the names of 560 martyred intellectuals in four phases so far, he said.

Now, the work of the committee has stopped after the fall of the AL government, he said adding, ‘I hope the committee or a new committee would work to complete the list.’

On April 7, 2021, the ministry published the first list containing the names of 191 martyred intellectuals, followed by the second list of 143 on May 29, 2022, the third list of 108 on February 15, 2024 and the fourth list of 118 martyred intellectuals in March 2024.

Of the total 560 martyred intellectuals include 198 teachers, 113 doctors, 51 lawyers, 40 engineers, 37 government and private employees, 29 social workers, 20 politicians, 18 journalists, 18 litterateurs, 3 scientists, 1 philosopher, 1 researcher, and 1 painter.

Apart from this, 30 cultural activists and individuals  associated with film, drama, music and other branches of liberal arts are also  on the list of martyred intellectuals.

Earlier, the liberation war affairs ministry also formed a committee to compile a list of collaborators of the marauding  Pakistan military but there was no progress till now.

Adviser for the liberation war affairs ministry Faruk-e Azam told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· on Wednesday that there was no list of Razakars at the ministry and making one would be nearly impossible.

‘I have not received any files regarding the list of Razakars. The secretary has confirmed that the ministry has no copy or related documents,’ Azam said.

He said, ‘Even if we want, it is not feasible to make a list of Razakars or Freedom Fighters. Compiling such a list from events that occurred 50 years ago, without reliable documentation, is an extremely difficult task.’

The ministry has no complete and comprehensive list of martyred intellectuals but figures provided by various government and private documents is 1,111.

Independence war researchers believe that even the figure 1,111 was not correct and it should be 10 times the number.

Shaheed Buddhijibi Koshgrantha, a biographical encyclopedia of martyred intellectuals published by the Bangla Academy, defined intellectuals as writers, scientists, artistes, singers, teachers from universities to primary schools, researchers, journalists, lawyers, physicians, engineers, architects, sculptors, government and non-government staff, people involved in film making and theatre, and social and cultural activists.

When their defeat appeared imminent towards the end of the war, the Pakistani occupation army and their local auxiliaries 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.

Members of the Buddhijibi Nidhan Tathyanusandhan Committee, set up in 1972, had made a list of 20,000 of the finest minds of the nation who were killed.

Shaheed Buddhijibi Koshgrantha, reprinted in 1994, put the number of intellectuals executed then at 232, but said that the list was neither complete nor comprehensive.

The book 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.

‘Bangladesh,’ a documentary publication of the government in 1972, said that the Pakistani occupation army and the local death squads had killed 1,109 — 21 university teachers, 59 college teachers, 270 secondary school teachers, 637 primary school teachers, 50 physicians, 41 lawyers and 13 journalists and 16 others.

Banglapedia, or the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh, estimated that 1,111 intellectuals were killed.

Families of martyred intellectuals alleged that Chowdhury Mueenuddin and Ashrafuzzaman Khan, two Al-Badr leaders found guilty of killing 18 intellectuals, including journalists, university teachers, and physicians, by an International Crimes Tribunal-2 on November 3, 2013, were now currently living in the United Kingdom and the United States, respectively. 

There is little progress in bringing back Mueenuddin and Ashrafuzzaman, the only convicts for killing martyred intellectuals.

The families alleged that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the deposed AL government did not take any official steps to bring the duo back to the country and execute the sentence.