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1971 killing of Bengali intellectuals#14 December executions

{{Short description|War crime by the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971}}

{{EngvarB|date=March 2017}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}

{{Infobox civilian attack

| title = 1971 killing of Bengali intellectuals

| partof = the Bangladesh genocide

| image = 1971 intellectuals.JPG

| image_size = 300px

| alt =

| caption = A sculpture in Meherpur showing the execution of intellectuals by the Pakistan Army in 1971

| map =

| map_size =

| map_alt =

| map_caption =

| location = East Pakistan

| target = Bengali intellectuals

| coordinates =

| date = 25 March, 14 – 16 December 1971

| type = {{flatlist|

}}

| fatalities = 1,111{{Cite Banglapedia|article=Killing of Intellectuals}}

| injuries =

| victims =

| perps = {{Tree list}}

| susperps =

| weapons =

| numparts =

| dfens =

| motive = Anti-Bengali sentiment, destruction of Bengali Intelligentsia

}}

{{Campaignbox Bangladesh Liberation War}}

In 1971, the Pakistan Army and their local collaborators, most notably the extreme right-wing militia group Al-Badr, engaged in the genocide of Bengali intellectuals during the Bangladesh War of 1971. Bengali intellectuals were abducted, tortured and killed during the entire duration of the war as part of the Bangladesh genocide. However, the largest number of systematic executions took place on 25 March and 14 December 1971, two dates that bookend the conflict. 14 December is commemorated in Bangladesh as Martyred Intellectuals Day.

Black Night of 25 March

{{see also|1971 Dhaka University massacre}}

On 25 March 1971, the Pakistan army launched an extermination campaign, codenamed Operation Searchlight, against the Bengali people in East Pakistan.{{cite book |last=Ganguly |first=Sumit |url=https://archive.org/details/conflictunending0000gang/page/60 |title=Conflict Unending: India-Pakistan Tensions Since 1947 |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-231-12369-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/conflictunending0000gang/page/60 60]}} A number of professors, physicians and journalists were abducted from their homes by armed Pakistani soldiers and their local collaborators, and executed during this operation and its aftermath.Annual Report: Dhaka University 1971–72, Dr. Mafijullah Kabir{{cite web |url=https://2001-2009.state.gov/documents/organization/48049.pdf |title=Telegram 978 From the Consulate General in Dacca to the Department of State, March 29, 1971, 1130Z |website=US Department of State |access-date=25 May 2019 |archive-date=21 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421035938/https://2001-2009.state.gov/documents/organization/48049.pdf |url-status=live }}

14 December executions

File:Dead bodies of Bengali intellectuals, 14 December 1971.jpg

As the war neared its end and Pakistani surrender became apparent, the Pakistan Army made a final effort to eliminate the intelligentsia of the new nation of Bangladesh.{{cite news |last=Hensher |first=Philip |title=The war Bangladesh can never forget |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-war-bangladesh-can-never-forget-8501636.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-war-bangladesh-can-never-forget-8501636.html |archive-date=1 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |newspaper=The Independent |date=19 February 2013}}{{cbignore}} On 14 December 1971, over 200 Bengali intellectuals including professors, journalists, doctors, artists, engineers, and writers were abducted from their homes in Dhaka by the Al-Badr militia and the Pakistan Army. Novelist Shahidullah Kaiser and playwright Munier Choudhury were among the victims. They were taken blindfolded to torture cells in Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Nakhalpara, Rajarbagh and other locations in different parts of the city. Later they were executed en masse, most notably at Rayerbazar and Mirpur. In memory of the martyred intellectuals, 14 December is mourned in Bangladesh as Shaheed Buddhijibi Dibosh, or Day of the Martyred Intellectuals.{{cite news |url=http://www.newstoday.com.bd/index.php?option=details&news_id=2331520&date=2012-12-14 |title=DU set to observe Martyred Intellectuals Day, Victory Day |work=News Today |access-date=14 December 2012 |archive-date=14 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214080454/http://www.newstoday.com.bd/index.php?option=details&news_id=2331520&date=2012-12-14 |url-status=dead }}

After the independence of Bangladesh, a list of Bengali intellectuals was discovered in a page of Major General Rao Farman Ali's diary left behind at the Governor's House. The existence of such a list was confirmed by Ali himself although he denied the motive of genocide. The same was also confirmed by Altaf Gauhar, a former Pakistani bureaucrat. He mentioned an incident in which Gauhar asked Ali to remove a friend's name from the list and Ali did so in his presence.{{cite book |last=Mamoon |first=Muntassir |author-link=Muntassir Mamoon |translator-last=Ibrahim |translator-first=Kushal |title=The Vanquished Generals and the Liberation War of Bangladesh |publisher=Somoy Prokashon |date=June 2000 |isbn=984-458-210-5 |page=29}}

Notable victims

Many notable intellectuals who were killed from 25 March to 16 December 1971 in different parts of the country include:

{{Incomplete list|date=December 2015}}

Verdict on the killing

On 3 November 2013, a Special Court in Dhaka has sentenced two former leaders of the al-Badr killing squad to death for war crimes committed in December 1971. Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, based in London, and Ashrafuz Zaman Khan, based in the US, were sentenced in absentia after the court found that they were involved in the abduction and murders of 18 intellectuals – nine Dhaka University professors, six journalists and three physicians – in December 1971. Prosecutors said the killings were carried out between 10 and 15 December, when Pakistan was losing the war in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan), and were part of a campaign intended to strip the new-born nation of its intellectuals.{{cite news |title=UK Muslim leader Chowdhury Mueen Uddin sentenced to death in Bangladesh |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/uk-muslim-leader-chowdhury-mueen-uddin-sentenced-to-death-in-bangladesh-8919895.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/uk-muslim-leader-chowdhury-mueen-uddin-sentenced-to-death-in-bangladesh-8919895.html |archive-date=1 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |newspaper=The Independent |date=3 November 2013}}{{cbignore}}

On 2 November 2014, International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh sentenced Mir Quasem Ali to death for war crimes which include the killings of intellectuals. It was proved in the tribunal that he was a key organiser of the Al-Badr, which planned and executed the killing of the intellectuals on 14 December 1971.{{cite news |title=Bangladesh Islamist party leader files appeal against death penalty |url=http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=255697 |access-date=14 December 2014 |work=Shanghai Daily |archive-date=14 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141214160822/http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=255697 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |title=War trial: Mir Quasem verdict Sunday |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/war-trial-mir-quasem-verdict-sunday-48077 |newspaper=The Daily Star |date=30 October 2014 |access-date=14 December 2014 |archive-date=26 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226083230/https://www.thedailystar.net/war-trial-mir-quasem-verdict-sunday-48077 |url-status=live }}

Statistics

The number of intellectuals killed is estimated in Banglapedia as follows:

  • Academics – 991
  • Physicians – 49
  • Lawyers – 42
  • Journalists – 13
  • Others (litterateurs, artists and engineers) – 16

The district wise break-up of the number of martyred academics and lawyers published in 1972Bangladesh – The Victory Day Memento published by the government of People's Republic of Bangladesh, 16 December 1972; Editor – Syed Ali Ahsan was as follows –

:

class="wikitable"

! rowspan=2| District and division

! colspan=3| Academics

! rowspan=2| Lawyers

Primary

! Secondary

! Higher secondary

Dhaka

| 37

| 8

| 10

| 6

Faridpur

| 27

| 12

| 4

| 3

Tangail

| 20

| 7

| 2

|

Mymensingh

| 46

| 28

| 1

| 2

Dhaka Division

! 130

! 55

! 17

! 10

Chittagong

| 39

| 16

| 7

| 1

Chittagong Hill Tracts

| 9

| 4

| 1

| 1

Sylhet

| 19

| 7

|

| 2

Comilla

| 45

| 33

| 1

| 4

Noakhali

| 26

| 13

| 4

| 2

Chittagong Division

! 138

! 73

! 13

! 10

Khulna

| 48

| 15

| 2

| 2

Jessore

| 55

| 31

| 5

| 4

Barisal

| 50

| 21

| 4

|

Patuakhali

| 3

| 1

|

|

Kushtia

| 28

| 13

| 4

|

Khulna Division

! 184

! 81

! 15

! 6

Rajshahi

| 39

| 8

| 3

| 5

Rangpur

| 41

| 22

| 9

| 4

Dinajpur

| 50

| 10

| 1

| 2

Bogra

| 14

| 12

|

| 2

Pabna

| 43

| 9

| 1

| 2

Rajshahi Division

! 187

! 61

! 14

! 15

Bangladesh

! 639

! 270

! 59

! 41

colspan=5| Martyred academics (not affiliated to universities) = 968
colspan=5| Martyred university teachers = 21
colspan=5| Total martyred academics = 989

Administrative districts and divisions mentioned here are as they were in 1972.

Denial of genocidal intent

In a 2018 article, Christian Gerlach rejected the claims of coordinated attempt to exterminate the Bengali intelligentsia by using statistical measures: "if one accepts the data published by the Bangladesh propaganda ministry, 4.2 per cent of all university professors were killed, along with 1.4 per cent of all college teachers, 0.6 per cent of all secondary and primary school teachers, and 0.6 per cent of all teaching personnel. On the basis of the aforementioned Ministry of Education data, 1.2 per cent of all teaching personnel were killed. This is hardly proof of an extermination campaign."{{cite journal |last1=Gerlach |first1=Christian |title=East Pakistan/Bangladesh 1971–1972: How Many Victims, Who, and Why? |journal=The Civilianization of War the Changing Civil–Military Divide, 1914–2014 |date=20 July 2018 |pages=116–140 |doi=10.1017/9781108643542.007|isbn=9781108643542 }}

Commemoration

{{See also|Martyred Intellectuals Day|Martyred Intellectuals Memorial}}

File:Martyred Intellectuals Memorial Rayerbazar.jpg

Martyred Intellectuals Day is held annually to commemorate the victims. In Dhaka, hundreds of thousands of people walk to Mirpur to lay flowers at the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial. The president and the prime minister of Bangladesh and heads of all three wings of the Bangladesh armed forces pay homage at the memorial.{{cite news |title=Nation observes new-dimension Martyred Intellectuals' Day |url=http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/pm-pays-homage-to-martyred-intellectuals/ |newspaper=The Daily Star |date=14 December 2013 |access-date=14 December 2012 |archive-date=14 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214171437/http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/pm-pays-homage-to-martyred-intellectuals/ |url-status=live }}

See also

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References

{{reflist}}

{{Bangladesh liberation}}

{{Military of Pakistan}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Killing of Bengali intellectuals, 1971}}

Category:Mass murder in 1971

Category:1971 murders in Bangladesh

Category:University of Dhaka

Category:War crimes in Bangladesh

Category:1971 Bangladesh genocide

Category:Pakistani war crimes

Category:Pakistan military scandals

Category:Massacres of Bengalis

Category:Persecution of intellectuals