1971 killing of Bengali intellectuals
Part of the 1971 Bangladesh genocide
A sculpture in Meherpur showing the execution of intellectuals by the Pakistan Army in 1971
Location	East Pakistan
Date	25 March, 14 – 16 December 1971
Target	Bengali intellectuals
Attack type	Deportation, ethnic cleansing, mass murder
Deaths	1,111[1]
Perpetrators	Pakistan Army Rao Farman Ali Jamaat-e-Islami Shanti committee Razakars Al-Badr Al-Shams

In 1971, the Pakistan Army and their local collaborators, most notably the extreme right wing militia group Al-Badr, engaged in the systematic execution of Bengali intellectuals during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. Bengali intellectuals were abducted, tortured and killed during the entire duration of the war as part of the 1971 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

On 25 March 1971, Pakistan army launched an extermination campaign, codenamed Operation Searchlight, against the Bengali people in East Pakistan.^[2] 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.^[3][4]

14 December executions

Dead bodies of Bengali intellectuals found on 15 December 1971

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.^[5] 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. Notable 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.^[6]

It is widely speculated that the killings of 14 December were orchestrated by Major General Rao Farman Ali. After the liberation of Bangladesh a list of Bengali intellectuals (most of whom were executed on 14 December) was discovered in a page of his 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.^[7]

Notable victims

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

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 newborn nation of its intellectuals.^[43]

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.^[44][45]

Statistics

The number of intellectuals killed is estimated in Banglapedia^[1] as follows:

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

The district wise break-up of the number of martyred academicians and lawyers published in 1972^[46] was as follows –

District and division	Academics			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
Martyred academicians (not affiliated to universities) = 968
Martyred university teachers = 21
Total martyred academicians = 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."^[47]

Commemoration

Part of the east-south side of the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial

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.^[48]

See also

• 1971 Dhaka University massacre
• Katyn massacre
• Deportation of Armenian intellectuals on 24 April 1915

References