Martyred Intellectuals Memorial is a memorial built in memory of the martyred intellectuals of the Bangladesh Liberation War. The memorial is located at Rayerbazar, Mohammadpur Thana in Dhaka. The memorial was designed by architect Farid U Ahmed and Jami Al Shafi. The initial proposal for a memorial at Rayer Bazar was brought forward by Projonmo 71, who also laid a temporary foundation stone in 1991.
History of intellectual massacre
During the entire duration of the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, a large number of teachers, doctors, engineers, poets and writers were systematically massacred by the Pakistan Army and their local collaborators, most notably the alleged Islamistmilitia groupsAl-Badr and Al-Shams. The largest number of assassinations took place on 14 December 1971, only two days before the surrender of the Pakistan Army to the joint forces of the Indian army and Mukti bahini. On the night of 14 December 1971, over 200 of East Pakistan's intellectuals including professors, journalists, doctors, artists, engineers, and writers were rounded up in Dhaka. They were taken blindfolded to torture cells in Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Nakhalpara, Rajarbagh and other locations in different sections of the city. They were later 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. Even after the official ending of the war on 16 December, there were reports of hostile fire from the armed Pakistani soldiers and their collaborators. In one such incident, filmmaker Zahir Raihan was killed on 30 January 1972 in Mirpur, allegedly by the armed Beharis of Mirpur. 991 teachers and professors, 49 doctors, 42 lawyers, 13 journalists, and 16 others are estimated to have been killed. Intellectuals who were killed between 25 March and 16 December 1971 in different parts of the country included Govinda Chandra Dev, Munier Chowdhury, Mufazzal Haider Chaudhury, Anwar Pasha, Mohammed Fazle Rabbee, Alim Chowdhury, Shahidullah Kaisar, Nizamuddin Ahmed, Selina Parvin, Altaf Mahmud, Hobibur Rahman, Sukhranjan Somaddar, Mir Abdul Quaiyum, Dhirendranath Datta, Ranadaprasad Saha, Lt. Col. Moazzem Hossain, Mamun Mahmood, and many others.
The main element of the monument is approximately 17.7 m high, 0.9 m thick and 115.8 m long curved brick wall, representing the original brickfield of Rayer Bazar where the dead bodies were found. The wall is broken at the two ends, representing grief and sorrow. A square window at the south-west side of the wall permits visitor's view to reach the sky behind, that also scale down the wall. In front of the curved wall is a still water body from which rises a black granite column, which represents grief.
