No comprehensive list in 5 decades

The government's initiative to prepare a complete list of martyred intellectuals is advancing at a snail's pace. And so, the nation is still in the dark about the exact number of luminaries killed during the Liberation War.

Two years ago, the Ministry of Liberation War Affairs formed a committee to make the list and scrutinise the names of martyred intellectuals proposed by the public administration and individuals.

The ministry has so far published two gazettes mentioning the names of 334 intellectuals, based on recommendations of that committee.

The committee is now reviewing names of another 300 and is likely to sit in a meeting later this month with the aim of publishing the third gazette.

"We are not going that slow. Scrutiny requires some time," Khaja Miah, secretary at the ministry, told The Daily Star.

"It is a continuous process. We have already published two gazettes. We need to publish more names, as there are many applications still pending," he said. "These applications came through district administrations and individuals."

The Pakistani army, with the help of local collaborators, abducted and killed the country's leading intellectuals, who were the guiding light for Bangalees, from the night of March 25, 1971.

Faced with impending defeat, the Pakistan army killed more and more luminaries in the days ahead of December 16, to cripple the future nation intellectually.

These shining individuals were instrumental in the mass movements against the widespread disparity and oppressive Pakistani rulers. The movements ultimately contributed to the Liberation War efforts.

Sadly, even 51 years after the country's independence, the nation is still in the dark about how many of these luminaries were martyred.

Against this backdrop, on November 19, 2020, the ministry finally formed an 11-member committee -- comprising freedom fighters, Liberation War researchers, and government officials -- to prepare the list. The committee later set up a sub-committee to scrutinise applications.

In its first meeting in December 2020, the committee approved 1,222 names for the primary list. Of them, 1,070 are names the ministry already had, and 152 were obtained from postal stamps issued in the name of martyred intellectuals at various times.

Names of intellectuals are available in "Shaheed Buddhijibi Koshgrantha", a biographical encyclopaedia of martyred intellectuals prepared by Bangla Academy; "Bangladesh", a documentary of the government in 1972; "Banglapedia"; and postal stamps.

Littérateurs, philosophers, scientists, artists, teachers, researchers, journalists, lawyers, physicians, engineers, architects, sculptors, government and non-government employees, politicians, social workers, cultural activists, musicians, and people involved in film-making, theatre and arts, who were killed by the Pakistani forces or went missing between March 25, 1971 and January 31, 1972, are being defined as martyred intellectuals, said Chowdhury Shahid Kader, one of the committee members and associate professor of history at Jagannath University.

Following the committee's recommendation, the government in May 2021, published names of 191 martyred intellectuals, and in May this year, published names of 143 more.

A sub-committee member said the ministry has received around 1,000 applications for the list. It is now reviewing 300 such names to publish in the third gazette.

Shahriar Kabir, president of Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, also a member of the ministry-formed committee, said they are emphasising on finding the martyred intellectuals in upazila towns and other places.

EMPTY PLEDGES

On February 6, 2014, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq told parliament that a complete list of martyred intellectuals would be published by June that year.

The ministry then sent letters to deputy commissioners of all 64 districts, seeking names of intellectuals, but the DCs reportedly did not send in names because the definition for a martyred intellectual was not clear.

On December 14, 2016, Mozammel said the ministry would publish a book containing the names of all martyred intellectuals, but this book, too, is yet to be published.

"Shaheed Buddhijibi Koshgrantha" listed 328 martyred intellectuals. The government documentary "Bangladesh" said 1,109 intellectuals were martyred. "Banglapedia" estimated that 1,111 intellectuals have been killed.

Many war researchers, however, said the total number of martyred intellectuals could be much higher. The members of Buddhijibi Nidhan Tathyanusandhan Committee, set up in 1972, had made a primary list of 20,000 intellectuals who were killed.