The last battlefield
The Dainik Bangla on January 31, 1972 mentioned the shooting in Mirpur.
Across the country, red-green flags were fluttering over buildings euphoria was in the air following the end of a nine-month-long bloody war.
But Dhaka s Mirpur was yet not taken by Bangladesh forces almost six weeks after the Pakistan military had unconditionally surrendered to the joint command of Bangladesh and Indian forces on December 16, 1971.
The area remained under the control of pro-Pakistan Biharis, the Urdu-speaking Muslim community who migrated from Bihar and West Bengal during and after the Partition.
Mirpur was finally freed on January 31, 1972 but at a heavy cost over a hundred martyred and dozens of others injured in a fierce battle on the previous day.
খাল কেটে যেন কুমির না আনি bdnews24.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bdnews24.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
They were the country s leading intelligentsia who were the guiding light for Bangalees. These brightest sons and daughters of the soil were instrumental in the mass movements against the disparity and repressive measures of the Pakistani rulers and contributed to the 1971 Liberation War efforts.
But, faced with impending defeat, the Pakistan army, aided by their bootlicker local collaborators, planned and brutally killed them to cripple the future nation intellectually so that it could never stand tall.
Sadly, 49 years after the country s independence, the nation is still in the dark about how many of these luminaries faced martyrdom lacking a comprehensive and final list of martyred intellectuals or even a definition of the term.