Bangladesh: Their supreme sacrifice remembered, intellectuals, mercilessly killed by the Pakistani occupation army

On this very painful day, we remember and grieve the lives of our brightest intellectuals, mercilessly killed by the Pakistani occupation army and its local collaborators on the eve of victory in 1971. It was a systematic, if desperate, attempt to deal one last blow to the emerging nation:  to deny it its intellectual wealth and cripple its progress. And so, between December 12 and 14, they picked up and put to death the luminaries of intellectual world -- our academics, doctors, civil servants, cultural activists and journalists.

Although 43 years later, we stand strong as an independent nation, we observe the sad truth that the void their cruel and untimely deaths left behind is yet to be filled. On this day, it is not enough to simply mourn their deaths, if we don't also remember their lives -- their dreams of and sacrifices for a democratic and just Bangladesh. We, individually and collectively, must emulate their unparalleled devotion to the motherland and its people, and draw renewed strength from them to sustain us on our journey toward the creation of a just, egalitarian and secular Bangladesh.

Today, as we pay homage to the martyred intellectuals, we are grateful that the long awaited process of justice has begun to bring some semblance of closure to the grieving families as well as to the nation at large. There is, however, a long way to go before we can honour the memory of our martyrs through ensuring that their killers answer for the heinous crimes committed in 1971.