President, PM pay respect to martyred intellectuals

They urged the people from all strata to come forward to build a knowledge-based society, reports BSS. In his message, President Abdul Hamid said intellectuals played a very significant role and worked as the conscience of the nation in advancing the Liberation War towards its successful end. He said it is unfortunate that the occupation forces brutally killed them just on the eve of the victory. The president also called upon all to be imbued with the spirit of patriotism of the martyred intellectuals and work together to develop a merit-based nation. In a separate message, Prime Minister Sheikh said the anti-liberation forces wanted to deprive the nation of its best intellectual wealth by killing them. The nation lost the best sons of the soil in the massacre, she added. Prof Mofazzal Haidar Chowdhury of Department of Bangla at Dhaka University, Prof Munir Chowdhury, Prof Anwar Pasha, Prof Shahidullah Kaisar, Prof Gias Uddin, Dr Fazle Rabbi, Abdul Alim Chowdhury, Siraj Uddin Hossain, Selina Parveen and Dr Joytirmay Guha Thakurada were among those who were killed by the occupation forces and their collaborators on December 14. She said: "I pay deep respect to their memory and express profound sympathies to the bereaved members of their families." "We have brought the killers of the martyred intellectuals to trial and the verdicts of some war criminals have already been implemented. Verdicts of other war criminals must also be implemented," Hasina said. The country will be freed from stigma through implementation of all judgment of war crime cases, the prime minister added. She also called upon the people of the country to come forward and work together to build "Sonar Bangla" as was dreamt by the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.