DHAKA: President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid rich tributes to the nation’s glorious sons, placing floral wreaths at the Martyred Intellectuals’ Memorial at Mirpur in the city Sunday morning.

14 December is being observed as the Martyred Intellectuals Day to commemorate the systematic execution of Bengali pro-liberation intellectuals during the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971 by the Pakistan Army and their local collaborators, most notably the Al-Badr.

The great sons of the soil were killed with an evil motive to make the Bengali nation meritless just two days before the country earned its victory.

People from all walks of life are paying their pride-filled respects to the memorial in the morning.

On the occasion of the Day, President, premier, and Leader of the Opposition Rowshan Ershad, in separate messages, recalled the martyred intellectuals’ great contribution to the development of national consciousness.

In his message, the President also urged the people to come forward being inspired with the spirit of Liberation War to build a knowledge-based happy and prosperous country.

He said intellectuals had played a very significant role and worked as the conscience of the nation in advancing the Liberation War towards the successful end.

But it is unfortunate for the nation, the President said, the occupation forces had brutally killed those intellectuals, including academics, physicians, litterateurs, journalists, artists and such other professionals at the peak hours of the victory.

The main aim of the occupation forces was to make the nation intellectually crippled, he added.

BDST: 0838 HRS, DEC 14, 2014