Investigating the killing of intellectuals in Bangladesh’s struggle for independence: A study of a martyred intellectual

Abstract

In 1947, the partition of India into two states, India and Pakistan, took place. After the establishment of the state of Pakistan, the Pakistani rulers started colonising the people of East Pakistan. As a result, political, economic and social disparity between the Bengali population of East Pakistan and the Pakistani rulers continued to increase. During that period, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the undisputed leader of Bengal, appeared as the savior. He made common people aware of Pakistani rulers. Along with this, the intellectual class started writing against the misrule and discrimination of the rulers. M. A. Muktadir was a similar intellectual teacher at Dhaka University in the Department of Geology. He was politically aware, so he started discussing various issues on the Pakistani ruler with the students and people around him. Thus, he became an enemy of the Pakistani government, and on the night of March 25, 1971, when the Pakistani military carried out a mass killing of unarmed Bengalis, MA Muktadir was targeted and killed from his home. This way, the Pakistani government wanted to turn Bangladesh into a talentless nation.