1971: Another chapter in world history once intellectuals were targeted

1971: Another chapter in world history once intellectuals were targeted

12:00 AM, December fourteen, 2018 / LAST MODIFIED: 06:44 PM, December fourteen, 2018 
  

Rayer Bazar Boddho Bhumi

          
"We name individuals Jews or Gypsies, or distinguish them by colors or dress, and apply them to members of teams." Dr. Gregory H. Stanton articulated the given instance to elucidate “symbolisation” that is one in all the 10 stages of kill. This stage is anxious with giving names or symbols to the members of a selected cluster with a read to committing kill against them.
Adolf Hitler symbolised the Polish intellectuals throughout the globe War II (WWII) and dead intelligenzaktion pommern that was a Nazi German operation aimed toward the elimination of the intellectuals. This situation ostensibly photos the 1971 operation liquidation wanted and enforced by the Pakistani Army and their native collaborators (e.g. Razakar, Al-Badr, Al-Shams). the identical incidents happened, among all, in Asian country throughout 1915 and Asian nation throughout the Nineteen Seventies. The foremost commonality of of these kill is that a lot of lecturers, politicians, poets, writers, teachers, doctors; journalists were targeted then killed by the perpetrators.
Raphael Lemkin coined the term “genocide” for the primary time in 1944 that has been derived from the Greek term genos (i.e. race, tribe, or nation) and also the Latin term cide (i.e. killing). The 1948 Convention on the hindrance and penalisation of the Crime of kill (hereinafter remarked because the kill Convention) defines kill as committing any of the acts like 'killing members of the cluster'; 'causing serious bodily or mental hurt to members of the cluster'; 'deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to create its physical destruction in whole or partially'; 'imposing measures meant to stop births among the group'; and 'forcibly transferring kids of the group to a different group' with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or non secular cluster (Article 2).
Even though the term kill itself is of a replacement derivation, its observe contains a long time period. The incidents of kill since the social control of the 1948 kill Convention embrace Australian "Stolen Generations" (1910 - 1970s), 1st Sudanese warfare (1955 - 1972), Brazilian Indian kill (1957 – 1968), Asian country (1959 - 1966), Rwanda (1962 - 1963), island Revolution (1964), land (1965 -1967), Nigerian-Biafran War (1967 - 1970), Aché Indians (1968 - 1978), Central American nation (1968 - 1996), Bangla Desh (1971), Uganda (1971 - 1979), Burundi (1972), Asian nation (1975 - 1979), Second Sudanese warfare (1983 - 2005), Ceylon (1983 - 2009), Khojaly Massacre (1992), Bosnia and Herzegovina and Herzegovina (1992 - 1995), Rwanda (1994), DPRK (Mid Nineties - present), Darfur (2003- present), Mass Atrocities in Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (2011), Yemen (2011), Syrian Arab Republic (2011 - present).
 

Rayer Bazar Boddho Bhumi

     
Rayer Bazar killing fields. COURTESY: LIBERATION WAR deposit Photo: Aftab Ahmed
The killings of intellectuals by the perpetrators sometimes happen throughout the start of each kill. it's conjointly termed as eliticide or elitocide that refers to 'the killing of the leadership, the educated, and also the priesthood of a group'. Among all the given instances, there are some genocides during which it's evident that the intellectuals were thought-about principally a “national group” and thenceforth, killed by the perpetrators with associate degree intention to destroy the identical.
During the Armenian kill on twenty four April 1915, just about 250 doctors, lawyers, politicians, brass, teachers, writers, poets and different Armenian intellectuals were inactive long and killed among seventy two hours. after, about 2,345 Armenian intellectuals were inactive and killed in metropolis. At present, April twenty four is discovered because the annual commemoration day of the Armenian kill.
At the time of the WWII, an idea referred to as intelligenzaktion pommern was created to destroy the Polish intellectuals and elites comprising lecturers, doctors, priests, and community leaders. The Germans together with Hitler regarded them as threats to their operations of occupying Europe as a result of they appreciated that these individuals may persuade Poles to refuse to accommodates their new German leaders' commands. As a result, they killed quite zero.1 million Polish intellectuals and elites until one940.
Afterwards, beneath the range of the AB-Aktion, second stage of the Nazi Germany campaign, the perpetrators began to disappear and kill the intellectuals moreover because the class Poles. beneath this arrange, they inactive quite seven,000 Polish lecturers, priests, and community leaders and killed them in numerous places of the Palmiry Forest. It ought to be mentioned that the Nazis dead each the plans so as to destroy the leaderships of the Poles.
In Asian nation, throughout the rule of politico Pot and also the FTO, associate degree anti-intellectualism arrange was adopted with a read to oppressing the persons United Nations agency accustomed oppose the political choices. Specifically, the teachers or the folks that accustomed simply wear eyeglasses were targeted and thenceforth, killed in many places of Asian nation. it's alleged that quite 1,000,000 individuals were killed and buried by the FTO throughout the Nineteen Seventies. This Cambodian kill is loosely thought-about one in all the samples of state-sponsored kill of the globe.
From the preceding genocidal experiences, it looks that the Bangla Desh kill together with the killings of intellectuals is one in all the foremost inhuman actions committed by the Pakistani Army. On Annunciation Day, 1971, Operation light source was launched by the Pakistani Army with the aim of disarming and liquidating Bengali policemen, troopers and military officers; and to arrest, kill and collect professionals, intellectuals, and students. Right once the aforesaid operation, Bangabandhu ruler Mujibur Rahman declared independence of Bangla Desh within the early hour of March twenty six, 1971. now at that time, he was inactive by the Pakistani authorities.
From then on, the Liberation War continued for long 9 months (March 1971 - sixteen December 1971). during this entire amount, the Pakistani Army and their native collaborators continued to commit large and perennial horrific atrocities directed against the Bengali civilian public however didn't frustrate the movement for independence.
The then President Yahya Khan at the Feb conference: declared "[k]ill 3 million of them and also the rest can eat of our hands" that is considered a campaign of kill.
It has become a settled truth that following this campaign, just about 3 million Bangalee individuals were killed, about 300,000 girls were raped, and nearly ten million individuals were deported to Asian country as refugees by the Pakistani Army with the substantive contribution of their native collaborators. additionally, the Pakistani army together with their native collaborators displaced scores of individuals internally, and that they ruined properties of the overall population of the then Bangladesh in associate degree unequalled manner. once such war for the explanation for independence and self-determination, we have a tendency to finally achieved our triumph on December sixteen, 1971.
   

National Monument of Bangladesh

However, we have a tendency to cannot forget the atrocities initiated by the Operation light source on Annunciation Day, 1971. The Pakistani Army started exterminating several teams like nationalist intellectuals, lecturers and students, cultural figures, media employees, and even sports figures to destroy the Bengali nationalism in an exceedingly single stroke. Again, they created an idea named Operation Liquidation to kill solely the Bengali intellectuals. the most important range of killings of intellectuals passed on Annunciation Day and December fourteen, 1971. during this regard, a well known research worker on kill, R.J. Rummel, pointed out: "In Bangladesh [General Aga Muhammad Yahya Khan and his prime generals] conjointly planned to murder its Bengali intellectual, cultural, and political elite. They conjointly planned to indiscriminately murder many thousands of its Hindus and drive the remainder into Asian country. and that they planned to destroy its economic base to insure that it'd be subordinate to Islamic Republic of Pakistan for a minimum of a generation to come back."
The events of killing the intellectuals throughout the 1971 Liberation War of Bangla Desh raise 3 specific queries regarding the perpetrators, the places, moreover as manners of doing the identical.
First of all, with respect to the question on United Nations agency were to blame for killing the intellectuals, Lawrence Lifschultz in his book titled, Bangladesh: The Unfinished Revolution depicts, "[t]he Al-Badr organisation, a passionate non secular cluster that operated as a paramilitary arm to the Asian nation Army in 1971, was to blame for a number of the worst killings throughout the war, significantly of nationalist intellectuals." Correspondingly, in an exceedingly report titled, Butchery By Al-Badr, circulated within the national, New Delhi, on December twenty three, 1971 states: "when the Pakistanis were flooded, they left the killing to the fascist Al-Badr, the armed wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami. This fascist body has already butchered concerning two hundred leading intellectuals, doctors, professors and scientists..." moreover, in associate degree interview, Mr. John Stonehouse, a British Labour M.P., explicit to Press Trust of Asian country (PTI) in Indian capital on December twenty, 1971 that, 'during his visit to capital of Bangladesh yesterday (December 19), he got the names of those Pakistani army officers United Nations agency unionized the murders, and members of Al-Badr, associate degree extremist Muslim cluster, United Nations agency disbursed these grievous crimes [of killing of intellectuals] simply before the surrender of Pakistani forces in capital of Bangladesh.'
Secondly, a report titled, Choranter Chanchollokor Dolil, printed within the daily Purbadesh on December twenty two, 1971 depicts a secret meeting command in Mohammadpur, Dacca on nine August 1971 which ends up in killing many intellectuals in numerous places together with Dacca. A book titled Ekattorer Ghatok Dalalra Ke Kothay, reveals that the perpetrators accustomed abduct the intellectuals blind United Nations agency were brought at the Al-Badr headquarters founded at the Mohammadpur Physical college and butchered at the close mass graves. it's been evident that the Mohammadpur Physical coaching Institute was a “Torture Camp” wherever most of the targeted intellectuals were brought once being picked up blind from their home.
Finally, it's usually known to the folks that the intellectuals of Bangla Desh were killed to be drop at the riverside brickyard. a lot of specifically, the most spots of execution in Dacca town were the muddy land at Rayerbazar close to Mohammadpur and another at Mirpur in an especially barbaric manner. it's principally been detected that they were either shot within the head or buried alive with their hands tied back. Some had their eyes plucked off too.
Data shows that just about eighty p.c of the intellectuals of Dacca were killed and lots of of the distorted corpses were barely identifiable. However, there are another places like "the Thataribazar geographical area, Bosila Etakhola (now Kaderabad housing in Mohammadpur), Shirnirtek geographical area, Lohar Bridge geographical area at Gabtali (beside Amin Bazaar bridge), many mass graves in Mohammadpur, the geographical area in Rokeya Hall of Dacca University, the mass grave in Adabor and also the geographical area in Sharengbari in Mirpur that don't have any mark or sign of identification." As a matter of truth, we have a tendency to sometimes comprehend Rayerbazar and Mirpur Boddho Bhumi as intellectuals killing ground.
Just like different genocides round the world, the Bengali intellectuals were killed for the aim of constructing Bangla Desh a talentless State. within the case of the International Crimes assembly of Bangla Desh (ICT-BD) regarding Ashrafuzzaman and Chowdhury Mueen Uddin (ICT-BD (I) of 2013), Ali Ahsan Muhammad Muhammedan (ICT-BD (IV) of 2012), and Motiur Rahman Nizami (ICT-BD (III) of 2011), it's already been iterated and proved that the persons of various professions particularly professors, journalists, activists, doctors, artists, writers, engineers, civil servants then on were targeted chiefly as “national group”. These cases conjointly indicate that they were killed with associate degree intention to destroy the Bengali national cluster as they were the folks that accustomed promote and seed the spirit of nationalism within the heart of the Bengalis through numerous social and cultural activities.
The strategy of intellectual killings isn't new just in case of genocides because it is seen that it happened throughout Armenian kill, WWII, moreover as Cambodian kill. In 1971, the Bengali intellectuals were massacred simply because they were the bearers of the nation's intellect and conscience of our nation.
The writer is presently operating as Lecturer at the Department of Law, East West University. he's conjointly a Volunteer and research worker at the middle for the Study of kill and Justice (CSGJ), Liberation War deposit, Bangladesh.

REFERENCES
Books and Articles
[1] Akmam, Wardatul, 'Atrocities against Humanity throughout the Liberation War in Bangladesh: A Case of Genocide', (2002) 4(4) Journal of kill analysis 543, 550.
[2] Alam, Helemul, 'Killing grounds left uncared for', The Daily Star (Online), fifteen December 2014, obtainable at: accessed on five December 2018.
[3] Bangla Desh Documents (Volume II), Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, 573.
[4] Bangla Desh kill Archive,
available at: accessed on one December 2018.
[5] Beachler, Donald, 'The Politics of kill Scholarship: The Case of Bangladesh', (2007) 41(5) Patterns of Prejudice 467, 476 – 7.
[6] Blood, Archer K., The Cruel Birth of Bangladesh: recollections of associate degree yank Diplomat (Dhaka: The University Press restricted, 2002) p. 23.
[7] Brownmiller, Susan, Against Our Will: Men, girls and Rape (New York: Simon & Schuster 1975) p. 30.
[8] Demuynck, Sarah et. al., 'Acts of kill Committed since the Adoption of the Convention on the hindrance and penalisation of the Crime of kill in 1951', obtainable at: accessed on six December 2018.
[9] Farid, Cynthia, 'New ways to Justice: A Tale of Social Justice Lawyering in Bangladesh', (2013 - one4) thirty one Wisconsin law of nations Journal 1, 13.
[10] Hoque, Mofidul, 'Bangladesh 1971: A Forgotten Genocide', The Daily Star (Online), four March 2013, obtainable at: accessed on three December 2018.
[11] Hossain, Dr. Ashfaque & Umme Wara, 'The United Nations and also the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act 1973 of Bangladesh', (2014) Journal of the first Winter college (Center for the Study of kill and Justice, Liberation War Museum) one, 11.
[12] Jahan, Raunaq, 'Eyewitness Accounts: kill in Bangladesh', (1997) New York: Garland publication one, 291.
[13] Mascarenhas, Anthony, The Rape of Bangla Desh (Delhi: Vikas Publications, 1972) p. 116-17.
[14] Payne, Robert, Massacre: The Tragedy at Bangla-Desh and also the development of Mass Slaughter throughout History (London: Macmillan Company, 1st ed., 1973) p. 50.
[15] Radeska, Tijana, 'People were killed for being lecturers throughout the 1970's in Cambodia', twenty five August 2016, obtainable at: