Martyred Intellectuals Monument, Dhaka [April 2008]

The Martyred Intellectuals Monument at Rayerbazar, Dhaka was constructed in remembrance of the supreme sacrifices of the intellectuals made on the altars of freedom. Just two days before liberation, on 14th December 1971 the country's top intellectuals were rounded-up and shot with their hands tied behind and their eyes covered. Rayerbazar in Dhaka was one of those many sites where the intellectuals' cold bodies were left to rot. The eerie pictures from those days remind us of the broken walls giving company to the martyrs' wintry graves. The monument tries to replicate those walls and to bring the souls of the country's best sons to life.

The site is bombarded with industrial pollution all the year round, but cleaned up only once in a year on the eve the Martyred Intellectuals Day (14th December). For the rest of the year the site is almost on its own.

But the hard question that we ask today is whether we had been able to build the country that the the nation's finest sons dreamed of.


From the south side......






From the west side.......


From the north side.......










From the east side.......




Sun-set












Moon-rise........... From the north-west side