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also taken from their homes.

With these abductions, Pakistani forces began executing a calculated plan to dismantle Saidpur’s intellectual leadership.

Between March 25 and 31, Pakistani soldiers, assisted by Biharis, abducted at least 20 prominent intellectuals from Saidpur, including politician and physician Dr Shamsul Haque; education patron and philanthropist Jamuna Prasad Kedia; Harihar Prasad; Dr Yakub Ali; businessman Hariram Singhania; theatre actor Aminul Haque; businessman Benarasi Lala Gupta; and senior railway officials Ayez Ali, Ashraf Ali, and Abed Ali, according to the book Balarkhail Genocide.

The abductees, it said, were taken to Saidpur Cantonment, where they were subjected to 12 to 20 days of brutal torture. On April 12, they were transported to the Balarkhail killing field near Rangpur Cantonment and executed by brushfire.

The Saidpur intellectual killings are documented in several works, notably Balarkhail Genocide by Ahmed Sharif and The Northern Genocide of 1971 by Manik Mohammad Razzak.

This correspondent visited Saidpur and Rangpur in November and spoke to at least 20 people, including family members of the martyred intellectuals, freedom fighters, and eyewitnesses. Their testimonies describe a carefully coordinated massacre.

Historians, Liberation War researchers, and local residents say Saidpur had been one of northern Bengal’s most progressive towns since the British period, with strong educational, cultural, and commercial foundations.

Employment and business opportunities drew Biharis and Marwaris to the town alongside Bangalees.

After Partition, Bangalees and Marwaris largely maintained cordial relations, but hostility grew between Bangalees and Biharis. From the 1960s, Saidpur’s political climate remained tense, worsening after Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s March 7 speech.

In the second week of March, the All-Party Resistance Committee of Saidpur Thana was formed with Dr Zikrul as its convener. His Ziaratullah Medical Hall served as the committee’s office, while prominent citizens also gathered at the town’s historic Shilpa Sahitya Sangsad to discuss the struggle for independence.

On March 16, committee members hoisted the flag of independent Bangladesh for the first time at the medical hall. On March 21, when National Assembly member Abdur Rouf arrived in Saidpur with a map-embroidered flag on his vehicle, non-Bangalee youths tore it down.

Two days later, Bangalees raised the national flag across the town, triggering widespread tension. At 4:00pm, Awami League and Jamaat-e-Islami leaders addressed a meeting at Saidpur High School under Dr Zikrul’s leadership to maintain calm, but it failed. Several Bangalees were killed that day.

Rumours soon spread that Dr Zikrul had been killed. Thousands of Bangalees gathered in Saidpur on the morning of March 24 until the rumour was dispelled when he appeared before the crowd.

By then, however, tensions had escalated.

Chanting “Bangalee log ham log ko marne aaya” (Bangalees have come to kill us), Biharis armed themselves and killed many Bangalees. Intellectual Mahatab Beg was martyred that day after arriving with villagers from Chirirbandar, and the town’s situation rapidly deteriorated.

From early March 25, Biharis began shooting Bangalees on sight, while Pakistani gunfire claimed many more lives. A night curfew was imposed, followed by the systematic abduction of intellectuals.

HOW THE KILLINGS WERE EXECUTED

According to Balarkhail Genocide and testimonies from elderly residents, freedom fighters, and genocide researchers, meetings were held in the second week of March at Saidpur College, led by Principal Motin Hashmi of Quaid-e-Azam (now Suhrawardy) College, alongside Bihari leaders. These meetings produced lists of targeted intellectuals, which were sent to Saidpur Cantonment.

Two days after the first abductions, Pakistani forces picked up Saidpur Thana Awami League vice-president and physician Dr Shamsul Haque.

His son Liaqat Hossain told The Daily Star that Biharis broke into their home and that from March 25 onward, intellectuals were effectively trapped, with armed patrols on the streets and threats of death for anyone attempting to flee.

The same day, Pakistani soldiers abducted National Awami Party Saidpur Thana president and physician SM Yakub. His daughter Iffat Zaman said her father was bathing at the time and was not even allowed to wipe himself.

On April 1, Pakistani forces arrested senior railway official and cultural figure Ayez Uddin, who had hoisted the national flag at his home days earlier. His son, journalist MR Alam Jhontu, recalled hearing boots kick their door at around 3:00am after a night of fighting. “When my father opened it, the soldiers kicked him in the chest and beat him with the ends of their rifles while dragging him to the quarter guard.”

The detainees were held at the quarter guard of Saidpur Cantonment. Jhontu said his sister Asma was allowed to see them twice. “Everyone was covered in blood. Some had slashed cheeks, broken limbs, ripped-out nails, or missing fingers.”

On April 11, when she brought new clothes for their father, Ayez told her to take them back, saying he and the others would be given their final bath the next day.

On the afternoon of April 12, families saw blindfolded prisoners being loaded onto military trucks. That night, Pakistani forces executed the detained intellectuals and Bangalee soldiers at the Balarkhail killing field in Nisbetganj, near Rangpur Cantonment. Three people survived and later crossed into India.

Villagers who sheltered survivors recalled the massacre. Balarkhail resident and freedom fighter Shamsuddin Azad described hearing prolonged gunfire amid heavy rain and later discovering a wounded man who told him that respected people from Saidpur had been brought there and killed. “The next morning, bodies were found hastily buried.”

The killings continued from March to June.

On March 23, Biharis murdered Maniruzzaman, paint-in-charge at the Saidpur railway workshop. Four days later, railway accountant and homeopathic doctor Abdul Aziz was slaughtered and his body and vehicle burned. His son Manjur Hossain said his father had refused to flee, saying he would die fighting for independence if necessary.

On June 28, abducted theatre actor Aminul Haque was handed over to Bihari leader Izhar Ahmed, who gouged out his eyes, dismembered him, and crushed his body in a jute press machine, according to his son Mizanul Haque.

Such atrocities were not confined to Saidpur.

On the first night, several Dhaka University teachers -- Anudvaipayan Bhattacharya, Professor Dr Fazlur Rahman, Dr Muhammad Muqtadir, A R Khan Khadim, Sharafat Ali, Professor Govinda Chandra Dev, and Professor Muniruzzaman -- were martyred in a brushfire. Professor Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta, wounded the next day, died on March 30, followed by the killing of Professor Jogesh Chandra Ghosh on April 4.

Outside Dhaka, language movement activist Dhirendranath Dutta was abducted and killed on March 29. Rajshahi University professors Sukharanjan Samaddar and Habibur Rahman were murdered on April 14 and 15. Nuton Chandra Singh was killed on April 23, and philanthropist Ranada Prasad Saha on May 7.

A renewed campaign began on November 15, culminating between December 10 and 15 with the killing of journalists, academics, physicians, and writer Shahidullah Kaiser. On December 16, DU professor Abul Kalam Azad was killed, the last intellectual martyred. Only a handful of bodies were later recovered from Rayerbazar.

Contacted by The Daily Star, genocide researcher and National University history department associate professor Dr Ahmed Sharif said, “The Saidpur intellectual killings were the result of a flawless plan by Biharis and Pakistanis. Their primary objective was to empty Saidpur of intellectuals so that no pro-Liberation War public opinion could emerge.”