| Badhya Bhumi Smriti Soudha (Slaughter-place
Memorial) was built to commemorate the death of some of the nation's
finest intellectuals and others, who were killed at the very end of the
war of liberation
(1971) by the Pakistani army with the help of their collaborators at Rayer
Bazar brick field of Dhaka. The memorial edifice was constructed at the
place where the mass killing took place. Among the people killed indiscriminately
were educationists, physicians, journalists, writers, film directors and
other professionals.
In 1993 Government of Bangladesh decided to erect a memorial
at the site of this barbarous act. The Ministry of Housing & Works
Department and the Institute of Architects Bangladesh jointly
organised a national level architectural competition for the design
of the memorial.
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Badhya Bhumi Smrti Soudha |
Out of 22 entries the jurors selected the design proposal
of Architect Farid Uddin Ahmed and Architect Md Jami-al-Shafi. Public
Works Department was responsible for the implementation of the project
and its completion took about three years, 1996 to 1999. The whole site
of 3.51 acre has been divided by a square grid of 15.24m by 15.24m. The
main platform is raised 2.44m above the street level.
The main element of the monument is the 17.68m high,
0.91m thick and 115.82m long curved brick wall, representing the original
brick field of Rayer Bazar where the dead bodies were found. The wall
itself is broken at the two ends, demonstrating the depth of grief and
sorrow. A 6.10m by 6.10m square window at the south-west side of the wall
permits visitor's view to reach the sky behind, that also scale down the
immense wall. In front of the curved wall is a still water body from which
rises a black granite column, which represents grief.
The main entry to the memorial is at the southeast corner
of the site that places the visitor in front of a Banyan tree. This tree
represents the original Banyan tree at the nearby Physical Education College
where the martyrs were tortured first and then brought to this brickfield
to be killed. Apart from the Banyan tree, which is evergreen, all the
other trees used in the landscaping are deciduous. They remain leafless
during the month of December that adds to the sense of grief during the
Intellectuals Martyr Day (14 December), observed every year.
There are future proposal for a small museum, a library cum office building and a graveyard in the complex. [Md Shahidul Amin]
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