Special Correspondent :
Today is Genocide Day. For the first time after the country’s independence, the nation will observe the day today — March 25 — in commemoration of the brutal attack and genocide in Dhaka by the Pakistani Army in 1971.
The day was earlier observed as Black Day. The Jatiya Sangsad on March 11 adopted a resolution unanimously declaring the March 25 as the “Genocide Day”.
It is to be noted that, the “Operation Searchlight” was one of the few military operations after the World War-II which had been planned against civilians on that night just to commit massacre for keeping the land [then East Pakistan] under West Pakistan’s grip.
Actually, it was a long-pending demand of political parties and Civil Society to mark the atrocities committed by the Pakistani Army. As per official estimation, at least 20,000 people were killed on the day in Dhaka, and three million people were killed in the subsequent nine-month Liberation War.
The ruling Awami League government approved the demand and decided to send two officials to the UN headquarters in New York and the UN Human Rights Council office in Geneva for international recognition of the day.
“Bangladesh will forward an application to the United Nations by this month seeking recognition of March 25 as Genocide Day. Bangladesh Embassies and High Commissions across the world will campaign to get international support in favour of the proposal,” Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq told The New Nation on Friday.
The Pakistani military junta, on this fateful night in 1971, had launched the “Operation Searchlight” and killed thousands of people including teachers, students, police, EPR [East Pakistan Rifles] members and general people, including minority Hindu, at the dormitories of Dhaka University, Pilkhana, Rajarbagh Police Lines and Old Dhaka.
It was described in different historical books that the Pakistani Army equipped with heavy weapons, including tanks, automatic rifles, rocket launchers, mortar and light machine guns, encircled Dhaka University and started the Operation Searchlight from Jagannath Hall.
On that night, the Pakistani occupation forces also torched hundreds of houses, properties and looted shops, business establishments and carried out destruction throughout the then East Pakistan [now Bangladesh] .
Against this backdrop, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared “independence” through EPR wireless at 00-30 hours on March 26 [the night following March 25] in 1971 from his residence at Road-32, Dhanmondi in Dhaka, and called upon the Bangalees to build up resistance against the occupation forces.
Bangabandhu, however, was arrested by the Pakistani Army following the declaration of the independence. He was taken to the then West Pakistan and kept in a jail as prisoner during the Liberation War.
The whole nation, except a few Razakar, Al-Shams and Al-Badr elements, joined the Liberation War. Finally, the Pakistani military junta surrendered at the Race Course Maidan [now Suhrawardy Udyan], on December 16 in 1971 in presence of the joint forces.
Marking the day, the government has drawn elaborate programmes. The Liberation War Affairs Ministry will organize discussion and cultural programmes at district and upazila levels elsewhere in the country in observance of the day.
Meanwhile, different political parties, particularly Awami League, have also chalked out elaborate programmes in observance of the Genocide Day to pay homage to the Martyrs of March 25.
Besides, many other socio-cultural organisations, including Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, Sammilito Sangskritik Jote, Liberation War Museum and Dhaka University Teachers’ Association, have chalked out elaborate programmes in observance of the day.
The Sector Commanders Forum will also observe a programme at the historic Suhrawardy Udyan.
