People of all walks of life including those working for the cause of victims of our Great War of Liberation, have expressed joy over the Jatiya Sangsad (JS) resolution, which was unanimously adopted on Saturday to observe March 25 as the “Gonohotya Dibos or Day of Genocide”.
“We would like to express our gratitude to the present government, especially would like to thank Prime Minister and leader of the parliament Sheikh Hasina for recognizing March 25 as the Day of Genocide,” Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee president Shahriar Kabir told BSS.
Kabir, also a journalist and researcher, said it was their longstanding demand to declare a day to commemorate the victims of genocide.
“We have been demanding it for long 24 years. Shaheed Janani Jahanara Imam first raised the demand from a rally at the central Shaheed Minar in 1993. Pakistani government and their flatterers were trying to make the world forget about the genocide in 1971. This step of the government would be helpful for us to get international recognition for 1971 genocide,” he added.
Kabir also urged the government to observe International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and Prevention of this Crime on December 9 in befitting manner as declared by the UN in 2015.
International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) senior prosecutor Barrister Tureen Afroz also expressed her happiness over the adopted resolution, saying, “I am delighted over this recognition as it is one of the ways to show our utmost respect to the martyrs of 1971. At least we will observe the day, which we almost tend to forget, nationally.”
“We have been working for long to get international recognition for the genocide that took place in our country in 1971. But due to different national and international conspiracies, we have failed in attaining the goal. Alongside, anti-liberation forces were in power in our country for long, who were not that much interested in giving the recognition, as the liability of the genocide would ultimately fall upon them also,” she added.
Tureen called upon all not to forget the fact that genocides have taken place during the whole period of war in 1971 and continued in some places even after the war officially ended on December 16, 1971.
“We have to remember one thing, by commemorating the victims of genocide on this single day does not mean that the genocides have taken place on March 25 only. Genocide took place during the whole war even the crimes took place in some places even after December 16… I think by recognizing the March 25 as Day of Genocide, we have done a great job which will keep our future generation aware of the facts about 1971,” Tureen hoped.
JSD lawmaker Shirin Akhter moved the proposal last evening in the House under the Rule 147(1) of the Rules of Procedure to observe “Gonohatya Dibos” on March 25. In her notice, Akhter proposed taking necessary initiatives to earn international recognition to one of the brutal genocides in the world history committed by the Pakistani occupation forces on the night of March 25.
