Dreadful night on March 25, 1971 is a period of emotional flow. On March 11, 2017, the National Parliament unanimously accepted the proposal to observe the barbaric and brutal killings of the Pakistani invading forces on the black night of March 25, 1971 as 'Genocide Day' and to take necessary actions to recognize this day internationally. Earlier, there was a demand to observe March 25 as 'International Genocide Day' from people of all walks of life in Bangladesh.
It is clear to all that there can be no debate about the martyrdom of 30 lakh people in nine months. Because Robert Payne has quoted Yahya Khan in his book Massacre, The Tragedy of Bangladesh like this - 'Kill three million of them and the rest will eat out of our hands.' Due to this decision of the Pakistani rulers, more than six thousand people were killed on an average in Bangladesh every day. For this reason, in 1971, US Senator Edward Kennedy visited the refugee camps in India and directly accused the Pakistani army of genocide. In the 'Guinness Book of World Records', the massacre in Bangladesh has been mentioned as one of the 5 worst genocides of the 20th century. In 2002, George Washington University's 'Security Archives' released their declassified documents. There, the hellish killings in Bangladesh were identified as 'genocide'.
US diplomats based in Dhaka then sent messages to Washington describing the massive massacre by the Pakistani army. Journalists who were eyewitnesses of the war of liberation wrote a number of articles and editorials of the world-famous newspaper Time, New York Times etc. strongly reacted to the massacre of Pakistanis. In addition, the 'Hamadur Rahman Commission' formed in Pakistan in 1972, while investigating their defeat, found evidence of massive killings and torture of women by Pakistani soldiers in Bangladesh. And the world conscience was shaken by this terrible massacre. George Harrison and Pandit Ravi Shankar organized 'Concert for Bangladesh'. The 'International Brigade' was formed under the leadership of the philosopher Andre Malraux. Humanist leaders gathered in Paris and London. The genocide committed by Pakistanis in Bangladesh still shocks the world as a document of massive and brutality.
In fact, the 20th century itself has killed millions of people. The planned and terrible killings of World War and Genocide are called 'Genocide'. From Hitler's concentration camps to the internment camps of Pakistanis in 1971, the brutal history of that genocide is told. Anthony Mascarenhas wrote in his book 'The Rape of Bangladesh' chapter on 'Genocide' that 'the systematic pattern of killings throughout the province closely matches the dictionary definition of the word genocide.' He knew from direct experience and from the mouth of a Pakistani army officer that the targets of the genocide were- a) Bengali soldiers, police, Ansar etc. b) Hindu community c) Awami League people d)College, university students e) Professors and teachers - who belong to the intellectual community. But he also noted that the army's brutality was indiscriminate.
They considered innocent, common people as enemies. Moreover, their genocide was a 'purification process' which the ruling class considered to be a solution to political problems. Along with this barbaric way to colonize the province was also one of its objectives. The Pakistanis commented - 'We are determined to sanctify East Pakistan forever to save it from the threat of secession. For that reason, if 20 lakh people have to be killed and the province has to be ruled as a colony for thirty years, still.' The people of the West were united with this mentality of the rulers. And that is why Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmad said on April 17, 1971, "The people of West Pakistan are silent spectators of the genocide."
In Bangladesh in 1971, the Pakistani rulers and their henchmen Albadar, Alshams and Razakar forces planned massacres, widespread destruction, rape, arson, extermination and expulsion of Hindu communities, torture of political dissidents, indiscriminate killing of freedom fighters. Their 'Operation Searchlight' on March 25 started out of hatred and hatred towards the Bengali nation. Planned massacres and ethnic cleansing are considered genocide. The Pakistanis treated the Jews and Russian POWs with the same brutality that Hitler's Nazi forces did. Cruelty, brutality and sectarianism were just like the Nazis towards the Jews. The Nazis considered the Jews to be inferior and wanted to solve Europe's problems by exterminating them.
Similarly, the attitude of Pakistani army officers was that Bengalees have been cleansed and selected properly for at least one generation. Nazis started extermination by killing young, young and able-bodied men first, but started killing children, old people and women indiscriminately from the Balkan region in 1941. They reached the extreme limits of human rights violations including killing prisoners of war and other cruelties. The Pakistan army has more in common with their atrocities in Hindu massacres.
In 1971 the attitude of the rulers towards Hindus was deliberate and ruthless because they legalized religious killings. They believed that Pakistan was born out of a Muslim revolt against the Hindu domination of the subcontinent for a separate homeland. This anti-Hindu sentiment has been nurtured over the years has arrived that is why Hindu annihilation in genocide became inevitable. In the words of a researcher - "After the attack of the Pakistan army, not only a war between a rising and a declining state, but also multiple ethnic conflicts started in the whole country." This led to torture on both sides but it started after the 25th March attack. Two communities are the most affected by the Pakistani government's plans.
Its first victims were the Hindu community, who were not only persecuted but also had their social, economic, political and family foundations damaged and even destroyed. Hindus could never recover their lost position even in Bangladesh. Communally they were the most affected people in 1971. Even rape was considered legal by them. Rape by the Japanese army in Nanking, China, the Nazis in Russia and the torture of women in Armenia and Bosnia are all related to the rape of Bengali women. The purpose of Pakistani rape of Bengali women was to emotionally injure and cripple the family, community and nation. Defeated in the guerilla war with the freedom fighters and unable to subjugate the Bengali nation, they rape women. It was terribly depressing. Serbs raped Muslim women as a means of ethnic cleansing. These brutal realities of the war have been exposed in the writings of domestic and foreign researchers and journalists.
Pakistan is one of the perpetrators of genocide in the 20th century because they wanted to maintain their power that day in exchange for the lives of millions of Bengalis. But the Bengali ethnic group did not oppress West Pakistan before March 25, 1971. Yet the barbaric and brutal behavior of the rulers of West Pakistan towards the Bengalis exposed their abominable mentality to the world.
The attacks and killings of Pakistanis were like fascists, so they harbored caste or sectarian hatred; killed innocent people. That planned killing made our March 25 demand even more significant. March 25 'International Genocide Day' will be the only hope for future generations to raise their voices and speak out against genocide to save the world's human population from brutal slaughter. Hopefully, the spirit of this day will unite everyone against genocide.
Author: Bangabandhu Researcher, Professor and Chairman, Department of Bengal, Jagannath University. Email: drmiltonbiswas1971@gmail.com