Alok Acharja

Genocide is the planned killing of a nation indiscriminately. There are many examples in the history of human civilization of genocide in the world.

Many innocent people have lost their lives in that slaughter. This horrific and cruel moment also came on our country. The sacred soil of this country was soaked in blood that night through a terrible atrocity. During the process of resolving the political stalemate caused by the failure of the Pakistani government to hand over Governance power to the Awami League despite winning a majority of votes in the 1970’s general election, the Pakistani army made a dastardly attacked on the sleeping people on Dhaka like a hyena on a terrible night of March 25, 1971. That night was truly black for us. They killed millions of unarmed people in one night. Although it was denied by them. The bloodshed was carried out by the Pakistan Army for the next nine months through the whole country.

That night the Pakistani army simultaneously attacked the people at Dhaka University, the then EPR headquarters and the Rajarbagh police lines with arms. This brutal genocide was carried out under the name of Operation Search Light. Pakistan wanted to stop our independence movement. That is why the father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested and taken away that night. Under Resolution 260 (3) of the UN General Assembly adopted on 9 December 1948, genocide is defined as an act which seeks to wipe out a nation or a religious community or an ethnic group in whole or in part.

The genocide on the night of March 25 and for the next nine months has been recognized as National Genocide Day. Even today, this brutal massacre has not been recognized as an international genocide. We have many achievements. If this achieved as international recognition, one of the great achievements of Bangladesh will be added to history.
It has taken many years to recognize the day of genocide nationally.

Fifty years have passed since independence, but the genocide has not yet get international recognition. Although not recognized internationally, the genocide committed by the Pakistani military during the 1971 war of liberation was recognized as genocide by the Genocide Watch and the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention. This achievement will undoubtedly bring us closer to our goal in the golden jubilee of our independence.

They called on the international community at the United Nations to recognize the genocide in Bangladesh. At this juncture, the international recognition of this genocide will be one of the goals. We should have raised the issue of recognition of genocide more strongly in the international arena. According to various sources, at least 50,000 civilians were killed during the Pakistani military operation that night.

In the next nine months, another three million people were brutally killed. They tortured ruthlessly people. According to the Sydney Morning Herald of Australia, about one lakh people were killed in Bangladesh on the night of March 25 alone, which is one of the worst incidents in the history of genocide. Recognition of the genocide is also in the documents published by the government of Pakistan itself. The White Paper on the Crisis in East Pakistan published by the Pakistani government during the Liberation War states that "from the night of March 1, 1971 to the night of March 25, 1971, more than one lakh people were killed."

Among the genocides that have taken place in several countries of the world are Rwanda, Darfur, Bosnia, Cambodia, the Holocaust and Nanking, and the Armenian Genocide. The Darfur genocide is considered to be the most brutal genocide of the 21st century.

Although small countries like Armenia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone get international recognition for the genocide, the genocide against us on 1971 did not get international recognition still now. We have to speed up the realization of this recognition. Authorities need to be more proactive in giving international recognition to a mass murder. At the 69th session of the UN General Assembly on September 11, 2011, on the basis of Armenia's proposal, December 9 was declared the International Day of Genocide. The proposal was supported by members of 193 member countries, including Bangladesh.

It is noted that during the First World War, the Turks carried out indiscriminate genocide against the Armenians. For three years genocide killed 1.5 million people in that country. At that time the population of Armenia was only 3.4 million. And in just nine months, the Pakistani army killed 3 million people and flooded the river with blood. What a cruel and ruthless slaughter it was! We needed to raise this demand even earlier.

If such a massacre is not recognized internationally, it will be a unfortunate. The great liberation war is a glorious historic time in our history. After being liberated from the British Empire in 1947, the Bangla were left under another oppressor, West Pakistan. West Pakistan did not want to give the Bengalees their rights from the beginning. Their wish and attitude was the same as that of the British.

They had no tension for people but wealth of bangla. As a result, Bengalees have always had to fight for their rights and sacrifice their lives. In 1952, we achieved Bangla as our mother language by the supreme sacrifice of the brave son Salam,Barkat,Jabbar and many others of the nation. The election of 1970 was the last step in realizing the demands of the Bengalees.

So after the historical and significant speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 7, they understood that the rulers would never accept their rights and they should be ready for fight against this oppression. The dream for independence was their eyes. Many think that the March 25 genocide was not just a one-night stand, it was the beginning of one of the most heinous genocides in world civilization.

We need to be more proactive in gaining international recognition for such a massacre. During the war of liberation, we have to move forward by holding talks with the allied countries. We deeply believe that under the leadership of our Hon'ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the international recognition of the genocide of Bangladesh on March 25 and the next nine months must be achieved.

The writer is an essayist and columnist Pabna.