Bangladesh liberation war and Pakistan's atrocities: A chapter that international community ignored for long

As India observes Vijay Diwas, it is important to remind the world that it cannot ignore the chapter of atrocities committed during the 1971 war by the Pakistani Army.

New Delhi, Dec 16: The Bangladesh's war of liberation from Pakistan in 1971 and the war crimes by the Pakistan Army is one of the most ignored chapters in the history books and which has never got its due attention from the international community, but in the recent past it has started getting attention.

A fine example of it is two US lawmakers, last month, introducing a resolution in the House of Representatives that urges the American President to recognise the atrocities committed against ethnic Bengalis and Hindus by the Pakistani armed forces in 1971 as a genocide.

Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna and Congressman Seve Chabot on October 15 introduced the eight-page long resolution in the US House of Representatives Friday which among other things calls on the government of Pakistan to offer apologies to the people of Bangladesh for its role in such a genocide, according to a PTI report.

"We must not let the years erase the memory of the millions who were massacred. Recognising the genocide strengthens the historical record, educates our fellow Americans, and lets would-be perpetrators know such crimes will not be tolerated or forgotten," Chabot, a Republican Party member, said in a tweet.

"The Bangladesh Genocide of 1971 must not be forgotten. With help from my Hindu constituents in Ohio's First District, Ro Khanna and I introduced legislation to recognise that the mass atrocities committed against Bengalis and Hindus, in particular, were indeed a genocide," Chabot said.

According to Khanna,a Democrat and the US Representative from California's 17th congressional district, he along with Chabot introduced the first resolution commemorating the 1971 Bengali Genocide in which millions of ethnic Bengalis and Hindus were killed or displaced in one of the most forgotten genocides of "our" time.

"There was a genocide. Millions of people were killed (in 1971) in what is now Bangladesh, and what was then East Pakistan. About 80 per cent of those millions that were killed were Hindus," Chabot, US Representative for Ohio's 1st congressional district, said.

"And it was, in my opinion, a genocide just like other genocides - like the Holocaust - happened. And there were others that have occurred, and this was one that, thus far, hasn't really been declared by definition. And we are working on this now," he said.

It is interesting to note that the US had a diametrically opposite stand as it has supported General Yahya Khan, the West Pakistani dictator.

The resolution titled 'Recognising the Bangladesh Genocide of 1971' focusses on the Pakistan Army's active involvement in mass rape and genocide. The war crime was designed to destroy an entire ethnic group.

As we observe Vijay Diwas to celebrate the success of India's victory in the 1971 war on December 16, India has to remind the world that this chapter of atrocities cannot be ignored.

With inputs from agencies