Bangladesh Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque on Sunday called upon all who believe in the spirit of the Liberation War to be united in realising the international recognition of the genocide carried out in the 1971 Liberation War on unarmed Bangalees.
During a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka, Haque stated that international recognition of the 1971 genocide would be impossible to achieve 51 years after independence, according to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS), the Bangladesh News Agency.
However, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government declared March 25 as National Genocide Day. The minister sought international recognition for March 25 as “International Genocide Day,” Bangladesh Support Group, an organisation of the Netherlands’ expatriate Bangladeshis, Projonmo 71, an organisation of children of martyrs, and Amra Ekattor jointly organised the press conference with a view to achieving United Nations recognition for the genocide launched in Bangladesh.
Haque said Pakistani occupation forces, with the cooperation of their local collaborators, killed 30 lakh people during the nine-month Liberation War; they violated 2 lakh women, set houses on fire, and carried out massive looting all over the country, according to the Bangladesh News Agency.
Meanwhile, two internationally acclaimed organisations working on the prevention of genocide worldwide, namely the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Genocide Watch, have recognised the 1971 genocide and issued statements to that effect, reported the Bangladeshi publication The Sun.
In their statements, they have emphatically recognised the mass killings, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed by Pakistan and called upon the international community, including the United Nations, to come forward and recognise the genocide.