A US Congressman has introduced a resolution in Congress calling for the atrocities committed against Bengali Hindus on March 25, 1971, to be officially recognised as acts of “war crimes and genocide”.
Greg Landsman, a Democratic lawmaker from Ohio, introduced the resolution in the United States House of Representatives on Friday, and it has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs for further consideration.
The resolution states that on the night of March 25, 1971, the Pakistani government detained Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, after which its military forces, along with radical Islamist groups influenced by the ideology of Jamaat-e-Islami, launched a widespread crackdown across East Pakistan.
The operation, known as Operation Searchlight, involved large-scale massacres and atrocities carried out by the Pakistani Army and its allies, Jamaat-e-Islami, targeting Bengali Hindus.
What is in the resolution?
The resolution highlights the events that unfolded in March 1971 and urges the United States House of Representatives to condemn the atrocities carried out by the Pakistani Armed Forces against the people of Bangladesh.
It states that after the arrest of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 25, the Pakistani government initiated a crackdown targeting Bengali Hindus.
On March 28, 1971, the US Consul General in Dacca, Archer Blood, sent a telegram to Washington titled “Selective Genocide.” In it, he wrote, “Moreover, with support of Pak military, non-Bengali Muslims are systematically attacking poor people’s quarters and murdering Bengalis and Hindus,” as per thee resolution. The message later came to be known as the ‘Blood Telegram’.
Greg Landsman noted that on April 6, 1971, Archer Blood sent a formal protest against the US government’s silence on the conflict, which was signed by 20 members of the Consulate General in Dacca.
“But we have chosen not to intervene, even morally, on the grounds that the Awami conflict, in which the term ‘genocide’ though overused is unfortunately applicable, is purely an internal matter of a sovereign state,” the diplomat’s telegram stated.
The resolution further stated that religious minority Hindus in Bangladesh were targeted and subjected to “mass killings, gang rape, forced conversion, and expulsion.”
It also states that while the Pakistani Army and its Islamist allies carried out indiscriminate mass killings of ethnic Bengalis, regardless of religion or gender, targeting political leaders, intellectuals, professionals, and students, and forcing tens of thousands of women into sexual slavery.
These actions do not implicate entire ethnic or religious communities in the crimes committed by certain individuals.
The resolution urges the US President to recognise the atrocities committed against ethnic Bengali Hindus as crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide.
