Pak Army Committed Genocide: US Resolution On 1971 Bangladesh Atrocities

Two influential American lawmakers have introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives that urges the US President to recognise the atrocities committed against ethnic Bengalis and Hindus by..

Two influential US lawmakers introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives urging the US president to recognize the atrocities committed by the Pakistani armed forces against Bengal and Hindus in 1971 as genocide.

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US Congressman Ro Khanna and Congressman Saif Chaput introduced the resolution in the US House of Representatives on Friday calling, among other things, for the government of Pakistan to make an apology to the people of Bangladesh for its role in such genocide.

“We must not let the years erase the memory of the millions who were massacred.

Recognizing genocide strengthens the historical record, educates our fellow Americans, and lets potential perpetrators know that such crimes will not be tolerated or forgotten," Chabot said in a tweet.

“The Bangladesh Genocide of 1971 must not be forgotten.

With help from Hindu voters in Ohio's First District, Ro Khanna and I introduced legislation to recognize that mass atrocities against Bengalis and Hindus, in particular, were truly genocide," Chaput said.

Khanna,

A Democrat and U.S. Representative from California's 17th congressional district tweeted that he and Chabot submitted the first resolution to commemorate the 1971 Bengali genocide in which millions of Bengalis and Hindus were killed or displaced in one of the most forgotten genocides in "our country." time.

There was a genocide.

Millions of people were killed (in 1971) in what is now Bangladesh, and what was then East Pakistan. Chabot, the US representative for Ohio's first congressional district, said about 80 percent of those millions killed were Hindus.

“And it was, in my opinion, a genocide just like other genocides - like the Holocaust - have taken place.

And there were other instances that happened, and this was, so far, not really made public by definition. We are working on this now."

The Bangladeshi community welcomed the decision.

Salim Reza Noor, whose family members were brutally murdered by armed Islamists in 1971,

They expressed their relief after 51 years of despair.

"The genocide of our people has finally been recognized in the US Congress," Nour said.

He was relieved that both Republicans and Democrats joined forces to present a landmark resolution that has the potential to reshape the geopolitics of South Asia, Central Asia, and the Indo-Pacific region.

Priya Saha

The Executive Director of the Human Rights Conference of Bangladeshi Minorities (HRCBM) said: “On the 51st anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence, we hope that the memory of the millions of people in Bangladesh who were systematically exterminated by the Pakistan Army and their collaborators in 1971 will be immortalized.”

Aroma Dutta,

A member of Parliament from the Hindu community in Bangladesh whose grandfather and uncle were killed by the Pakistani armed forces said: “My grandfather Direndra Nath Datta (85 years old) and his son Dilip Datta (40 years old) were chosen by the brutal Pakistani army on 29 March 1971.

She said, "They were taken to Mainamati Canton in Comilla, brutally tortured for more than two weeks and killed, their bodies thrown lifeless into a pit, and they were never found. Until today, they lie in a mass grave."

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