Bangladesh is solemnly marking the 52nd Genocide Remembrance Day today, 25th March 2024. The nation and its citizens have been constantly urging the Global community to mark the day as ‘International Genocide Day’. The tragic day highlights the Military excesses and brutalities carried out by Pakistan Army, including mass killings, rapes, and destruction in erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
The Pakistani army carried out ‘Operation Searchlight’ on the night of 25th March 1971. It was a brutal military manhunt to crush the surging nationalism among Bengali-speaking people in East Pakistan following the election mandate of 1970. The Pakistan Army resorted to mass massacre and genocide of Bengali Hindus and freedom-seeking Bengali Muslims to create a reign of terror and scare Bengalis into submission.
The operation had a military objective to disarm the Bengali personnel in the military, paramilitary, and police forces, and capture key installations including armoury, radio station, and telephone exchange as well as arrest/kill intellectuals and Bengali politicians in East Pakistan.
The operation was led by then-General Yahya Khan of Pakistan and put in action by General Tikka Khan, who was the then martial law administrator of East Pakistan.
During ‘Operation Searchlight’, the Pakistani forces brutally killed the Bengali members of the East Pakistan Rifles and police, students, and teachers of Dhaka University. They opened indiscriminate firing at unarmed civilians killing thousands, set houses and properties ablaze, and looted business establishments.
Notably, it was the same night when Bangladesh’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman made the proclamation of independence before he was arrested by the Pakistani troops and subsequently flown to West Pakistan.
In his book ‘Witness to Surrender’, Pakistani Major Siddiq Salik had described ‘Operation Searchlight’ saying, “The gates of hell had been cast open.” Salik worked as the Pakistan military’s spokesman in the then East Pakistan.
Destruction inside key cities with heavy military weaponry
On 25th March 1971 at around 11 PM, the Pakistani Army rolled tanks, armoured cars, and trucks as well as sent countless troops to Dhaka University, the Central Shaheed Minar, the Race Course (where the Kali Mandir was situated), Hotel Intercontinental, and Old Dhaka among other strategic locations. These units destroyed the Kali Mandir in the centre of the Race Course and the Central Shaheed Minar.
Throughout the city, Pakistani army personnel killed thousands of people including academics, students, and sleeping rickshaw pullers at close ranges. The eminent academicians killed on the fateful night included venerable GC Dev and the scholar Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta. As per official records, the Students of Dhaka University were lined up, shot, and then dumped into mass graves.
A large contingent of Pakistan forces also made its way to Dhanmondi where its clear objective was to take Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman into custody. After arresting him, the Pakistan army took him to an under-construction national assembly building in the Second Capital area (today’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar).
Subsequently, he was transferred to Adamjee College located in the cantonment, where he spent the night before being relocated to Flagstaff House. Three days later, he was transported to West Pakistan and confined in solitary in Mianwali jail.
The Chuknagar massacre
While the genocide continued for over next nine months, the Chuknagar massacre was one of the most horrifying incidents of mass killing as part of General Tikka Khan’s ‘Operation Searchlight’. Apart from destruction in cities and streets of erstwhile East Pakistan, even those who tried to flee repression were targeted.
Facing an acute shortage of food and resources, as well as a brutal crackdown involving killings and mass rapes, thousands of Bengalis rushed towards the Indian border via Khulna from places like Barisal, Bagerhat, and Faridpur. Bengalis from all across East Pakistan attempted to converge at Chuknagar (in Bangladesh) and adjacent areas by crossing the Bhadra River to enter Indian territory.
However, the then chairman of Atlia Union Ghulam Hossain reported this mass influx to a Pakistani military platoon in Satkhira. Subsequently, a large contingent of troops, divided into three units, rushed to Chuknagar (lies in East Pakistan territory/Bangladesh).
One unit marched for Malopara-Raipara, the second went after the Chuknagar bazaar, and another went for the Bhadra river bank to surround the Bengali civilians from all sides. There the three units opened indiscriminate firing, leading to one of the largest and most brutal pogroms. Men, women, and children who tried to hide behind trees, and in boats, were hunted down and shot dead from close ranges. From temples, playgrounds, school premises, and rivers, every place had witnessed horrifying scenes of mass dead bodies lying scattered everywhere. As per reports, the death count ran in several thousands, turning the Bhadra river red with the blood of unarmed Bengalis.
The massacre ignited Bengali nationalism further and after getting assistance from Indian Army, the Mukhti Bhahini and Awami League managed to liberate Bangaldesh.
In 2017, the Bangladeshi government officially recognised 25th March as Genocide Day to reflect on the horrific events of that fateful night in 1971 and has since been trying to press the international community to recognise the day as ‘International Genocide Day’.
Bangladesh’s parliament noted, “It is Parliament’s opinion that March 25 be declared Genocide Day to commemorate the genocide conducted by the atrocious Pakistani forces on the black night of March 25, 1971, and necessary steps are taken to have the Day recognised internationally.”
