JS declares March 25 as “Gonohotya Dibosh”

The Jatiya Sangsad (parliament) on Saturday unanimously adopted a resolution to observe March 25 as the “Gonohotya Dibos” (Day of Genocide) marking the brutality carried out by Pakistani Army on the unarmed Bengalis on the black night of March 25, 1971.

JSD lawmaker Shirin Akhter moved the proposal in the House under the Rule 147(1) of the Rules of Procedure to observe “Gonohatya Dibos” on March 25 as the House began its sitting at 3.11pm with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair.

In her notice, Shirin Akhter proposed taking necessary initiatives to earn international recognition to one of the brutal genocides in the world history committed by the Pakistani occupation forces on the night of March 25.

The JSD lawmaker said the aim of the cruelty of Pakistani Army in Bangladesh was to destroy the nationhood of Bangalee people.

“The gravity of killing perpetrated by Pakistani Army in Bangladesh in 1971 is as same as described by the United Nations in its convention on the nature of genocide,” Shirin Akhter said in her motion.

She said the Pakistani army brutally killed 30 lakh Bangalees and raped three lakh women during the nine-month bloody war in 1971 following attacks on March 25 night under the codename “Operation Search Light”.

Immediately after placement of the proposal, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took the floor and asked the chair to allow screening of documentaries on the genocide of Pakistani Army and their collaborators in Bangladesh during the nine-month of war in 1971.

At the beginning of the discussion, Prime Minister and Leader of the House Sheikh Hasina said recognition of March 25 is crucial as Pakistan government in recent times repeatedly tried to deny the atrocities, which its army unleashed on the innocent people of Bangladesh.

“Pakistani Army carried out history`s most barbaric genocide on Bangali people as their leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman proclaimed Bangladesh`s independence to free the nation from Pakistani subjugation,” she said.

Pakistani Army adopted the scorched earth policy during War of Liberation in Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina said no street, ally, university, police line, village and town were spared from their cruelty.

She also blasted Pakistani author Zunaid Ahmed for publishing a book under the supervision of the Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) distorting the history of Bangladesh`s War of Liberation.

The prime minister said the Pakistani rulers could not forget the pain of their defeat in 1971. They thought that Bangladesh as an independent country would be a failed and fragile state.

Source: BSS