Washington: A growing call in the United States seeks official recognition of atrocities committed during Pakistan’s 1971 “Operation Searchlight” as genocide.
Democratic Congressman Greg Landsman of Ohio introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives urging that the Pakistani military and allied groups, including Jamaat-e-Islami, be held accountable for the mass killings of Bengali Hindus on March 25, 1971. The resolution has been referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee for review.
The proposal highlights that on the night of March 25, 1971, the Pakistani Army arrested Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and launched a violent crackdown in East Pakistan, targeting civilians and minority communities. Reports, including the historic “Blood Telegram” sent by US Consul Archer Blood from Dhaka on March 28, described organized attacks on Bengali and Hindu populations, with widespread killings and sexual violence.
The resolution calls on the US House to condemn these atrocities, emphasizing that the Pakistani forces and their collaborators targeted civilians based on ethnicity and religion, killing leaders, intellectuals, professionals, and students, and subjecting thousands of women to sexual enslavement. It urges the US President to officially recognize these crimes as crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide.
The move reflects a growing international effort to formally acknowledge the scale of the 1971 atrocities in Bangladesh and reinforce accountability for historic mass violence.
