Describing the horrors of the 1971 genocide by the Pakistani military, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has said that Bangladesh is working to get recognition of March 25 as International Genocide Day by all the countries in the world.

“The Genocide of Bangladesh committed in 1971 by the Pakistani military is one of the most heinous crimes in human history … we do not know of another instance of such barbarism of such intensity and mayhem,” he said, reported The Daily Star. The foreign minister made the remark through a video message at a seminar titled, “Remember and Recognize: The Case of Bangladesh Genocide of 1971”, which was held at the Human Rights Museum, Winnipeg in Canada on Wednesday, according to a press release received in Dhaka.

The Bangladesh genocide perpetrated by Pakistan, one of the biggest after World War II, occurred when Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared the independence of a sovereign nation of Bangladesh in the early hours of March 26, 1971.

The High Commission for Bangladesh in Canada and the Bangabandhu Centre for Bangladesh Studies (BCBS) in Canada, Liberation War Museum, Bangladesh, Genocide Studies Centre, University of Dhaka, Refugees Resilience Centre, and Rotary Club Canada jointly organised the day-long seminar on remembering and recognition of the case of Bangladesh genocide, reported The Daily Star.

The Bangladesh government has declared March 25 as Genocide Day. Civil society has also raised its voice and different civil society organisations are raising the issue in different international forums to push forth the demand for 1971 genocide recognition.

So far, two internationally acclaimed organisations working on the prevention of genocide worldwide, namely Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Genocide Watch have recognised the 1971 genocide and issued statements to the effect, reported the Bangladeshi publication, The Sun.

On March 25, 1971, Pakistan Army launched ‘Operation Searchlight’, wherein a planned military operation was carried out by the Pakistan Army and its military massacred hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi citizens.

According to the right groups, the horrors of 1971 are considered one of the worst mass atrocities in history.