Bangladesh will petition the United Nations to move International Genocide Day from December 9 to March 25, the government has announced.
Although the observance marks the date in 1948 when the Genocide Convention was adopted by the UN General Assembly, the Bangladesh government believes a more poignant date should be used.
"No genocide took place on December 9, but here in Bangladesh we witnessed one on March 25 of 1971," Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque told reporters at the Secretariat Thursday. "So a delegation will be sent to the UN this month with a proposal to observe March 25 instead of December 9 as Genocide Day globally".
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In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly announced December 9 as 'International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime'.
On March 11, however, the Bangladesh parliament unanimously adopted a resolution declaring March 25 as the Genocide Day following long-standing demands from different organisations including Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, Antorjatik Juddaporadh o Gonobichar Andolan, and the AL-led 14-party alliance.
On this night in 1971, shortly after Awami League chief Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared independence, the Pakistani Army launched 'Operation Searchlight' that is reported to have killed over 20,000 people in Dhaka alone. Mujib was arrested and flown to Pakistan.
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March 25 is also observed as the “Black Night,” the beginning of a nine-month-long war during which over three million people were killed, over 200,000 women raped and many properties were looted and destroyed by the Pakistani occupation forces and their local collaborators. More than 20 million people were forced to take refuge in India because of the onslaught.
It was reported by Simon Dring under the caption 'Dateline Dacca' in the Daily Telegraph on March 29 that 200 students of Iqbal Hall (now Shaheed Sergeant Zahurul Haq Hall), and 12 teachers and their family members in Dhaka University residential area had been killed on March 25. In Old Dhaka, around 700 people were burnt to death.
To mark the date this year, there will be a photo exhibition and discussion at Dhaka’s Suhrawardy Udyan.
Monday, March 24, 2025
