Declare Pak atrocities against Bengali Hindus in 1971 as genocide: US lawmaker

WASHINGTON: (Mar 22) US Congressman Greg Landsman has introduced a resolution in the US House of Representatives seeking to recognise the atrocities committed by the Pakistani Army and its allies, Jamaat-e-Islami, against Bengali Hindus on March 25, 1971, as “war crimes and genocide”.

Landsman, a Democrat Congressman from Ohio, moved the resolution in the US House of Representatives on Friday, and it has been referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

The resolution states that on the night of March 25, 1971, the Government of Pakistan imprisoned Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and its military units, in conjunction with radical Islamist groups inspired by the ideology of Jamaat-e-Islami, began a general crackdown throughout East Pakistan code-named ‘‘Operation Searchlight’’ that involved widespread massacres of civilians.