Bangladesh working to make 25 March as Int’l Genocide Day: Momen

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen has said Bangladesh is working for getting recognition of 25 March as the International Genocide Day by all the countries in the world, reports news agency BSS.

“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.

The foreign minister made the remark through a video message at an international seminar ‘Remember and Recognise: The Case of Bangladesh Genocide of 1971’ which was held at the Human Rights Museum, Winipeg in Canada on Wednesday, according to a press release received on Thursday.

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 daylong seminar on remembering and recognition of the case of Bangladesh Genocide.

Foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen spoke from New York virtually as a special guest while Bangladesh High Commissioner to Canada Khalilur Rahman and BCBS chief patron in Canada Kawser Ahmed gave introductory remarks.

Some members of the victim families of the Genocide also spoke at the Seminar.

Professor Nuzhat Chowdhury described the abduction of her father Alim Chowdhury by collaborators of Pakistan military, the Rajakars, and his subsequent brutal killing just before the independence of Bangladesh.

She explained the international politics behind the dilemma of getting Bangladesh Genocide recognised and urged for end to such realpolitik.

Towheed Reza Noor, son of Sirajuddin Hossain, described his father’s abduction and killing. Martyr Sirajuddin Hossain was a prominent journalist.

He described how the Bengali intellectuals were made victim of genocide committed by Pakistani military.