HISTORY

The date 25 March commemorates Operation Searchlight, a planned military pacification carried
out by the Pakistan Army, started on 25 March to curb the Bengali independence movement by
taking control of the major cities on 26 March, and then eliminating all opposition, political or
military,[5] within one month. Before the beginning of the operation, all foreign journalists were
systematically deported from East Pakistan.[6][7]

On 11 March 2017, the Parliament of Bangladesh unanimously passed Resolution designating

25 March as a Genocide Remembrance Day.[8][9] The day honours and remembers those who
suffered and died as a consequence of killings by the Pakistani Army in 25 March 1971, which
started with Operation Searchlight and ended with the 1971 Bangladesh Genocide and the
Independence of Bangladesh[10][11][12][13]. During this period the persecution of Bangla population by
Pakistan army led by General A.K. Niazi was notable. It is believed this was on account of the
contempt the dominant Punjabi Pakistanis had for of Bengalis, there was mounting evidence that
among the Bengalis, the Hindu minority was doubly marked out for persecution. In a post war
enquiry several senior Pakistani officers admitted to systematic targeting of the community on the
orders from a brigadier which General Niazi had denied[14].

"Bangladesh will reach out to UN seeking recognition of 1971 genocide while the government
declared March 25 as genocide day", according to Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM
Mozammel Huq[15].