Community News Desk: British Parliament has condemned Pakistan’s atrocities during Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971, said Bangladesh High Commissioner in London Saida Muna Tasneem.
During a virtual discussion organised by the high commission and University College London to mark Bangladesh’s Independence Day on Friday said that Sir Peter Shore MP, the then chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, placed a motion in parliament condemning the Pakistani atrocities during Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971.
More than 233 MPs later placed another motion seeking an end to the genocide in Bangladesh and the recognition of it as an independent nation. Now the British Parliament should bring a new motion recognising the genocide, the high commission said in a statement on Saturday.
Tasneem has urged the British Parliament to table and pass a motion recognising one of the worst genocides in history by the Pakistani forces in 1971.
During a virtual discussion organised by the high commission and University College London to mark Bangladesh’s Independence Day on Friday Tasneem noted that Sir Peter Shore MP, the then chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, placed a motion in parliament condemning the Pakistani atrocities during Bangladesh’s Liberation War, it added.
In March 1971, the Pakistani Army launched ‘Operation Searchlight’, which kickstarted a series of targeted killings, massacres, and organised rape of women in the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
Archer Blood, the then US Counsel General in Dhaka, sent a telegram on April 6, 1971, to his superiors in Washington, which came to be known as “The Blood Telegram”. The telegram denounced the inaction of the then US administration on the brutal genocide taking place in then East Pakistan.
The Pakistani Army committed mass rape of Bengali women with intent to destroy their faith, social position, and self-esteem, the article said, adding that one of the reasons for the mass rapes was to undermine Bengali society through “dishonouring” of Bengali women and that some of the victims were raped until they died, citing Adam Jones, a political scientist.
