Dhaka: The nation is observeing the Genocide Day today, commemorating the barbaric mass killing by Pakistani occupation forces on March 25 in 1971.
The day is being observed officially for the fourth time in the country as parliament on March 11 in 2017 unanimously adopted a resolution to observe March 25 as the Mass Killing Day (Gonohotya Dibos).
On the black night of March 25, the Pakistani military junta resorted to the mass killing in Dhaka to implement their blueprint to thwart the Awami League’s assumption of office following the election mandate of 1970.
In the attack dubbed ‘Operation Searchlight’, the Pakistani forces mercilessly killed the Bangalee members of the East Pakistan Rifles and police, students, teachers and common people.
They killed people indiscriminately, set fire to houses and property and looted business establishments, leaving a trail of destruction.
President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages on the occasion of the ‘Genocide Day’.
In his message, the President said the brutal genocide ‘Operation Searchlight’ carried out by Pakistani occupation forces on March 25 is a barbaric and tragic incident in the history of the Bangalee nation.
He recalled with profound respect the martyrs of the 1971 Liberation War.
The President said Pakistani occupation forces unleashed the brutal genocide simultaneously in Dhaka and all over the country including Dhaka University campus, Rajarbagh Police Lines, Pilkhana EPR (Now BGB), Jashore, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Saidpur, Cumilla, Sylhet and Chattogram.
Abdul Hamid urged all irrespective of opinions and party affiliation to make contribution from respective positions to materialise the Vision 2041 declared by the government to turn the country into a developed and prosperous one.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in her message, said March 25 is the most dreadful day in the life of the Bangalee Nation.
This day in 1971, she said, one of the most horrific and brutal genocide of the world history took place in Bangladesh.
She paid her deep homage to the greatest Bangalee of all times, Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the four national leaders, martyred freedom fighters of the Liberation War and those dishonoured women whose supreme sacrifices have given the nation an independent Bangladesh.
She extended her sympathy to the wounded freedom fighters and the members of martyr’s families.
The Bangalee nation under the leadership of Bangabandhu fought against the oppression and deprivation of the Pakistani rulers for 23 long years, she said.
To mark the day, the government has drawn up various programmes.
The country is set to stage a one-minute blackout from 9:00pm on March 25, recalling the horror of the March 25 black night when the Pakistanis launched genocide on the Bangladesh soil.
