American MP Greg Landsman has presented a proposal in the US House of Representatives. It demands recognition of the atrocities committed against Bengali Hindus by the Pakistani Army and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami on March 25, 1971 as 'war crimes and genocide'. Landesman, a Democrat MP from Ohio, presented this proposal in the US House of Representatives. It has been sent to the Foreign Affairs Committee.
The resolution states that on the night of March 25, 1971, the Pakistani government imprisoned Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his military units, in collaboration with radical Islamic groups inspired by the ideology of Jamaat-e-Islami, launched an operation named Operation Searchlight in East Pakistan, which resulted in a large-scale massacre of civilians.
It says that on March 28, 1971, the US Consul General in Dhaka, Archer Blood, sent a telegram to Washington titled Selective Genocide, in which he wrote, Furthermore, with the support of the Pakistan Army, non-Bengali Muslims are systematically attacking poor people's areas and killing Bengalis and Hindus.
Landsman noted that on April 6, 1971, what became known as the Blood Telegram was sent. Archer Blood sent a letter signed by 20 members of the Consul General in Dhaka, objecting to the US government's official silence on the conflict.
The then diplomat said, we have also decided morally not to intervene, because the Awami conflict, in which unfortunately the word genocide is overused, is an entirely internal matter of a sovereign state. The resolution moved by Landesman urged the House of Representatives to condemn the atrocities committed by the Pakistani armed forces against the people of Bangladesh on March 25, 1971.
The resolution acknowledges that the Pakistan Army and its Islamist allies carried out an indiscriminate massacre of people of Bengali origin without regard to religion and gender, murdered their political leaders, intellectuals, professionals and students, and forced thousands of women to become sex slaves. The resolution further said, they specifically targeted the religious minority Hindus for extermination through mass genocide, mass rape, religious conversion and forced expulsion.
Noting that entire ethnic groups or religious communities are not responsible for crimes committed by their members, the resolution calls on the President of the United States to recognize the atrocities committed against Bengali Hindus by the Pakistani Armed Forces and their ally Jamaat-e-Islami during 1971 as crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.
