Nation observes first Genocide Day

Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee yesterday urged the government to take initiatives to ban political and criminal activities in the name of religion.

The committee made the call at a programme at the Central Shaheed Minar in the capital marking Genocide Day, which was observed for the first time in the country yesterday.

“We'll continue our struggle to free the society from the clutches of communalism and to establish the spirit of the Liberation War,” Shahriar Kabir, president of the committee, said while reading out a declaration paper at the event.

Noted personalities at the event stressed the need for building consensus at home and abroad to earn international recognition of the day.

Speaking at the event, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said the day should have been recognised much earlier.

He hoped that Genocide Day would be observed on a larger scale in future.

Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon said the politics of mass murder during the Liberation War was based on religious fanaticism. “This religious fanaticism is trying to rise again.”

Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq, Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) President Mujahidul Islam Selim, Prof Ajoy Roy and lawmaker Shirin Akter, among others, also spoke.

Later, the Nirmul committee brought out a candlelight procession from Shaheed Minar to Jagannath Hall of Dhaka University.

The nation yesterday observed Genocide Day for the first time with the demand for recognising the day internationally. On this day in 1971, the Pakistan army launched atrocities on the unarmed Bangalees.

To mark the day, government, different political parties, cultural and social organisations organised programmes including discussions, seminars and photography exhibitions in the capital and elsewhere.

On March 11, parliament unanimously adopted a resolution to observe March 25 as Genocide Day. The cabinet division issued a gazette notification on March 21 in this regard.

At a separate event organised by Bangla Academy in the capital, historian Prof Muntasir Mamun said, “They [Pakistani army] did not commit genocide on this day only, they did it every day throughout the nine-months.”

The Ministry of Liberation War Affairs and Sector Commanders' Forum organised separate photography exhibitions at the Suhrawardy Udyan in the city.

BANGLADESH MISSIONS ABROAD OBSERVE GENOCIDE DAY

Bangladesh missions in New Delhi and Islamabad observed Genocide Day in a befitting manner, underlining the need for putting on trial the Pakistani military commanders who had made the blueprint and executed the world history's worst massacre, reports UNB.

President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages on the occasion.

In his message, the president said the genocide of 1971 is a black chapter in the history of mankind, reports BSS. “None can forget the horrors of the genocide.”

In her message, the PM said the incidents of killing of such a large number of people in the short span of time are rare in the world, BSS adds.