Government declassifies Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report

Government declassified a controversial report on the dismemberment of the country's eastern province that became Bangladesh in 1971.

According to an official announcement the document, spreading over several hundred pages, has been placed for public consultation at the Establishment Division, a central government department in Islamabad. The contents of the Hamoodur Rehman Commission report were never made known and had always been a source of controversy and speculation in Pakistan.

Ripples were created recently, when Indian newspapers published parts of the report that blamed senior Pakistan military officers for the emergence of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh, which has accused the Pakistani Army of genocide, claims at least three million civilians were killed in 1971 amidst wide spread rape and loot. The civil war ended on December 16, 1971 with 93,000 Pakistanis taken prisoners-of-war.

The report was published by Dawn on December 30, 2000 http://www.dawn.com/2000/12/28/latest.htm