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A resolution that calls on the US President to recognise the genocide that Pakistani military forces committed against ethnic Bengalis and Hindus in 1971 has been introduced in the House of Representatives by two powerful American lawmakers.
Congressmen Ro Khanna, an Indian-American, and Seve Chabot introduced the resolution in the US House of Representatives on Friday. Among other things, it calls on the Pakistani government to apologise to the Bangladeshi people for its role in such a genocide.
“It is important to preserve the memory of the millions that were massacred. The historical record is enriched, our fellow Americans are educated, and potential offenders are warned that such crimes will not be tolerated or forgotten if we acknowledge the genocide “Republican Chabot said in a tweet.
“It’s important to not overlook the 1971 Genocide in Bangladesh. Ro Khanna and I submitted legislation to acknowledge that the widespread atrocities committed against Bengalis and Hindus in particular were a genocide with the assistance of my Hindu neighbours in Ohio’s First District “Chabot added.
Khanna, a Democrat representing California’s 17th congressional district, tweeted that he and Chabot had introduced the first resolution commemorating the 1971 Bengali Genocide, one of the most forgotten genocides of “our” time that killed or displaced millions of ethnic Bengalis and Hindus.
There was a genocide. In what is now Bangladesh and what was formerly East Pakistan, millions of people perished in 1971. According to Chabot, the US Representative for Ohio’s 1st congressional district, around 80% of those millions of people killed were Hindus.
Bangladeshi community members have praised the resolution.
After 51 years of hopelessness, Saleem Reza Noor felt relief. His family members had been brutally slaughtered by armed Islamists in 1971.
Noor stated that the US Congress was now officially acknowledging the genocide.
He was pleased that Democrats and Republicans had come together to introduce a historic resolution that might alter the geopolitics of South Asia, Central Asia, and the Indo-Pacific.
According to Priya Saha, executive director of the Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities, “we expect that millions of victims in Bangladesh who were deliberately killed by the Pakistan army and its allies in 1971 would be legally memorialised” (HRCBM). “Bangladesh gained its independence 51 years ago today.”
Aroma Dutta, a Bangladeshi lawmaker from the Hindu community whose grandfather and uncle were executed by the Pakistani Armed Forces, revealed that her grandfather, Dhirendra Nath Datta, age 85, and his son, Dilip Datta, age 40, were captured on March 29, 1971, by the cruel Pakistani Army.
They were brought to the Mainamati Cantonment in Cumilla, cruelly tortured for more than two weeks, and then killed. Their lifeless bodies were tossed into a ditch and were never found. They continue to be interred in a mass grave today, she claimed.
She said, “I want the killers to be punished for killing innocent people, including the elderly, young women, and children.”
