On the night of 25 March 1971, the Pakistani military massacred Bengalis to take control of the country's main city through a military operation called Operation Searchlight to suppress the independence movement in the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested and taken to West Pakistan. [2] All foreign journalists were evacuated from East Pakistan before the operation began.[3][4] 26 were arrested after the attack on Bengalis. In the first hours of March, Bangabandhu declared the independence of Bangladesh. It was through this that the independence war of Bangladesh began and Bangladesh gained independence. On March 11, 2017, the National Parliament of Bangladesh unanimously adopted a decision to observe March 25 as "Genocide Day" in memory of those killed and injured in Operation Searchlight by the Pakistani military.[5] The Bangladesh government is working to recognize 25 March as Genocide Day internationally. The crime has already been recognized as genocide by Genocide Watch and the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention. In addition, the organization called on the international community, including the two nations, to recognize the genocide in Bangladesh.[6] This brutal genocide was further recognized by the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS). This information was informed in a press release dated 24 April 2023 from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
