AL appeals for global recognition of 1971 genocide

The ruling Awami League has again urged the international community to recognise the brutal massacres by Pakistani army on unarmed civilians in 1971 as "genocide".

The "appeal for justice" was made in a post, shared from AL's verified account on Facebook, accompanied by a video provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"Bengalis wanted to be heard, to be recognised as equal to the West Pakistani rulers. Instead, they were killed mercilessly in their sleep," the post said.

"On 25 March, Yahya Khan's sidekick Tikka Khan mobilised death squads to initiate 'Operation Searchlight'. They killed 7000 Bengalis in a single night. From that day till the end of the Liberation War 1971, Pakistani soldiers raped more than 200,000 women and killed more than three million people," reads the post.

This massive genocide displaced 30-40 million Bengalis and more than 10 million people took refuge in India.

The Hamoodur Rahman Commission's report is the most critical piece of evidence of the 1971 Bangladesh Genocide.

This report found the Pakistani military deployed in East Pakistan guilty of widespread atrocities, serious acts of human rights violations, other abuses of power, it said.

"Then PM of Pakistan ZA Bhutto ordered to burn every copy of this report. These heinous crimes are yet to be universally recognised as genocide. Not recognising the events of 1971 as genocide will not just be severe injustice done to the memories of the victims of genocide, it will be an injustice done to history itself," the Facebook post reads.