The Forgotten And Unpunished 1971 Bangladesh Genocide: Largest State Sponsored Genocide of Hindus after World War II

26TH March marked 50 years of one of the worst forgotten and unpunished Hindu Genocides in recent History. Not only mass Murder, but MASS RAPE used as a weapon of War by the Pakistani army against East Pakistan ( Now Bangladesh). The genocide in Bangladesh began on 26 March 1971 with the launch of Operation Searchlight, as West Pakistan (now Pakistan) began a military crackdown on the Eastern wing (now Bangladesh) of the nation to suppress Bengali calls for self-determination. During the nine-month-long Bangladesh War for Liberation, members of the Pakistani military and supporting Islamist militias from Jamaat-e-Islami killed between 200,000 and 3,000,000 people and raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women, according to Bangladeshi and Indian sources, in a systematic campaign of genocidal rape

The forgotten and unpunished 1971 Bangladesh Genocide: Largest State Sponsored Genocide of Hindus after World War II
The forgotten and unpunished 1971 Bangladesh Genocide: Largest State Sponsored Genocide of Hindus after World War II

During the 1971 war, a fatwa in Pakistan declared that the Bengali freedom fighters were “Hindus” and that their women could be taken as the “booty of war”. Imams and Muslim religious leaders publicly declared that the Bengali women were gonimoter maal (war booty) and thus they openly supported the rape of Bengali women by the Pakistani Army.

The actions against women were supported by Jamaat-e-Islami religious leaders, who declared that Bengali women were gonimoter maal (Bengali for “public property”). As a result of the conflict, a further eight to ten million people, mostly Hindus, fled the country to seek refuge in neighboring India. It is estimated that up to 30 million civilians were internally displaced out of 70 million.  

The forgotten and unpunished 1971 Bangladesh Genocide: Largest State Sponsored Genocide of Hindus after World War II
The forgotten and unpunished 1971 Bangladesh Genocide: Largest State Sponsored Genocide of Hindus after World War II

Yet the World deliberately avoids mention reminder of the heinous War Crimes committed by Pakistan against the Hindus, Senator Tulsi Gabbard of USA is one of the ONLY Global Leaders to openly speak about it but also condemn Hindu Phobia which is a growing and dangerous trend in Universities and communities across the USA and Canada.

Related Article Rapistan Synonym for Pakistan.

The forgotten and unpunished Genocide of Hindus

Before we return to the Topic of Hibduphobia in US and Canada, some excerpts from various sources on the Attack by Pakistanis on Hindus:

The first report of the Bangladesh genocide was published by West Pakistani journalist Anthony Mascarenhas in The Sunday Times, London on 13 June 1971 titled “Genocide”. He wrote: “I saw Hindus, hunted from village to village and door to door, shot off-hand after a cursory ‘short-arm inspection’ showed they were uncircumcised. I have heard the screams of men bludgeoned to death in the compound of the Circuit House (civil administrative headquarters) in Comilla. I have seen truckloads of other human targets and those who had the humanity to try to help them hauled off ‘for disposal’ under the cover of darkness and curfew.” This article helped turn world opinion against Pakistan and decisively encouraged the Government of India to intervene.

On 2 August 1971, Time magazine correspondent sent a dispatch that provided detailed description of the destruction in East Pakistan. It wrote that cities have whole sections damaged from shelling and aerial bombardments. The dispatch wrote: “In Dhaka, where soldiers set sections of the Old City ablaze with flamethrowers and then machine-gunned thousands as they tried to escape the cordon of fire, nearly 25 blocks have been bulldozed clear, leaving open areas set incongruously amid jam-packed slums.” It quoted a senior US official as saying “It is the most incredible, calculated thing since the days of the Nazis in Poland.”

RAPE AS A WEAPON OF WAR BY PAKISTAN!

During the 1971 Bangladesh war for independence, members of the Pakistani military and Razakar raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bangladeshi women and girls in a systematic campaign of genocidal rape. Most of the rape victims of the Pakistani Army and its allies were Hindu women.

Imams and Muslim religious leaders declared the women “war booty” and supported the rapes. The activists and leaders of Islamic parties are also accused to be involved in the rapes and abduction of women.

Women were attacked in two ways: Firstly, Hindu women were raped and killed; secondly, Bengali Muslim women who were perceived to be under the Hindu influence were impregnated by force in order to create “pure” Muslims. Scholars have suggested that rape was used to terrorize both BUT MOSTLY the Bengali Hindu minority of Bangladesh. Those rapes apparently caused thousands of pregnancies, births of war babiesabortionsinfanticidesuicide, and ostracisation of the victims. Recognized as one of the major occurrences of war crimes anywhere, the atrocities ended after surrender of the Pakistani military and supporting Razaker militias.

The forgotten and unpunished 1971 Bangladesh Genocide: Largest State Sponsored Genocide of Hindus after World War II
The forgotten and unpunished 1971 Bangladesh Genocide: Largest State Sponsored Genocide of Hindus after World War II

There are eyewitness reports of the “rape camps” established by the Pakistani Army. The US based Women Under Siege Project of the Women’s Media Center have reported the girls as young as 8 and women as old as 75 were detained in Pakistan military barracks, and where they were victims of mass rape which sometimes culminated in mass murder. The report was based on interview with survivors.

Thousands of Bengali women were abducted and held by force in barracks, where they were raped night after night for months. According to Susan Brownmiller, author of a groundbreaking 1975 book on rape, captive women and young girls were raped by anywhere from two to 80 men a night. Browmiller writes that Khadiga, a 13-year-old survivor interviewed in an abortion clinic by a female photojournalist, was at first “gagged to keep from screaming during attacks.” But as months passed and “the captives’ spirit was broken, the soldiers devised a simple quid pro quo. They withheld the daily ration of food until the girls had submitted to the full quota.” One survivor Arizona State University professor Yasmin Saikia interviewed stated that when her fellow captives died due to continuous torture, she and the other women were forced to dig graves and bury their peers. Brownmiller relays the words of an Indian reporter who writes that pornographic movies were shown to soldiers “in an obvious attempt to work the men up.”

The forgotten and unpunished 1971 Bangladesh Genocide: Largest State Sponsored Genocide of Hindus after World War II
The forgotten and unpunished 1971 Bangladesh Genocide: Largest State Sponsored Genocide of Hindus after World War II

How Sexualized Violence was Used as a Weapon of War

To break up families and communities: Many families did not accept women and young girls after they returned home from rape camps and other sites of abuse. Children of rape were rarely accepted, either. As a result of being rejected, many women committed suicide. As Bangladesh’s Daily Star reports, others “fled to Pakistan with their Pakistani captors rather than face what awaited them in Bangladeshi society.” It’s likely that the military had this effect in mind when systematically attacking women and girls. (See also “Witness.”)

To wield power: Food rations were withheld from women and young girls in rape camps until they acquiesced each day to repeated sexual assault.

To humiliate: Rape survivors, though called “war heroines” by the government, were stigmatized and made to feel ashamed of their ordeals. One survivor says she and others stayed with the soldiers who’d hurt them because of how palpable the rejection was by Bangladeshi men. Many women, shunned by their communities, fled to other towns or committed suicide. Again, this was likely no surprise to the military officials who encouraged soldiers to rape. Women and nation were viewed as related concepts, rendering women during nationalist fights prime targets of attack, says Rochona Majumda.

 Australian Doctor Geoffrey Davis was brought to Bangladesh by the United Nation and International Planned Parenthood Federation to carry out late term abortions on rape victims. He was of the opinion that the 200,000 to 400,000 rape victims were an underestimation. On the actions of Pakistan army he said “They’d keep the infantry back and put artillery ahead and they would shell the hospitals and schools. And that caused absolute chaos in the town. And then the infantry would go in and begin to segregate the women. Apart from little children, all those were sexually matured would be segregated..And then the women would be put in the compound under guard and made available to the troops … Some of the stories they told were appalling. Being raped again and again and again. A lot of them died in the camps. 

LET THE WORLD NEVER FORGET THAT IT WAS THE INDIAN ARMY THAT DROVE WEST PAKISTAN OUT. PUNISHED AND DEFEATED THE PAKISTANI ARMY AND IT WAS INDIA THAT GAVE EAST PAKISTAN FREEDOM. THIS IS THE BIRTH OF  BANGLADESH WHERE HINDUS ARE STILL A TARGETED MINORITY.

The forgotten and unpunished 1971 Bangladesh Genocide: 93,000 Pakistani Troops Surrendered before Indian Army at the end of 1971 War.

HINDUPHOBIA IN AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES: 

HINDUS are a peaceful,  progressive and Tolerant as a Faith.

They rarely if ever speak up for themselves or get involved in active Politics.  In the last many years Hinduphobia is being promoted in American universities and some sections of Canadian society by Pro Pakistani/ Lefty & Islamic +Khalistani Lobbies.

Rutgers University with the Hindu Hater Audrey Truschke is one example.  

This week a student from # Yale Tweeted his Hindu phobic comments. 

US Senator Tulsi Gabbard of Hawai who follows the Hindu faith, though she is not of Indian origin is one of the ONLY World leaders to speak up.  During the Election debates she would intelligently and convincingly Defeat Kamala Harris. Most Indo Americans would have preferred to see Tulsi as VP today.

Is America ready for a Hindu leader?

What is the image of Hindus in US and Canada today.

Why is Hindu Phobia growing? 

How can Indo 🇨🇦🇺🇲 Counter this?

Let’s read it in part two of this Article!

About the Author :  Pen Name : Little Tigress. Global Freelance journalist with background of crime, court and defense living in Canada.

Points to Ponder

What Pakistan did in Bangladesh is easily the biggest state sponsored genocide after Second World War. Is anyone held accountable for the genocide in Bangladesh? What is the punishment? Why is Pakistan allowed to go free?

Why has the International Community not recognized State Sponsored Hindu Genocide in Bangladesh by Pakistan Army despite completing 50 Years?

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