March 25th: Darkest night in the history of Bangladesh

In a secretive manner, President Yahya Khan boarded a Pakistani International Airlines flight in the evening at around 7:30 and took off for Karachi. All the arrangements for what would infamously become known as “Operation Searchlight” were completed. Before stepping into the flight, the army high command was instructed to commence operations a...

Operation Searchlight on March 25, 1971: Pakistani forces initiated one of the deadliest genocide on Bangalees of East Pakistan

Bangladesh is observing ‘Genocide Day’ today commemorating brutalities of the Pakistan army during Operation Searchlight, launched on the night of March 25 in 1971, as a last resort to try and suppress the will of the people of what would become, in less than nine months, an independent Bangladesh. On the Black Night of March 25 in ...

Recognise 25th March as 'International Genocide Day: HPM Sheikh Hasina urges the global community

Prime Minister and Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina today called upon the world community including the United Nations to recognise March 25 of 1971 as International Genocide Day. "The Pakistan occupation forces committed killings since this day (March 25, 1971). We want the 25th of March to be recognised as International Genocide Day. ...

March 25: Pakistan army on a killing mission

Fifty years ago on 25 March 1971, all hopes for a political solution to the crisis in Pakistan lay in ruins. A day earlier, on 24 March, sensing the sinister intentions of the Yahya Khan junta, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had instructed his aides to propose to the regime that a wholesale transformation now needed to be brought into the con...

Genocide Day: As it was in March 1971

Syed Badrul Ahsan: How do we recall the horrors of 25 March 1971? To what degree do we recollect the terror we as a nation were subjected to by an organized army even as we waited for a peaceful, pragmatic resolution to the political crisis which overtook the state of Pakistan between the first general election in its history and the repudiatio...

Zia, Khaleda Zia pursued Pakistani agenda: HPM Sheikh Hasina

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has accused the post-1975 rulers of implementing the agenda of the then Pakistani junta to appease Islamabad. "They didn't want that the people of Bangladesh will get square meals, houses and pursue education . . . they were executing the agenda of the Pakistani occupation forces in different way," she told a discus...