Protest outside Pakistan embassy in Hague against 1971 genocide in Bangladesh

A demonstration was staged near the Pakistan embassy in the Hague wherein protestors demanded an "unconditional official apology" for the genocide committed by the Pakistan army in Bangladesh during the 1971 Liberation War.

The protest was orgsed by a Europe-based Bangladeshi diaspora orgsation, European Bangladesh Forum (EBF) on Wednesday.

Bangladeshis living in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany participated in the demonstration, which took place at Paleisstraaat, close to the Pakistan Embassy in the Hague, Bangladesh's Daily Star reported.

In a petition to Pakist Ambassador Shujjat Ali Rathore, the orgsers said the 1971 genocide by the Pakistan military is well documented and reported in international media and in diplomatic correspondences during that period.

On March 25, 1971, at midnight under the name Operation Searchlight, seen by many as the first step in the Bengali genocide, Pakistan Army killed about 100,000 Bengalis in a single night. They targeted academics and scholars, specifically murdering many university students and professors.

Bangladesh, erstwhile East Pakistan witnessed almost a full collapse of humty during the nine months of March to December in 1971. Though atrocities and brutality started well before March 1971, a continuation of this barbarism reached its peak on the night of March 25, 1971.

According to Daily Star, the diaspora demanded that the Pakistan government offer an official unconditional apology for the genocide the Pakistan army committed in Bangladesh during the Liberation War in 1971.

They also demanded Islamabad to try the Pakistan army and civil officials who were responsible for the genocide, provide compensation to the families of those killed in the genocide and compensate the Bangladesh government for the damage and destruction of the national properties and take back the stranded Pakists (Biharis) to Pakistan.

( With inputs from ANI )

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