The United Nations Security Council debate on Monday witnessed Permanent Representative of India to the UN, Parvathaneni Harish, tear into Pakistan during a debate on women, peace, and security, highlighting the atrocities it committed on Bangladesh during the 1971 ‘Operation Searchlight’.
Harish lashed out at Pakistan, calling out the sexual violence its army men inflicted on Bangladeshi women. “This is a country that conducted Operation Searchlight in 1971 and sanctioned a systematic campaign of genocidal mass rape of 400,000 women citizens by its own army,” he said, adding that the world sees through Pakistan’s propaganda.
The ambassador’s statement brought back focus on ‘Operation Searchlight’, a genocidal campaign carried out against the then East Pakistan, which saw mass killings, rapes, and destruction.
Congratulations to the people of Bangladesh on their National Day. The proclamation of Independence by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman this very day in 1971 is a moment in history that paved the way for the Liberation of Bangladesh. #LiberationofBangladesh #MuktiJudho… pic.twitter.com/dNXvrVcHWf
— BSF (@BSF_India) March 26, 2024
What is Operation Searchlight?
In 1970, general elections were held in Pakistan (both East and West) for the first time to elect members of the National Assembly. The results shocked the elite in West Pakistan as East Pakistan got an overwhelming majority with most seats going to the Awami League led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who campaigned on a platform of Bengali autonomy.
Shocked by the results, Pakistan Army General Yahya Khan delayed calling the first meeting of the assembly and instituted martial law. Though peace talks were held, on the night of March 25, Mujibur was arrested, and 60-80,000 West Pakistani soldiers embarked on ‘Operation Searchlight’, a military campaign which witnessed the massacre of Bengali civilians by Pakistani soldiers.
Not only did the Pakistani army resort to brutal violence to crush the surging nationalism among Bengali-speaking people in East Pakistan, but it also resorted to the genocide of Bengali Hindus and freedom-seeking Bengali Muslims.
It was initially estimated that over 200,000 women were raped. However, Australian doctor Geoffrey Davis, who was brought to Dhaka after the formation of Bangladesh by the United Nations to assist with late-term abortions of raped women, believed the estimated figure for the number of Bengali women who were raped—200,000 to 400,000—was probably too low.
Shaikh Mujib-ur-Rahman won the 1970 Elections in Pakistan, but was denied the right to be the country’s prime minister. Here he warns of the consequences, but no one listened. In 1971, Pakistan broke into two with Bangladesh replacing East Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/o1iudNbiS3
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) November 10, 2022
According to a report that appeared in 1972 in theNew York Times, systematic rape was a policy of the Pakistani Army, and the aim was to “produce a large number of children with non-Bengali fathers to dilute the prevailing Bengali nationalism.” The report also quoted that the thousands of pregnancies resulting from the rapes were a “very delicate and sensitive social problem in the country.
Dr. Davis had then told the NYT that he had heard of countless instances of suicide by pregnant girls, and many cases in which unwanted babies were disposed of by drowning or other means. “At least 5,000 pregnancies caused by the rapes had been terminated by crude but effective 'indigenous' methods,” Dr. Davis had added.
Bangladesh had always alleged that the United Nations did nothing to stop the bloodbath as the massacre happened during the Cold War era. |
