The Black Night Of March 25th 1971

This is a night to remember for all the Bangladeshis.

On this night in 1971, the Pakistani Govt. launched "Operation Search Light" against the unarmed Bengalis. The Dhaka University was attacked and students exterminated in their hundreds. Death squads roamed the streets of Dhaka, killing some 7,000 people in a single night. It was only the beginning of a nine month long war of independence, which left with left millions of Bengalis dead and a country in ruins. On March 26, the nation started an armed struggle against the Pakistani occupation forces following the declaration of independence by Gen. Ziaur Rahman, on behalf of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Tomorrow (Friday), Bangladesh will celebrate the 33rd anniversary of its independence.

Some examples of the atrocities of the Pakistan Army from an eye witness:

The incessant firings from cannons, mortars, tanks, machine-guns and automatics continue throughout the night. On the morning of the 26th the Pakistani killers began to go through the hall rooms and residential apartments and began their orgy of murder and looting. Raging infernos everywhere; the slum was burning, the cars parked around the residences were burning. The heaped bodies of the dead from the slum were also set on fire near the Nilkhet rail gate petrol pump. The sound of shells bursting and guns firing, the smoke and fire, the smell of gun-powder and the stench of the burning corpses all transformed the area into a fiery hell.

Some remarks on the genocides:

"This genocide has been even more terrible than the Nazi gas chambers." - Madame Isabella Blum, the head of the World Peace Commission

"I have seen atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis during World War II, but the brutality I have witnessed here is even more terrible," - Andr� Malreaux, French writer

Ahmed Salim, poet and activist of Pakistan tells the story of war criminals.

To learn more about the history of Bangladesh's Independence click here.