Bangladesh Missions abroad observed Genocide Day on Sunday marking the atrocities and massacres committed by the Pakistani military on the civilian Bangalees on March 25 in 1971, reports UNB. Speakers at discussions in Bangladesh Missions reminisced the horror of the night during which the marauding Pakistani troops, armed with sophisticated weapons, cracked down in Dhaka and several other cities in campaign codenamed: Operation Searchlight.

The Missions also paid homage to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman under whose leadership the Bangalees fought nine months of liberation war that culminated in victory on December 16 in 1971, according to messages received from Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi, Bangladesh Embassy in Seoul, Bangladesh Embassy in Bangkok and others.

During the nine months Pakistani military and their local collaborators killed three million civilians making it one of the world's worst genocide.

In his speech High Commissioner Syed Muazzem Ali urged the United Nations and the international community to come forward to declare March 25 as Genocide Day to build public awareness across the world about such atrocities against humanity.

Jayanta Ghosal, New Delhi Bureau Chief of Anandabazar Patrika and Prof Sanjay Bhardwaj of JNU were the panel discussants, while it was moderated by Deputy High Commissioner ATM Rokebul Haque.

Minister (Press) Farid Hossain and Counsellor Jamal Uddin Ahmed read the messages from President Md Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina respectively, said a press release.

Stop Genocide, a documentary by Jahir Raihan, was screened.

The audience observed one-minute silence remembering the victims of the genocide.

Second secretary Arsuda Khan conducted the programme, attended by joint secretary of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs Sripriya Ranganathan, foreign diplomats, local academics, elite and expatriate Bangladeshis.