01-03-2025
Author: Antonia Chettab
Bangladesh Campaign Team
Global Human Rights Defence
The Bangladesh Genocide refers to the atrocities committed by the Pakistani army and their allies during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. An estimated three million Bengalis were ethnically targeted and killed, ten million refugees fled to India, and between 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women and girls were raped. The nine-month conflict resulted in the independence of Bangladesh after India, pressured by the influx of refugees, decided to intervene, and Pakistani forces eventually surrendered.
In recent years, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, Genocide Watch, and the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience recognised the crimes as genocide. However, the 1971 Bangladesh Genocide remains widely forgotten and is still not widely recognised by major powers and global institutions, including the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, and Pakistan.
Significant efforts have been made to document the atrocities committed during the Liberation War in the spirit of truth-seeking and justice, with journalists, scholars, writers and filmmakers shining a light on the genocide while ensuring survivor stories are not forgotten.
On June 13th, 1971, the Sunday Times published the article ’Genocide’, written by Pakistani reporter Anthony Mascarenhas, exposing the Pakistani Army’s brutality in Bangladesh and documenting the genocide carried out by Pakistan towards Bengalis, most of them Hindus. The article shocked the world, broke the silence on what was happening, and turned global opinion in favour of Bangladesh.
In April 1971, after expelling all foreign journalists, the Pakistani authorities arranged a ten-day tour for eight Pakistani journalists to inform the world about the peace and normalcy in Bangladesh following Operation Searchlight. Pakistan also wanted to publicise the suppression of the initial resistance and violence committed by Bangladesh. All the reporters helped spread the propaganda, except Mascarenhas, who had a crisis of conscience and ended up writing one of the most crucial pieces of evidence of the atrocities committed by Pakistan during the war.
During the tour, Mascarenhas, who worked for The Morning News in Karachi, travelled with Pakistani officers who trusted him and talked to senior military officials in Dhaka and Comilla. He witnessed horrible scenes and heard Pakistani soldiers proudly discuss their kills.
Mascarenhas returned shocked, stressed, and adamant to tell the truth about what he had witnessed. Unable to publish in Pakistan due to military censorship and fear of retribution, he travelled to London to meet with the editor of the Sunday Times, Harold Evans, who promised to run the story once Mascarenhas’s family was safe and out of the country. The day after the family was reunited in London, the article was published.
Mascarenhas provided a unique eyewitness account of the systematic killing spree straight from the source. His article described the brutal kill-and-burn missions and the determination to colonise and ethnically cleanse East Pakistan. Hindus were either hunted or forced to flee, and cities were deserted. Bengali officers were subject to exhaustive screening and removed from sensitive government positions. The article also addresses efforts to draw support from East Pakistan collaborators.
The article devastated Pakistani propaganda, forced global media and world leaders to pay attention, and encouraged India to play a critical role. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi told Harold Evans that the article had shocked her and motivated a diplomatic campaign to prepare for India’s intervention, which eventually led to the surrender of Pakistani forces.
Mascarenhas’ article was seen as a betrayal by Pakistan, which still denies the atrocities. He received numerous threats to his life and was granted Indian citizenship.
In 1972, Mascarenhas was awarded the Granada’s Gerald Barry Award for lifetime achievement in journalism and the International Publishing Company’s Special Award. He continued to work for the Sunday Times and as a freelance writer. In 1979, he became the first journalist to reveal that Pakistan had developed nuclear weapons. He passed away in 1986, and his article is still displayed in the Liberation War Museum in Dhaka.
Gary J. Bass’s ‘The Blood Telegram’ provides an unprecedented account of the United States’ involvement in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War and how the decisions made by President Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger shaped the conflict during the Cold War.
The story begins with the partition of British India in 1947 into India and Pakistan, with the latter being divided into two territories separated by 1,600 kilometres of Indian soil. West Pakistan – now Pakistan – and East Pakistan – now Bangladesh – faced social, economic, and political divisions, with the East feeling increasingly neglected by the West. In December 1970, Bengali leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from East Pakistan and his Awami League won the free general elections. West Pakistan’s military dictatorship, a US ally at the time, refused the results of the elections, and General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan arrested Rahman. The Pakistani Army, equipped with American arms and ammunition, launched a crackdown on Bengalis, leading to the Bangladesh Liberation War and Genocide.
Archer Blood, the US consul general in Dhaka, and his staff were horrified by the atrocities they were witnessing. He sent a telegram known as ‘The Blood Telegram’ denouncing the violence and used the word ‘genocide’. However, the White House refused to intervene, silenced warnings of genocide, and turned a blind eye to the atrocities, essentially allowing the bloodbath to unfold and incite a regional war after India’s decision to intervene due to the millions of refugees.
At the time, Nixon was focused on the Cold War and establishing relations with China through Pakistan and Yahya Khan in an effort to undermine the Soviet Union. The White House refused to condemn Yahya Khan and continued to support the Pakistani Army by supplying US military equipment, even encouraging China to move troops to the Indian border for a potential attack. Nixon’s decisions were also motivated by a personal dislike of India and its leader, Indira Gandhi, who was officially neutral during the Cold War but still considered pro-Soviet by the US. Eventually, East Pakistan forces surrendered to India.
In this book, Bass addresses how US support for West Pakistan played a part in the unfolding of the Bangladesh Genocide, one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 20th century, and shaped regional dynamics. The book examines the crisis and the truth behind the events by following reporters, diplomats, freedom fighters, White House staffers, and Indian military leaders. Bass uses archival records, recently declassified documents, interviews, and unheard White House tapes, revealing shocking conversations between Nixon and Kissinger.
The book ‘Picking Up the Pieces: 1971 War Babies’ Odyssey from Bangladesh to Canada documents the journey of 15 war babies and their adoption by Canadian parents.
Estimates vary, but thousands of children were born as a result of wartime sexual violence during the Bangladesh Genocide. Referred to as ‘unwanted children’ in Bangladesh due to their traumatic origins, their stories have remained widely undocumented. Some stayed in Bangladesh, facing stigma and prejudice, and others were adopted after 1972, mainly by countries in the West, including Canada. Most adopted children were raised by Caucasian parents, some of them already with biological children of their own, ready to provide them with safe homes after the war and encourage them to know their origins without shame.
Mustafa Chowdhury, a Bengali researcher and writer living in Canada, has conducted extensive research since the 1990s on the war babies of the Bangladesh Genocide. To do so, he has used a range of archival records and testimonies between Canada and Bangladesh, including from the International Social Service, the International Planned Parenthood Federation, the Canada-based NGO Families for Children and Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity’s Home, which is where many pregnant rape victims who did not wish to keep their babies went to give birth in secret.
The book follows the adopted children and their parents, delving into their relationship and bond beyond origins and race. Moved by their tragic situation, Chowdhury decided to elevate their voices and follow their tracks to adulthood, examining their well-being, successes, identity, and family dynamics.
French photographer Anne de Henning travelled around East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) between 1971 and 1972 and is among the few foreign journalists who photographed the conflict.
In March 1971, Henning was in Nepal when she heard about a war erupting in East Pakistan after the December 1970 elections. She flew to Calcutta (now Kolkata) and tried to cross from India to East Pakistan, sensing an important moment in history. At the time, in efforts to prevent reports on the atrocities committed since Operation Searchlight on March 26th, 1971, Pakistani authorities had deported most foreign journalists and refused them entry. After two failed attempts, de Henning teamed up with three fellow journalists from the Associated Press and CBS, managing to drive across the border in April 1971. They were greeted by young men from the Liberation Army saying, “You are now in free Bangladesh!”
De Henning and her colleagues broke the two-week news blackout in the early days of the conflict. She photographed life in the war zone, including freedom fighters, families, and refugee trains, portraying the day-to-day reality during the conflict and the courage of the Bengali people. Some of the young men she photographed were chanting ‘Joy Bangla’ (‘Victory to Bengal!’) and asked de Henning and her colleagues to tell the world about the war and their need for modern military equipment.
De Henning returned to Bangladesh in 1972 and photographed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, then Prime Minister of Bangladesh, giving a speech at the first Council Meeting of Awami League since the country’s independence. Most images of Rahman were destroyed after his assassination and the military coup in 1975, leaving de Henning’s photos, which were shot in colour, some of the remaining few to still exist.
To mark the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh’s independence, the Samdani Art Foundation and the Centre for Research and Information organised the exhibition ‘Witnessing History in the Making’ displaying de Henning’s rare photographs in Dhaka. The exhibition was later displayed at the Guimet Museum in Paris.
Stop Genocide is a 20-minute documentary by Zahir Raihan, shot and released during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. The film represented a great opportunity to show the world the realities of the war in Bangladesh.
The film documents the atrocities committed by the Pakistan Army on the people of Bangladesh, then East Pakistan. It also sheds light on the millions of refugees that fled to India and the activities of the Government in exile. The footage also draws parallels with Nazi violence during World War II and US bombing missions during the Vietnam War.
Raihan and film director Alamgir Kabir started production between April and May 1971 and filmed in June, completing the project in less than a month.
‘Bay of Blood’ was directed by Indian Bengali filmmaker Krishendu Bose and premiered in 2023 at the Liberation War Museum in Dhaka. The full-length documentary shines a light on the horrors of the Bangladesh Liberation War and pushes for wider acknowledgement of the genocide.
The film uses archival footage, eyewitness accounts and expert interviews to unearth the truth about the genocide and the bloody birth of Bangladesh. It features testimonies from freedom fighters, survivors, defectors, rape victims, family members of victims, and political figures at the time, among others.
An integral part of the film and one of its key takeaways is the role of the US and the inaction of President Nixon and his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, who refused to intervene due to Cold War dynamics. The film includes recently declassified excerpts of the Nixon tapes and communications between Pakistani soldiers on the night of Operation Searchlight, which marked the beginning of the war and genocide.
Bose decided to make the film when he realised how the genocide had become widely forgotten and was not recognised by most of the international community, especially the West. The film serves as a call for support for the Bangladeshi people in their efforts to seek justice and healing.
In 2018, Leesa Gazi, a British Bangladeshi filmmaker, released the documentary Rising Silence and told the stories of the women who were raped and tortured during the Bangladesh Liberation War.
Over nine months of conflict, an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 Bangladeshi women and girls were sexually assaulted by Pakistani soldiers and their collaborators, who used rape camps as a military tactic. At the end of the war, thousands of traumatised women were rescued and, in many cases, pregnant, resulting in many abortions, a new legal framework for adoption, and the birth of thousands of war babies. The government gave the women the title of Birangona – meaning war heroine, brave, and blameless. In reality, they were seen as a reminder of the atrocities and faced social stigmatisation, marginalisation, and daily prejudice. Their stories have remained widely ignored and silenced.
Gazi decided to break the silence and elevate their voices to honour their courage after what they endured. In 2010, she met with 21 Birangona women in Bangladesh and started documenting their stories with the Komola Collective, an initiative she founded to tell stories from women’s perspectives. In 2015, the women invited Gazi into their villages and families to share their experiences as women and citizens in post-war Bangladesh society. Gazi and her film crew stayed with each of the women in an effort to establish trust before starting the interviews. Four of the women died during post-production, stressing the importance of sharing their testimonies and ensuring such a significant part of history is not forgotten.
These articles, books, photos, and documentaries have been essential in documenting the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, denouncing the atrocities committed by the Pakistani army, and advocating for the recognition of the genocide by the international community, ensuring the crimes are not forgotten by history and victims obtain justice.
Basher, N. (2015, December 18). 5 Films for the Spirit of Liberation. The Daily Star.
5 Films for the Spirit of Liberation | The Daily Star
Bass, G. J. (2023, September 24). The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide. Goodreads.
The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide by Gary J. Bass | Goodreads
Choudhury, R. (2023, August 24). The Eye Of History: Anne De Henning And The Bangladesh Liberation War. The Alzaki Foundation for the Arts.
https://alkazifoundation.org/the-eye-of-history-anne-de-henning-and-the-bangladesh-liberation-war/
CUNY School of Law. (Accessed on March 1, 2025). Bay of Blood Film Screening and Q & A with Director Krishendu Bose. CUNY School of Law.
De Henning, A. (2021, December 10). Freedom in the making: Bangladesh by Anne de Henning – in pictures. The Guardian.
Dummett, M. (2011, December 16). Bangladesh war: The article that changed history. BBC News.
Bangladesh war: The article that changed history – BBC News
Filkins, D. (2013, September 27). Collateral Damage. The New York Times.
‘The Blood Telegram,’ by Gary J. Bass – The New York Times
Ghosh, D. (2021, February 10). ‘Muktir Gaan’ to ‘Matir Moina’: 10 films about the historic Bangladesh Liberation War. Scroll.in.
‘Joy Bangla’: Ten films to mark the 50th anniversary of the Bangladesh Liberation War
Ittefak Desk. (2022, October 18). Witnessing History in the Making: Photographs by Anne de Henning Bangladesh 1971- 1972. Ittefaq.
Witnessing History in the Making: Photographs by Anne de Henning Bangladesh 1971- 1972
Komola Collective, Openvizor, and Gazi, L. (Accessed on March 1, 2025). About: Rising Silence. Rising Silence. https://www.risingsilence.co.uk/about
Mascarenhas, A. (2017, December 16). Genocide. The Daily Star. GENOCIDE | The Daily Star
Noor, T. R. (2022, November 22). Recognition of the Bangladesh Genocide of 1971. Genocide Watch.
https://www.genocidewatch.com/single-post/recognition-of-the-bangladesh-genocide-of-1971
Shah, S. (2019, July 25). The filmmaker bringing survivor stories to light. New Internationalist. https://newint.org/features/2019/06/19/mixed-media-spotlight-leesa-gazi
Siddiqua, F. Z. (2014, December 5). Remembering the Forgotten. The Daily Star. https://www.thedailystar.net/remembering-the-forgotten-53201
Singh, R.P. (2021, June 13). How Mascarenhas’s report changed Bangladesh’s Liberation War. The Daily Star.
How Mascarenhas’s report changed Bangladesh’s Liberation War | The Daily Star
Tabassum, M. (2023, August 20). ‘Bay of Blood’: A powerful call for recognition and justice. The Daily Star.
TBS Report. (2021, December 16). Genocide: Mascarenhas’s world stunning piece against Pakistan’s suppression. The Business Standard.
TVF International. (Accessed on March 1, 2025). Bay of Blood: The Bangladesh Genocide. TVF International.
https://tvfinternational.com/programme/29671/bay-of-blood-the-bangladesh-genocide?trailer=1
UNB. (2022, December 17). French photographer who documented Liberation War revisits Bangladesh after 50 years. The Daily Star.
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