Justice for Genocide Victims
Maqbool Aliani, The World Sindhi Institute (WSI), Washington, DC

The World Sindhi Institute welcomes Bangladeshi Premier Hasina Wajed’s recent demand for justice for the millions of victims of atrocities in 1971. We would like to express our solidarity with the Bangladeshi people and we protest against the insensitive remarks made by Pakistan’s military dictator suggesting that the crimes are too old to be addressed today. Such crimes against humanity are never too old to prosecute and even less so when the victims continue to struggle with the consequences, and the culprits go on living, often in luxury, even more often as honorable people. Not only should the criminals be brought to justice, but also their victims should have an opportunity to face them in an impartial court of law. Pakistan must also apologize on behalf of those citizens who supported the atrocities, actively or otherwise, and on behalf of successive governments that have lied to a whole generation of Pakistan’s citizens about the events surrounding Bangladesh’s independence. Perpetrators of this genocide are also answerable to the Pakistani masses in whose name they committed these atrocities, and to whom they brought the humiliation of an enormous military defeat.

Beyond its intrinsic value, justice for victims of the Bangladeshi war of independence will also force Pakistan’s military junta, which has a history of committing atrocities against its own citizens, be they the Bengalis in 1971, or the Balochs and Sindhis since, and proudly hailing each adventure as a victory for the Islamic nation, to face the shamefulness of their actions, and just possibly, not repeat them in the future.

WSI appeals to bring to trial all war criminals of the 1971 military junta, including General A.M. Yahya Khan (posthumously), General Abdul Hamid Khan, Lt. General Gul Hassan Khan, Lt. General Tikka Khan, Lt. General A.O. Mitha, Lt. General A.A.K. Niazi, Major General Rao Farman Ali Khan, Major General Khadim Hussain Raja, and Brigadier Z.A. Khan, for their heinous crimes against humanity.