US Congressman Moves Resolution to Recognise 1971 Operation Searchlight Killings of Bengali Hindus as Genocide

A US Representative has filed a resolution urging formal US recognition of the 1971 Operation Searchlight crimes as genocide, highlighting mass killings of Bengali Hindus and the need for official presidential acknowledgement under international norms.

International

-Swastika Sruti

A Democratic member of the US House of Representatives has moved a resolution seeking official American recognition of the mass killings of Bengali Hindus by the Pakistani Army and allied Islamist groups in 1971 as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, placing Operation Searchlight back in global focus.

The measure, introduced by Greg Landsman of Ohio’s first congressional district, was submitted on Friday and routed to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. This referral marks the initial stage in a formal process through which the United States government could adopt an explicit position on the 1971 atrocities.

Operation Searchlight genocide against Bengali Hindus: key demands of the US resolution

The resolution urges the House of Representatives to denounce the actions of the Armed Forces of Pakistan against the population of Bangladesh on 25 March 1971. It also appeals to the President of the United States to acknowledge the crimes, particularly those against ethnic Bengali Hindus, as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

In language aligned with international norms, the text stresses that no entire religious or ethnic community should be blamed collectively for crimes committed by some members. After setting this qualifier, the document clearly requests a presidential declaration that Pakistan’s 1971 campaign, including Operation Searchlight, constituted crimes against Bengali Hindus.

Operation Searchlight genocide against Bengali Hindus: what happened on 25 March 1971

The resolution focuses on the night of 25 March 1971, when Pakistan’s rulers detained Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, recognised as the founding leader of Bangladesh and the strongest proponent of Bengali self-rule. At the same time, the Pakistani Army launched a coordinated assault across East Pakistan under the code name Operation Searchlight.

According to the text, troops, aided by Islamist groups influenced by Jamaat-e-Islami, opened a wide crackdown involving mass killings of civilians. It records that the Pakistani Army and its allies “indiscriminately mass-murdered ethnic Bengalis regardless of their religion and gender, killed their political leaders, intellectuals, professionals, and students, and forced tens of thousands of women to serve as their sex slaves.”

Operation Searchlight genocide against Bengali Hindus: targeted attacks and militias

The resolution further asserts that Pakistani forces “specifically targeted the religious minority Hindus for extermination through mass slaughtering, gangrape, conversion, and forcible expulsion.” This specific reference to Bengali Hindus sits at the centre of Landsman’s initiative and shapes its argument for genocide recognition by the United States government.

The Pakistani Army, the document notes, received substantial help from Islamist collaborators inspired by Jamaat-e-Islami, including Razakars and the Al-Badr and Al-Shams militias. These groups assisted in identifying Bengali civilians, especially Hindus, and were associated with the organised killing of intellectuals during the conflict’s final days, often called the Intellectual Massacre of 1971.

Operation Searchlight genocide against Bengali Hindus: how the crackdown unfolded

Operation Searchlight is described as a planned military offensive, launched by Pakistan’s leadership under General Yahya Khan, who came to power in a 1969 coup. The stated goal was to crush the Bengali nationalist movement that had surged after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League scored a landslide victory in the December 1970 elections, a result the West Pakistan establishment refused to accept.

The crackdown began in several urban centres, with Dhaka, then spelled Dacca, experiencing the earliest and heaviest attacks. Army units moved through the city at night, striking university hostels, Hindu-majority localities, political party premises, and residences of scholars, journalists, and professionals. The University of Dhaka became one of the first major targets, where students and staff were killed in their rooms.

The old Hindu quarters of Dhaka faced deliberate and concentrated violence, with homes burned, residents killed, and women subjected to assault. Witness accounts and later investigations indicated the operation followed prepared lists, suggesting that many victims had been marked in advance. The campaign extended to Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, and Jessore, and then across East Pakistan until Pakistan’s surrender to Indian and Bangladeshi forces on 16 December 1971.

Operation Searchlight genocide against Bengali Hindus: death toll and refugee crisis

The resolution highlights that estimates of deaths during Operation Searchlight and the nine-month war remain widely disputed. The Bangladesh government and several historians maintain that around three million people were killed. Pakistani government inquiries and some Western researchers suggest a lower figure, between 300,000 and 500,000, while many independent academics place the number somewhere between these ranges.

There is far less argument about the displacement that followed Operation Searchlight. Around ten million people fled East Pakistan into neighbouring India during the conflict. The document underscores that Bengali Hindus, then about 20 per cent of East Pakistan’s population, carried a disproportionate share of the killings, expulsions, and targeted violence documented during the 1971 campaign.

Operation Searchlight genocide against Bengali Hindus: the Blood Telegram and US response

One of the most notable elements of Landsman’s resolution is its reference to the Blood Telegram, a diplomatic protest from within the US system during Operation Searchlight. On 28 March 1971, Archer Blood, the US Consul General in Dacca, sent a cable titled Selective Genocide, describing the situation in stark terms.

Blood wrote: “Moreover, with support of Pak military, non-Bengali Muslims are systematically attacking poor people’s quarters and murdering Bengalis and Hindus.” Despite this assessment, the US administration did not publicly condemn the events. On 6 April 1971, Blood dispatched a further message, signed by 20 members of the Consulate General Dacca, which formally became known as the Blood Telegram.

That cable stated: “But we have chosen not to intervene, even morally, on the grounds that the Awami conflict, in which unfortunately the overworked term genocide is applicable, is purely an internal matter of a sovereign state.” Landsman’s resolution cites these communications to argue that even American officials at the time recognised aspects of Operation Searchlight as genocide against Bengali Hindus and other Bengalis.

Operation Searchlight genocide against Bengali Hindus: the Ohio congressman’s background

Greg Landsman, who initiated the resolution on Operation Searchlight and the killings of Bengali Hindus, is a Democratic legislator representing Ohio’s first congressional district. Landsman won the seat in November 2022, defeating Republican incumbent Steve Chabot in a race that drew national interest within the United States.

Before entering Congress, Landsman served on the Cincinnati City Council, where the focus was on education, child poverty, and social equity policy. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Landsman comes from a family connected to public service traditions and is Jewish. In the House, Landsman sits on the Committee on Education and the Workforce and has spoken frequently on human rights concerns.

Landsman’s office has not yet released an extensive public statement beyond the filed resolution. However, the move has attracted close attention from Bangladeshi diaspora groups and Hindu advocacy organisations across the United States, who view the proposed recognition of Operation Searchlight as a significant step for the memory of Bengali Hindu victims.

The resolution’s progress through the US Congress remains at an early stage, with consideration now lying with the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Whatever its eventual outcome, the initiative has renewed international discussion about Operation Searchlight, the 1971 war, and the treatment of Bengali Hindus, while re-examining how states classify and acknowledge mass violence decades later.