Bangladesh global community further unites before Independence Day

In commemoration of the 42nd Anniversary of Bangladesh’s Independence and National Day, the Bangladeshi global community will join together this upcoming March 24th and carry out events in 40 cities in 5 continents including San Francisco, Capetown, London, Sydney and Chungju to pay homage and demand justice for victims of the 1971 Genocide and War Crimes in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh’s birth began with the official start of the Liberation War with Pakistan on March 26, 1971, when Bangladesh announced itself as an independent country after a 23-year rule under Pakistan.

During the nine-month liberation war, which finally ended on December 16, 1971, more than three million people were killed, twenty million people lost their homes and two hundred thousand women were raped.

In 2010, Bangladesh established the war crime tribunal to try the accused war criminals. The perceived lenient sentence of war criminal Quader Mollah on February 5, who was convicted of killing over 300 people and rapes in 1971 triggered protests for the proper sentences of Liberation War criminals. The first protest began the very day of his sentence by a spontaneous crowd that gathered at Dhaka’s Shahbag Square and since, demonstrations have been taking place in Bangladesh as well as in the overseas Bangladesh communities.

In Chungju, Korea, the Bangladesh community will gather from all over the nation and not only hold a rally for the justice of war crime victims, but will hold a cultural program, a poster exhibition, seminar and sport activities. All Bangladeshi, Korea and other nationalities are invited to join.