Overview
- Rep. Greg Landsman of Ohio introduced the resolution on Friday, pressing for accountability for Pakistan’s military and allied militias including Jamaat-e-Islami.
- It urges formal U.S. recognition of the killings, mass rape, and expulsions as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and calls on the President to issue a formal acknowledgment.
- The text centers on Operation Searchlight launched March 25, 1971, detailing indiscriminate attacks on Bengalis and the specific targeting of Bengali Hindus for extermination.
- Historical evidence cited includes U.S. Consul Archer Blood’s “Selective Genocide” telegram and contemporaneous reporting and congressional findings documenting systematic violence.
- The measure rejects collective blame of any community, notes disputed death toll estimates alongside the flight of roughly 10 million refugees, and underscores protections for religious minorities today.