The Bangladesh genocide (1971) is one of the worst genocides in the World War II era. To crush the desire of Bengali people for independence, the West Pakistani military regime unleashed a pre-planned campaign of mass murder with the launch of ‘Operation Searchlight’ in the night of 25 March 1971. Reports say that some 7,000 innocent people were killed in that single night and at least 30,000 were murdered in a week in Dhaka alone. On that very night, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman-the Father of the Nation declared independence of Bangladesh. It took 9-month of bloody war to achieve the well-cherished independence on 16 December 1971. In this 9-month, the occupation Pakistan army had killed 30,00,000 Bengali people.

Following the pioneering attempt of the Hon’ble Foreign Minister of Bangladesh H.E. Dr. A. K. Abdul Momen, MP, a ‘Genocide Memorial Room’ has been established in Sugandha on 18 April 2019 during the celebration of the foreign service day of Bangladesh. It was inaugurated in profound remembrance of the three million victims of 1971 genocide in Bangladesh during her War of Liberation, by the Hon’ble Foreign Minister on the day in presence of dignitaries, academia, intelligentsia, and high officials of the government.

The purpose of establishing the genocide memorial room is to give the world a true picture of the heinous crimes committed by the then brutal regime of Pakistan and to tell the world that they ought to recognize the facts of it. It is hoped that the Genocide Memorial Room of Foreign Service Academy will be a place of reflection and a source of inspiration and strength to raise a strong global voice of ‘Never Again’ to genocide.

The room is a manifestation of our commitment to make our future generations better aware of the traumatic and agonizing effect of genocides and wars, and to mobilize our collective strength to prevent such crimes, including through the promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence and promoting knowledge in the minds of men and women that instills desire for peace, freedom and prosperity.