Speaking at the Genocide Day event on Sunday, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that the people of Bangladesh must respond to those who have been lost in their love for Pakistan and must punish them. She further urged the citizens to help Bangladesh government to ensure that the ‘lovers’ should forget Pakistan for good. She even said that if they cannot do it, Bangladesh would cease to exist.

Recalling the assassination of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, Hasina claimed certain leaders of rival political party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) founder Ziaur Rehman and wife Khaleda Zia are ‘lovers of Pakistan’. Accusing them of not wanting Bangladesh to progress, Hasina claimed the opposition parties were ‘implementing the agenda of Pakistani forces’.

She said:

“The entire history changed after 1975. Even the words ‘Pakistani occupation forces’ could not be uttered. People had to call them only ‘occupation forces’ in an effort to make them forget that the forces were Pakistani, such was the love for Pakistan,”

Last years, Bangladesh had declared 25th March as ‘Genocide Day’ in remembrance of the atrocities carried out by the Pakistani Army in the night of 25th March 1971 where the Pakistani Army had swooped on unarmed civilians to crush the Bengali rebellion. Bangladesh has been demanding that the United Nations declare the day as the World Genocide Day as a sign of protest against the genocides carried out around the globe.

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However, the UN has recognised 9th December as International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and the Prevention of this Crime in September 2015.

Referring to the ongoing war crimes trials, Hasina said the trial on the soil of Bangladesh must continue and that they don’t deserve forgiveness.