Hamood-ur-Rahman Commission

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hamood-ur-Rahman commission was an authority of the Pakistan Government that made an official investigation on Bangladesh atrocities during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto created it after succeeding Yahya Khan as the president. The commission was formed in December 1971 with the Chief Justice of Pakistan Supreme Court Hamood-ur-Rahman as the leader. The investigation, put the casualty figure as low as 26,000 civilian casualties.^[1] The international media and reference books in English have also published figures which vary greatly from 200,000 to 3,000,000 for Bangladesh as a whole.^[2] A further eight to ten million people fled the country to seek safety in India.^[3] Initially the commission interviewed 213 people and made 12 copies of report. One of the copies was given to Bhutto and the rest were destroyed. It remained classified and it contents were guessed from the revealing of different military officers.^[4] The investigation resumed in 1974 as the commission talked with 73 more bureaucrats and high ranked military personnel. This report was presumably published by an Indian magazine in August 2000. According to the report, the West Pakistani military acted vigorously after being informed about their families were assaulted in East Pakistan. They have driven a widespread killing and raped a large number of women. They have also attempted and succeeded in murdering the Hindu community of the country.