Catholics attend a funeral Mass for the reburial of prominent Xaverian missionary priest Father Marino Rigon at St. Paul’s Church in Bagerhat district on Oct. 21, 2018, one year after his death in Italy. Three Catholic priests died during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence, while five priests were awarded special honors for their contributions to the birth of Bangladesh. (ucanews photo)
On March 25, 1971, Pakistan’s military launched Operation Searchlight, a genocidal crackdown on Bengalis in East Pakistan, to quell an almost out of control Bengali independence movement.
It was the culmination of a conspiracy hatched by Pakistan’s political and military leadership to refuse a transfer of power to the Awami League party, the Bengali rights champion, which won an absolute majority with 160 out of 300 seats in Pakistan’s first general election.
As the crackdown started, Awami League leaders, with support from neighboring India, formed the first Bangladesh government in exile, starting a war of independence with Bengali guerrilla fighters at the forefront.
Click here to read the full article
….as we enter the last months of 2021, we are asking readers like you to help us keep UCA News free.
For the last 40 years, UCA News has remained the most trusted and independent Catholic news and information service from Asia. Every week, we publish nearly 100 news reports, feature stories, commentaries, podcasts and video broadcasts that are exclusive and in-depth, and developed from a view of the world and the Church through informed Catholic eyes.
Our journalistic standards are as high as any in the quality press; our focus is particularly on a fast-growing part of the world - Asia - where, in some countries the Church is growing faster than pastoral resources can respond to – South Korea, Vietnam and India to name just three.
And UCA News has the advantage of having in its ranks local reporters who cover 23 countries in south, southeast, and east Asia. We report the stories of local people and their experiences in a way that Western news outlets simply don’t have the resources to reach. And we report on the emerging life of new Churches in old lands where being a Catholic can at times be very dangerous.
With dwindling support from funding partners in Europe and the USA, we need to call on the support of those who benefit from our work.
-1631444873.jpg)
