Weeks following the Kojagori Lakshmi Puja day on 10 October 1946, the Bengali Hindu population in the outlying districts of Noakhali and Tipperah were nearly annihilated by a devastating genocide. A series of organized massacres, gang rapes, abductions, forced conversions and economic boycott followed by starvation, malnutrition and diseases resulted in the forced outmigration of the surviving Bengali Hindu population, resulting is an ethnic cleansing. The perpetrators including the Muslim National Guard, the ex-servicemen and the private armies of Muslim League leaders celebrated Pakistan Day on 23 February 1947 and soon after the area was incorporated into Pakistan, as the Partition of India took place.
The Noakhali genocide, later became the standard template for the Islamists in East Pakistan and later Bangladesh to deal with the Bengali Hindu and other ethnic minorities. While the genocide and ethnic cleansing continued unabated, we developed a tradition of greeting them with a stony silence. However, this was not the case when the genocide took place in Noakhali and Tippera. Two weeks after the massacres had begun, Hindus from all over India had observed Noakhali Day as a mark of solidarity with the victims of the genocide. It was not only observed in Patna, Delhi and Mumbai, but also in faraway places like Lahore and Karachi, then a part of India. Hindus all over India observed 'black' Diwali in 1946 to express their solidarity.
In 2014, the Noakhali Day shall be observed again not only to express our solidarity for the victims of the Noakhali genocide, but also as an initiative to revive the tradition of expressing our solidarity for the Hindu victims of genocides anywhere in the world. A mere expression of solidarity may not bring any justice to the victims of the genocide or their kins, however, it may help us in getting started towards fulfilling our duty of bringing peace to the departed souls. Let us make a collective resolution for building a Noakhali genocide memorial on the occasion of Noakhali Day.
18. রোষ্ট্রসাংয়র্র গণহত্যোর সাংজ্ঞো
Article II of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with the intent to
destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) killing members of the group;
(b) causing serious bodily harm or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) deliberately inflicting on the group, conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part;
(d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
19. রোষ্ট্রসাংয়র্র গণহত্যোর সাংজ্ঞো ও ন োয়োখোলি গণহত্যো
ধয়মতর লেক নথয়ক লহন্দু ও মুসিমো পৃথক
লিেোলত্ত্ত্ত্ব অ ুসোয়র েোলত্র লেয়ক নথয়কও লহন্দু ও মুসিমো পৃথক
লিেোলত্ত্ত্ত্ব অ ুসোয়র মুসিমো নকবিই মুসিমো , পোঞ্জোবী, লসȻী, পোঠো বো বোেোলি য়
এই লবচোয়র বোেোলি লহন্দুর পৃথক েোত্ীয় ত্থো ধমীয় সত্তো অ স্বীকোযত, অথতোত্ বোেোলি লহন্দু একটি ethnoreligious group
ন োয়োখোলি গণহত্যোর ঘট ো রোষ্ট্রসংল্লঘর সংজ্ঞো অ ুসোল্লর গণহত্যোর প্রোকশত্ব
হত্যোকোন্ড (a) killing members of the group
(b) causing serious bodily harm or mental harm to members of the group
অথতন লত্ক বয়কট
অথতন লত্ক লভলত্ত ধ্বাংস
সবতস্ব িুট
(c) deliberately inflicting on the group, conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
োবোলিকো অপহরণ ও বিপুর্ব্ত ক লববোহ (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
বিপুর্ব্ত ক ধমতোন্তরকরণ (b) causing serious bodily harm or mental harm to members of the group
(d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
মলন্দর অপলবত্রকরণ
প্রলত্মো ধ্বাংস
(b) causing serious bodily harm or mental harm to members of the group