FOR the past month, tens of thousands of Bangladeshis have filled Shahbagh Square here, demanding justice for crimes committed in 1971, when Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) attained its independence from Pakistan.

Ordinary people — grandparents, people in wheelchairs, men with beards, women in hijab, teenagers in jeans — have come out in throngs, in anger, but also in joy. Children are decked out in their favorite clothes, sitting on the shoulders of parents chanting slogans they don’t understand. Women have been able to participate safely, free from the harassment that often accompanies large crowds of angry men.

The year 1971 was seminal for Bangladesh. We had been denied our right to self-rule since the Indian subcontinent was partitioned in 1947. In March of ’71, the Pakistani military, supported by China and the United States, initiated a bloody suppression of 75 million Bangladeshis. Millions fled the murderous onslaught and sought refuge in India.

read  Thygesen