‘Debate over number of martyrs will end once genocide survey is complete’

State Minister for Culture KM Khalid has said the debate over the number of people martyred during the Liberation War will end once the genocide survey is completed in 64 districts.

He was addressing a chief guest the inauguration of a day-long seminar entitled "Five decades of genocide: recognition, justice and liability of history" – an initiative by 1971: Genocide-Torture Archives and Museums, and Centre for Genocide-Torture and Liberation War Studies, on the occasion of National Genocide Day at the Bangla Academy's Poet Shamsur Rahman Seminar Room in the capital on Monday morning.

"One of the important works of the Centre for Genocide-Torture and Liberation War Studies is to conduct a district-level survey on genocide and mass graves," he said, adding, "Not much has been done about the cruel history of the Liberation War of Bangladesh in the last five decades.

"The research centre, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, has conducted surveys in 28 districts and found data on 13,854 genocides which have been published in a book. If an average of 100 to 150 people were martyred in each of the genocides and the survey work is completed in the remaining 36 districts, the number of martyrs during the Liberation War will exceed 30 lakh. And the debate over this number will come to an end."

Shahriar Kabir, trustee of the Genocide Museum, presented the keynote paper at the seminar chaired by Professor Muntasir Mamoon, president of the Genocide Museum, Chittagong University Bangabandhu Chair and a noted historian.