War crimes trial campaigners yesterday urged the government to launch a campaign for international recognition of genocide committed throughout nine months of the country's Liberation War in 1971.

They made the call, as the government has an initiative to earn recognition of March 25, now being observed as National Genocide Day, as International Genocide Day.

At present, each year, December 9 is observed as International Genocide Day based on a motion placed by Armenia before the United Nations in 2015, according to Ekattorer Ghatok Dalal Nirmul Committee, a platform campaigning for war crimes trial.

The declaration was made unilaterally and in presence of Bangladesh and 192 other countries at the UN. Which is why, there is no scope to declare March 25 as international genocide day,the committee said in a declaration paper, which was read at a programme at the capital's Central Shaheed Minar.

The committee arranged the programme to mark the National Genocide Day and the 47th Independence Day to be observed today.

Shahriar Kabir, president of the platform, said the official government decision reads “[An] initiative will be taken to earn international recognition of the day”.

“We want the government to make an amendment and use 'Bangladesh's genocide' instead of 'the day' for the campaign,” he added.

Speaking at the programme, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Huq said he personally believes there is still scope to earn international recognition of the day.

“We can make the UN rethink about the issue through successful diplomatic mission,” he said.

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said unity among the countrymen can make the day a significant one.

He hoped that the day would be observed on a larger scale in future.

Social Welfare Minister Rashed Khan Menon said the world knows about the Holocaust in Germany but not about Bangladesh's genocide thanks to the absence of its global recognition.

Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu, Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) President Mujahidul Islam Selim, and lawmaker Shirin Akter, among others, spoke.

At yesterday's programme, noted personalities along with freedom fighters lit 47 torches to mark the 47th anniversary of independence and genocide. Later, the Nirmul Committee brought out a torch procession from Shaheed Minar to Jagannath Hall of Dhaka University.

On March 11, 2017, the national parliament unanimously adopted a resolution to observe March 25 as Genocide Day. The cabinet division issued a gazette notification on March 21 last year in this regard.