'Heinous crimes with utter impunity': India flags Pakistan's sexual violence in 1971 at UNSC

India has flagged Pakistan’s organised sexual violence against women in East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) in 1971 and over the decades in its own country at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

The UNSC held an open debate on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) on Tuesday. Pramila Patten, the Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, briefed the UNSC and presented the Secretary-General’s annual report on conflict-related sexual violence.

Eldos Mathew Punnoose, the Indian Chargé d’Affaires at the UN, flagged the “utter impunity with which Pakistan Army perpetrated heinous crimes of gross sexual violence against hundreds of thousands of women in erstwhile East Pakistan in 1971”.

Punnoose further flagged Pakistan’s use of violence against women as a weapon of persecution against minorities.

“As a matter of \ful record, this deplorable pattern continues unabated and with impunity to this day. Rampant abduction, trafficking, early and forced marriages, and domestic servitude, sexual violence and forced religious conversions of thousands of vulnerable women and girls as weapons of persecution towards religious and ethnic minority communities are reported and chronicled, including in the recent OHCHR reports. These reports highlight that the while acts by Pakistan are also validated by its judiciary,” said Punnoose.

Punnoose spoke about Pakistan’s record after Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, mentioned alleged sexual violence and forced disappearances in Jammu and Kashmir and accused the Indian government of being involved in these alleged instances.

Punnoose further said, “It is ironical that those who perpetrate these crimes are now masquerading as champions of justice. The duplicity and hypocrisy is self-evident. Mr. President, as I conclude, allow me to once again reaffirm India’s unwavering commitment to root out sexual violence in armed conflict and support and assist survivors of such heinous crimes.”

In the Bangladesh liberation movement, the Pakistani military systematically used sexual violence against women, including rape, as a weapon. Estimates suggest that Pakistani forces raped between 200,000 and 400,000 ethnic Bengali women and girls in 1971. Several thousands of women died by suicides after being assaulted. The Pakistani military also ran rape camps where women were held hostage for soldiers to assault them.

General Tikka Khan of the Pakistani Army, infamous as the ‘Butcher of Bengal’, was the architect of the campaign that was formally called ‘Operation Searchlight’. The campaign has been dubbed as a genocide as he and his successor, Lieutenant General AAK Niazi, clearly stated that they wanted to exterminate ethnic Bengalis, particularly non-Muslims, in East Pakistan.

Conflict-related sexual violence on the rise

The conflict-related sexual violence worsened last year as 25 per cent more cases were reported last year, according to the report presented at the UNSC by Patten.

There were 4,600 reported cases of conflict-related sexual violence in 2024, marking a 25 per cent increase from the previous year, the report found.

Patten stressed that this was a “chronic undercount” as these were only the cases that the UN could confirm.

Among verified cases, sexual violence against children rose by 35 per cent, with victims being as young as one-year-old, the report found.

There were 21 areas in which verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence were confirmed, with highest cases recorded in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, Somalia and South Sudan, as per the report.

New areas in which conflict-related sexual violence was reported include DRC, Libya, and Israel-occupied Palestinian territories.