On 11 March 2017, the Parliament of Bangladesh unanimously passed the Resolution designating 25 March as a "Genocide Remembrance Day". The day honours and remembers those who suffered and died as a consequence of killings by the Pakistani Army on 25 March 1971, which started with Operation Searchlight and ended with the 1971 Bangladesh Genocide and the Independence of Bangladesh. During this period the persecution of the Bengali population by Pakistan army led by General A.K. Niazi was notable. It is believed this was on account of the contempt the dominant Punjabi Pakistanis had for Bengalis, there was mounting evidence that among the Bengalis, the Hindu minority was doubly marked out for persecution. In a post-war enquiry several senior Pakistani officers admitted to systematic targeting of the community on the orders from a brigadier which General Niazi denied.