New Delhi, March 22 -- A Democratic congressman from Ohio has introduced a formal resolution in the US House of Representatives calling on the United States government to officially recognise the atrocities committed by the Pakistani Army and its Islamist allies against Bengali Hindus in 1971 as genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

Greg Landsman, who represents Ohio's first congressional district, moved the resolution on Friday. It has since been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs - the first formal step in a process that could see the US government take an official position on one of the twentieth century's most contested and under-acknowledged mass atrocities.

The resolution centres on the night of 25 Mar...