USAID had approved $136m in overall relief programmes for East Pakistan during the war
A CIA document released Tuesday suggests that the then East Pakistan authorities were diverting USAID contributions to pay the salaries of razakars who collaborated with the Pakistani Army to commit crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
The razakar force was formed with the members of Jamaat-e-Islami, a religion-based party which opposed the birth of Bangladesh, across the country. Its members helped the occupation forces find and kill freedom fighters, Awami League supporters and Hindus.
They also took many Bangali women to the army camps and loot the houses of people supporting the War of Independence.
“A USAID officer reported overhearing a conversation between two East Pakistan officials, one of whom noted that public relief funds were being used to pay the salaries of the razakars – local individuals hired as police by the martial law administration,” according to a Central Intelligence Bulletin created on September 28, 1971.
“There have been unsupported allegations earlier to this effect,” the top secret document reads.
The public relief programmes were heavily subsidised by the US; for example, some $10 million has been supplied to a “test” relief programme as part of the current overall relief programme of $136m for East Pakistan, it adds.
In the eyes of the average Bengali citizen, the bulletin said, the razakars and the Pakistani Army were the most unpopular elements in the East wing.
The first unit of the razakar force was formed by Jamaat leader AKM Yusuf on May 5, 1971 with 96 members of Jamaat in Khulna. He started gathering people for the force on April 18.
The Pakistan government recognised the force through a gazette notification on August 2 that year. Yusuf was also the regional chief of anti-liberation force Peace Committee.
Jamaat formed peace committees across the country with its members and others from different Islamist parties, and the notorious militia forces al-Badr with the members of its student wing who carried out systematic abduction and murder of hundreds of intellectuals.
Most of the top Jamaat leaders have been convicted by special tribunals dealing with the 1971 war crimes, while five of them including al-Badr kingpin Motiur Rahman Nizami were hanged after the end of legal procedure.
On Tuesday, the CIA published around 930,000 declassified documents to the standalone CIA Records Search Tool (CREST) system online, around 2,000 of which are about Bangladesh and erstwhile East Pakistan.
The documents on Bangladesh – 1,937 posted in December last year and 95 in January – include views of the CIA and the US’ Dhaka embassy about events related to politics, economy and Bangladesh ties with India and other countries.
On the other hand, the database includes 857 posts on erstwhile East Pakistan posted in December and 45 in January.
http://www.dhakatribune.com/banglad...est-records-usaid-fund-diverted-pay-razakars/
CREST publication can be viewed here:
https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/collection/crest-25-year-program-archive