Commemoration of Veterans of 1971 War
I was invited by Lt Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza, HI (M), Commander 10 Corps, ex AG and CGS, to attend Corps ceremony for the veterans 1971 War on Dec 16, 2021 at 0930 a.m. The ceremony was arranged by the Army Institute of Military History (AMIH), established by Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa under the chairmanship of Maj Gen Agha Masood Akram (retd) three years ago. The ceremony was held in Ayub Hall of Armed Forces Medical College where I have been going every year to act as a judge for the debate competition among the medical students.
The route to the given venue was sign posted, the MP points men deployed at nodal points and the ones in the reception line were smartly turned out, agile and courteous. Drivers were available to drive the cars from the porch to the parking area. The guests kept pouring in from 0900 to 0950 a.m. and sharp at the given time of 10 a.m. the Corps Commander walked into the hall to start the ceremony.
The front row was occupied by the serving and retired generals, 2nd row by Brigs, 3rd row by Cols and below. The members of East Pakistan Civil Armed Forces (EPCAF) and widows of the martyred were seated in rear rows. Name chits were pasted on each chair.
This ceremony commemorating the services of the EPCAF in former East Pakistan (EP) has been organized for the first time and was held in all the military cantonments of Pakistan. The movers behind it are the COAS, Lt Gen Sahir and Maj Gen Agha Akram. A team of officers of AIMH spearheaded by Brig retd Nasir Shafiq was assigned the task of tracing the whereabouts of the EPCAF members living in Pakistan and collecting data. It took 3 years of rigorous efforts to compile the requisite information and establish direct contact with all those living in Sindh, Punjab and KP provinces as well as the families of the deceased. Today, the GHQ has taken all the veterans and Shaheed of the EPCAF in its loop to take care of them. In future, function of December 16 will be organised the same way as on Sept 6.
The ceremony started with the recitation of verses from Holy Quran, followed by a talk delivered by Brig retd Nasir Shafiq. He highlighted all that has so far been done and what is in the pipeline to help the forgotten EPCAF veterans and widows of the Shaheeds who had taken part in counter insurgency operations and the war in former East Pakistan (EP).
After his talk, a documentary film was shown which included interviews of some Biharis narrating their personal experiences of the 1971. Next was the award ceremony in which the Corps Comd handed over stipends to the ghazis and next of kin of Shaheed of the EPCAF. Majority had taken part in battles of Comilla, and Chittagong.
Selected war veterans invited for the function were presented 10 Corps memento and a gift pack to honor their contributions and sacrifices in the 1971 war. The veterans included Lt Gen Tariq Pervez, Lt Gen Salahuddin Satti, Lt Gen Tahir Qazi, Maj Gen Yasin Malik, five Brigs and 8-10 Lt Cols/Majs. AIMH officers including Maj Gen Agha were also presented mementos.
While handing me the gifts, Gen Sahir informed me that as CGS he had got my 6th book titled ‘Reflections on 1971 War in East Pakistan: Battle of Hilli’ cleared from the MI Dte. (I have received the clearance letter with observations asking me to delete some paras).
Thereafter Lt Gen Sahir was requested by the master of ceremony to address the audience. Before starting his speech, he asked GOC 23 Div Maj Gen Ashraf sporting a beard to offer dua for the Shuhada, which he did impressively. Gen Sahir eulogized the efforts put in by the AIMH officers in laying the foundations of this organization and in compiling data of the EPCAF members which was not easy. He paid rich tributes to the resilient members of the Bihari community for their unflinching loyalty and patriotism and assured them of continued support of the army. He was candid in saying that it was a strategic blunder to ignore and forget the sacrifices of the Biharis living in Pakistan and in BD, and said that a beginning has been made to make amends of the lapses of the State and the army.
He narrated a story of 1994 when as a Maj he had attended a 4-month company commander’s course at Infantry School Dacca. He said it was an extremely difficult experience for him due to prevalent feelings of hatred against Pak Army. He added that under hostile environment in the school, it was quite surprising for him to see one day the Sub Maj of the school walking up to him and saluting him with tears in his eyes. When asked the reason of his politeness and respectfulness, he said, ‘he has seen BD and Indian armies and had attended foreign courses, but Pak Army is much superior to all others’. In his view Pak Army was the only army in the world in which the officers remain emotionally connected with their men both in peace and war and take care of them; and that bondage between the officers and men gave an edge to Pak Army over others. He disclosed that the BD Army had gone through 17 mutinies due to lack of this bondage.
After his address, there was a session of group photos in the lawn during which the brass band in attendance played the melodious tunes. Finally, the hearty lunch under the canvass and well-laid tables. My companions on table No. one were Log Area Comd Maj Gen Amjad Khattak who evinced keen interest in my books and asked me to visit him. The others were Maj Gen Nusrat Raza, principal AFM College and Col Iqbal Hashmi, ex JAG Branch.
All told, it was an excellent initiative taken after 50 years. All these years, India kept shaming Pakistan and the detractors in Pakistan kept sprinkling salt to the hurt pride and injured feelings of all those who had fought the war valiantly to defend the motherland till the very end and many were not prepared to surrender. All their feats of valor were buried under the word surrender. Classical battle fought by my unit 4 FF Hilli in which I was a participant and Maj Akram received NH posthumously, battle of Kamalpur & Jamalpur and several other battles at unit/sub-unit levels were not acclaimed and advertised the way they should have been.
Between 1972 and 1974, Indian military and civil writers with the assistance provided by the Indian government published 275 books on the 1971 War and this trend continued over the years. The purpose was to justify Indian military’s intervention into EP, hide their crimes against humanity and build a narrative to prove that the myths of slaughter of 3 million Bengalis and rapes of 300,000 Bengali women by the Pak Army were true, and that the numbers pitched against Indian Army were 93000.
Sustained Indo, Russian, Western propaganda together with publication of large numbers of books by Indian, western and Bengali authors helped India in portraying the Pak Army soldiers as blood thirsty monsters and rapists and in convincing the world that Gen Yahya Khan’s regime and Pak Army were responsible for the dismemberment of united Pakistan and creation of BD.
Their false narrative gained authenticity since Pakistan first remained mum over the slaughter of Biharis and non-Bengalis in March 1971, fearing that disclosure of the news would result in a backlash in WP. After the surrender, we again chose to remain tightlipped till the leakage of Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report in 2001. Our silence helped India to convert their lies into truth.
I was among the few Pakistani authors to narrate the other side of the story and wrote ‘Maarka Hilli’ in 1993, ‘Muhammad bin Qasim to Musharraf’ in 2000 and ‘Roots of 1971 Tragedy’ in 2005. I killed all their myths and fabrications in my last book, which in my view is the most extensively researched book on the subject, but unfortunately the book has been taken off the shelves and is not available even with the publisher.
I avail this opportunity to thank Lt Gen Sahir Shamshad and his staff, Maj Gen Agha and his team for putting up a wonderful show. I hope AIMH will help in getting my much delayed 6th book published, and others republished.
In order to highlight the role of paramilitary forces in EP including the Biharis, I have written a brief account titled ‘Undiminished Scars of 1971 Tragedy’, which I will share separately.
Brig Asif Haroon Raja
