Creation of Bangladesh

[Tiki Tam Tam]

So, you feel being related is something that gives one fame?

So you are an advocate of the pickaback concept?

Great!

I am related to Jesus Christ!

Krishna Bose is also related to Subash Chandra Bose. Heard of her?

Do you know the relatives of Bahadur Shah Zaffer, the last Mogul Emperor of India?

Your logic astounds!

 

[Adux]

Do you know the relatives of Bahadur Shah Zaffer, the last Mogul Emperor of India?

Your logic astounds!

Sir, You are not the only one.

When it comes to the families of Gandhi and Bahadur Shah Zaffer, the situation they are going through as per news reports, are quite saddening,

 

[akzaman]

The Agony of East Pakistan:

David Reed and John E. Frazer

Invaded and devastated by the army of its own government, this tortured land cries out for relief and for justice. If both are not granted} still greater horrors may lie ahead

They come out of East Pakistan in endless columns, along trails stained with tears and blood. They are dressed in rags, robbed of everything they owned, the women raped, the children gaunt from hunger. They have been on the move for up to a month, hiding from Pakistan soldiers by day, slogging through flooded rice paddies at night. A vengeful army pursues them to the very border of India. Rifle and machine-gun fire crackles. The bedraggled columns scatter for cover. But soon they are moving again, streaming into India.

Sobbing violently, a middle-aged man says, "The soldiers took my two nephews. They kicked them with their boots, ducked them in an open sewer, then machine-gunned them. After that they took 50 to 60 young men of our village into a field and killed them with bayonets." A woman who was shot in the leg clutches her daughter and says, "We were just about to cross the border when they started shooting at us. I don't know what happened to my husband." A ten-year-old boy, who lost an eye when an army patrol threw a grenade at him as he was tending cattle in a field, says, "Can anyone tell me what happened to my parents?"

Since late last March, when the Pakistan army launched this genocidal attack on the defenseless population of East Pakistan, more than eight million people have been driven from their native land. Millions more will surely follow. Moreover, the refugees have put grave strains on India, pushing India and West Pakistan to the brink of a war that could involve the two arch rivals of the communist world, the Soviet Union and China.

Return to Normal? While the horrors of the refugees are bad enough, something even more ghastIy is going on inside East Pakistan, also known as East Bengal. That land, scene of a devastating cyclone that claimed half a million lives last year,* is now being systematically ravaged by the Pakistan army. Diplomats and other foreigners in Dacca, East Pakistan's capital, estimate that between a quarter- and a half-million civilians have been slaughtered since March. An American missionary in Dacca grits his teeth and says, "It's murder-mass murder."

The military junta that rules Pakistan has tried to cover up the atrocities, and maintains that East Bengal has largely returned to normal. But one of the authors of this article, who spent two weeks there last August, found evidence to the contrary on every hand. Touring three districts of East Bengal by car, he found not a single village or town that had not suffered at the hands of the troops. Many towns were half-empty, homes and shops looted' and bummed, peopIe either dead, driven into exile or hiding in the countryside.

Perhaps a third of Dacca's population is gone; its economy is crippled and its people are so terrified that no one ventures outdoors at night. Not far from Dacca, a missionary said, "The soldiers killed 249 people in our village. Fortunately for the wounded, high-powered bullets right through them, so the doctors didn't have to probe."

A farmer in a refugee camp along the Indian side of the border (?): "The headmaster of our school sitting on the veranda of his home, grading examination papers, when the soldiers dragged him out on the road and cut his throat." Told (?) another refugee, "The soldiers found the doctor in our village to dig his own grave; then they shot him. The doctor in a border hospital pointed to a woman who had been raped repeatedly by the troops in the presence of her four children after the soldier had killed her husband.

Rule by Minority. The roo(?) disaster in Pakistan reach back (? Britain's withdrawal from its Indian empire in 1947. Because India's Muslim minority feared domination of the Hindu majority, a new IsIamic state called Pakistan was carved out of predominantly Muslim areas of Indian subcontinent. Muslims in the northwest became West Pakistan. Although East Bengal separated from West Pakistan by more than 1000 miles of Indian territory, it was included in the state, as East Pakistan, because people were mostly Muslims, there are profound differences between the two Pakistans. They have different languages. The people of the west, mostly Punjabis, are tall, light-skinned. Their land is (?) arid. East Pakistan, by contrast in tropical, peopled mostly by Bengalis, a small, dark-skinned people.

The Bengalis have long complained bitterly that the Punjabis in the west have treated them as colonial subjects. East Pakistan's population before the massacres stood at 70 million, as compared with 58 million in the west, but the capital, Islamabad, is in West Pakistan. East Pakistan has accounted for 50 percent or more of Pakistan's export earnings, chiefly from the production of jute, but the Bengalis claim that the west kept most of the money for its own development. West Pakistanis, moreover, took 80 percent of the jobs in the civil service, 90 percent of the posts in the armed forces.

Although efforts were made in the post-I947 years, democratic institutions never really took root in Pakistan, and in 1958 the military seized power .Then, last year, in a notable effort to return the country to civilian rule, Pakistan's president, Gen. Yahya Khan, scheduled an election for December. Voters would select a national assembly that would frame a constitution and then assume the role of a parliament. That election set in motion the train of events leading to the present tragedy.

In the election campaign in East Pakistan, the Bengalis were electrified by the message of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a 51-year-old political moderate who was leader of the Awami, or People's League. Mujib, as he was popularly known, had spent nearly ten years as a political prisoner of the West Pakistan authorities. Now he campaigned on a program of autonomy for East Bengal which, he told cheering crowds, would shake off the hated domination of Islamabad. The central government could continue to control foreign affairs and defense for all Pakistan, but East Pakistan would govern itself internally and the bulk of its money as it saw fit.

Mujib's People's League won a landslide victory, capturing a clear majority in the 313-seat assembly. It not only would play the key role in the drafting of the constitution, but would form the next government for all of Pakistan. Elation swept East Pakistan. Neighboring India rejoiced, too. Mujib was known to be friendly to India. If he took over as Prime Minister of all Pakistan, relations with India would, it was hoped, improve.

"Bomber of Baluchistan." But on March 1, Yahya, under mounting pressure from politicians in West Pakistan, postponed the opening of the national assembly, which had been set for two days later. The Bengalis, feeling that they were being robbed of their legitimate victory, exploded in riots and demonstrations. Mujib calmed his people, cautioned them against violence; and though he still held out for autonomy, something like a parallel government now existed. On March 23-Pakistan's Independence Day-Mujib flew a new flag, the green, red and yellow banner of Bangla Desh (the Bengal nation) from his home. The West Pakistanis feared that the East was about to secede, and warned that no government could tolerate such a move.

At this point, a cold-eyed general named Tikka Khan arrived in Dacca to take command of West Pakistan troops stationed there. Tikka had won for himself the nick name "Bomber of Baluchistan" for having suppressed a tribal revolt in Baluchistan province by indiscriminate air and artillery strikes against civilians. Shortly after Tikka's arrival, Yahya flew to Dacca for talks with Mujib. All the while, West Pakistan soldiers in civilian clothing were being flown into Dacca. On the afternoon of March 25, Yahya, having broken off the talks with Mujib, returned to West Pakistan. At II o'clock that evening, Tikka Khan was unleashed.

Suddenly, all of Dacca rocked with explosions. Troops opened fire with artillery on the city; tanks rumbled through the streets, gunning down anything that moved. The dormitories of the university, a stronghold of Bengali nationalism, were riddled by machine-gun fire. The invading soldiers went on a rampage in the old city, a particular political stronghold of Mujib, breaking down doors, dragging people into the street and shooting them. Shops were looted and burned. The barracks of the pro-Mujib Bengali police were gutted by tank cannon Troops burst into a telephone exchange and killed 40 persons on duty.

Special West Pakistan army squads had lists of people-professors, doctors, businessmen and other community leaders-whom they dragged off to army headquarters. Most have never been seen again. Although Mujib's follower urged him to go into hiding, Mujib refused. Tikka's troops took him off to imprisonment and an uncertain fate in West Pakistan.

With Dacca in ruins, Tikka sent his troops into the countryside, in each town the ghastly pattern was repeated. Anyone associated with the People's League was killed. Young men, Muslim and Hindu alike, were rounded up and murdered. In almost every town, refugees report, women were raped.

The Bengalis Strike Back. Meanwhile, from Islamabad, Yahya whipped off decrees banning the People's League and postponing the national assembly indefinitely. The new constitution, he declared, would be drafted not by the assembly, but rather by a committee that would handpicked by him. Autonomy for East Bengal was rejected; Islamabad's rule would continue.

Yahya also imposed strict censor ship on the press: even today the people of West Pakistan have little idea of what is going on in the East. Tikka Khan was appointed governor of East Pakistan, which he ruled with the grace of a Nazi gauleiter in Occupied Europe until he was replaced in August.

Bangla Desh, however, has not been crushed. Surviving Bengali troops and police have formed the nucleus of the Mukti Bahini, or Liberation Army. There is no dearth of volunteers, and it is an open secret that India, which surrounds East Pakistan on three sides, is giving arms, training and encouragement to the Mukti Bahini guerrillas. Operating all along the 1350-mile border, these irregulars stab deeply into East Pakistan. Bombs explode nightly in the capital, and West Pakistan army and patrols are ambushed on country roads. The railway that links Chittagong, the main port, with Dacca has been severed.

Bangla Desh is paying a fearsome price for resistance. After each Mukti Bahini raid, the West Pakistan army, now bolstered to around 70,000 men, levels surrounding villages as "collective punishment." And each retaliation sets off another column of refugees for India.

The Indian government is making every effort to care for these piteous people, but the influx is so staggering that new miseries await them there. For instance, in one of more than a thousand squalid refugee camps in India, 150,000 people live in straw hovels surrounded by mud and *****. There are few latrines, and the stench is such that people cover their faces with cloth. Because of the vast numbers, refugees have to wait in line for as long as ten hours for their food rations – ¾ pound of rice a day per adult, plus some lentils, vegetables when available, and a little salt and cooking oil.

The children suffer the most. Many are beginning to look like the starving children of Biafra, their ribs protruding, their stomachs distended. Almost all suffer from malnutrition or dysentery. Life-giving milk and other protein foods are available in some of the camps, but the crush is so great that many children never get any. A doctor at a border hospital says, "The children die so quickly that we don't have time to treat them."

Anger in India. India, itself one of the poorest and most overcrowded countries on earth, groans - under the burden. Although she has made some important gains in population control in the past six years, her population has now increased enormously. The United States and other foreign governments have responded generously with cash and food (America has given $40 million in food, $30.5 million in cash); yet the cost of supporting the Pakistanis may run to more than a billion dollars a year-nearly a seventh of the annual budget of India’s central government. India cannot give the refugees jobs, because millions of her own people are unemployed. Even the meager rations of the refugees, which cost 13 cents a day, are a point of friction: some 50 million Indians subsist on substantially less.

Many Indians angrily point out that they are being forced to pick up the bill for Pakistan's atrocities against its own people. Some are urging that India take East Pakistan by military force so as to enable the refugees to return. India's Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, so far has resisted these pressures-yet danger of war runs high. Such a war might well assume beyond-the-borders proportions. India has a new alliance with the Soviet Union; the Pakistan government has grown increasingly close to China.

Within East Bengal itself, a new horror looms: an acute threat of mass starvation, Even in normal times, the area must import part of its rice supply. Now it will be difficult, if not impossible, to move the rice from the small river ports to all of the outlying areas. In 1943, two to three million Bengalis died in a famine. There is every reason to fear it will be worse this time.

What can be done about this festering disaster ? Many Bengalis see a solution in independence won by guerrilla warfare. There is a chance of success, but also the certainty of much more bloodshed. It would be far better for the United States and other nations to bring pressure to bear on Islamabad to work out a political solution acceptable to the Bengalis and thus to defuse the present explosive situation and stave off a major war in the subcontinent. This done, the refugee columns would be set in motion once more-on a peaceful journey back to their homeland.

Readers Digest, November 1971; pp.66-71

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

Why post all this?

What will Roadrunner understand?

He wishes to run away from history that has been recorded the world over and his only straw that a drowning man clutches is the relative of Netaji Subash Bose - a failed assistant editor of a Bengali newspaper of Calcutta sensationalising to be recognised!

He doesn't even give credence to his President's statement in the book he wrote!

He believes Bose to Musharraf!

Could be because Musharraf liked a Bengali girl when he was commissioned!

 

[alamgir]

The Great Tragedy!!!
Friday December 15, 2006 (1705 PST)

16 December 1971 is remembered by most Pakistanis as the fateful day when Pakistan was dismembered by the enemy machination. East Pakistan changed its name overnight to become Bangladesh


This was a tragic day for all Pakistanis alike however for those Urdu speaking Pakistanis or non-Bengalis (also erroneously termed as Biharis) left behind in Bangladesh by the surrendering Pakistan Army, this became the mother of all tragedies. Even before the surrender, tragedy had already stricken them when immediately after the infamous Army Action of March 1971, the local Bengali populace, upon planned instigation & insinuation by the Awami League anti-Pakistan elements, had vented out their anger by running a revenge killing campaign of these unarmed defenseless people. Countless of them were ruthlessly murdered and dumped in mass graves throughout the former East Pakistan. These were in no terms less than a holocaust of the Nazis . All these ghastly crimes against these innocent un-armed Urdu speaking Pakistanis are now part of the history as they are very well documented in numerous international documents including the official White Paper from the government of Pakistan issued on 5th August 1971 and the Humood-ur-Rehman Commission Report of 1974.

Capitulation of the Pakistani administration there opened doors of hell for these non-Bengali Pakistanis who became the specific target of vengeance and retribution. Hundreds and thousands of them were once again murdered in cold blood and their bodies dumped into open ditches which had become mass graves for these poor people. Later on, all these mass graves of non-Bengalis were shamelessly & craftily used by Sheikh Mujib and his cohorts to show-case & trump up the false propaganda about this so-called genocide of the local Bengalis by the Pakistan army. The truth of the matter is that genocide of Bengalis had not happened at all. Bundle of Stories vis-à-vis Pakistan army's rape and genocide against the local Bengalis were purposely concocted to gain sympathy and to isolate Pakistan in the eyes of the international community. For this purpose, mass graves of the non-Bengali Pakistanis previously murdered by the anti-Pakistan elements were used to present them as those of the local Bengalis in order to implicate the Pakistan army in these crimes. The facts about such nefarious & shameless tactics are also very well documented in the international press including the famous book "Internment Camps of Bangladesh" by an American author Mrs. Loraine Mirza. Unfortunately, the tragedy that began for these Pakistanis, after surrender, did not simply end here. Soon after creation of Bangladesh, the political persecution of these Pakistanis continued and gained momentum day by day. As a first step, they were evicted from their homes to live in squalid shanty camps in the urban sprawls of Bangladesh. Several government promulgations, in the form of Presidential Orders by the prejudiced Bangladeshi government, were issued which had in fact become instruments to dispossess these Pakistanis of their properties and belongings. Presidential Order 1 and 16 of 1972 (Bangladesh Abandoned Property Order) is one such black order to quote from. As a result, their properties, businesses & belongings were confiscated and bank accounts seized, young men were branded as traitors & Pakistani collaborators and were incarcerated for indefinite periods without trial. Those cooped up in the camps were confined to these neo-internment camps, not allowed to move out for any thing including jobs, education, healthcare or any thing.


www.paktribune.com

 

[alamgir]

www.muslimedia.comThe heartbreaking story of the 'Biharis' stranded in Bangladesh
INTERNMENT CAMPS OF BANGLADESH by Loraine Mirza. Pub: Crescent International, Markham, ONT., Canada, 1998. pp.172. Pbk: US$10.
By Tahir Mahmoud


Most people would be hard pressed to tell who the 'Stranded Pakistanis' or 'Bihari Muslims' in Bangladesh are. That neatly sums up their tragedy, which dates back to the turmoil surrounding the painful birth of Bangladesh in December 1971, out of what was formerly Pakistan's eastern wing. They have also suffered as a result of t the prejudices against Islam, Muslims and indeed Pakistan itself that are so prevalent in the world. Had the 'Stranded Pakistanis' been Jews or Christians, it is safe to assume that there would be an international outcry about their plight. From the US president down to the Congress and the toothless UN, all would have rallied in aid of these people.

But as they are Muslims, the UN has even refused to consider them as refugees, despite the strenuous efforts of Prince Sadruddin Agha Khan, who was a special representative of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in the seventies.

Journalist Loraine Mirza has painstakingly pieced together their tale after numerous trips to Bangladesh and Pakistan from her home in the US. The American-born Mirza, one of those plucky journalists who refuses to take 'no' for an answer, is eminently qualified to write about their plight because she has witnessed their tragedy from close quarters. She was on a council at the Pakistan embassy in Washington DC dealing with the press and media from 1971 to 1974. She left because she refused to abandon the cause of the 'Bihari Muslims' It was her conviction, inherited from her parents who fought against racism all their lives, and a strong commitment to see justice done, that led her to take up the cause of the Stranded Pakistanis. This book has been in the making for nearly 30 years. Who are the Bihari Muslims and what is their story? They are the victims of two upheavals: the partition of British India into Pakistan and India in 1947, and the painful disruption of Pakistan leading to the creation of Bangladesh in December 1971. Their 'crime' was that having migrated from India to Pakistan in 1947, albeit East Pakistan, they remained faithful to their adopted country in 1971. They have paid and are still paying a terrible price for such loyalty.

Urdu-speaking, unlike the majority Bengali-speaking people of former East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), the Biharis did not encounter many problems until Mujibur Rahman, founder/president of Bangladesh, emerged on the scene with his rhetoric of Bengali nationalism. Mujib was a mediocre politician (and not even particularly bright û he didn't graduate from college until the ripe old age of 30. But his rantings against West Pakistan made him popular in the East. He was a paid agent of India, a fact now admitted even in Bangladesh, albeit much too late. His daughter, Shaikh Hasina, is currently the prime minister of Bangladesh.
In the November 1970 general elections in Pakistan, Mujib's party, the Awami League, swept almost all the seats in East Pakistan, giving him an overall majority in Pakistan's parliament. This, however, ran contrary to the interests of the majority party from West Pakistan, the People's Party led by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. It was Bhutto who persuaded the military regime led by general Yahya Khan to postpone convening the national assembly, which would have elected Mujib as prime minister. With Bengali minds already poisoned against their alleged exploitation by 'West Pakistan,' the assembly postponement proved the final straw.

Armed Awami League supporters, their ranks swelled by students and deserters from the army and police, went on a rampage in East Pakistan, in which tens of thousands of non-Bengalis were butchered between January and March 1971. The victims included the Urdu-speaking people (Biharis) as well as officials and their families from West Pakistan. It was not until the end of March 1971 that three army divisions were sent to East Pakistan to put down the insurgency and restore law and order.The army also made the mistake of antagonising western journalists by mishandling and expelling them from Dhaka. Already hostile to Pakistan, they descended on Calcutta. It was a propaganda coup for India, Pakistan's arch-enemy which had never reconciled with the creation of Pakistan. Already carrying inherent biases against Muslims, western journalists gave vent to their prejudices by filing outrageous stories fed to them by India about alleged atrocities perpetrated against the Bengalis. They did not bother to verify the facts. The truth is (as has now been admitted by some conscientious western journalists as well) that Awami League supporters perpetrated most of the atrocities, especially against the Urdu-speaking non-Bengalis.

The allegation of mass rapes of one million Bengali women by 83,000 Pakistani soldiers, impregnating 200,000 in a matter of a few weeks, was circulated endlessly. How an army in the midst of an insurgency had time for such activity is mind-boggling. Loraine Mirza debunks these myths admirably. When she arrived in Bangladesh in 1986, she found abortion clinics, set up in 1972 ostensibly to cater to the rape victims, were still doing brisk business. Several clinics were opened by an American, Dr Harvey Carmen, who turned out to be not a medical doctor but a sociologist, as Ms Mirza reports (p.57). Women allegedly 'raped' by Pakistani soldiers in 1971 still needed abortions 15 years later!

She also narrates how the Los Angeles Times staff writer, William J. Drummond, currently Professor of Journalism at Berkeley, was forced out of his job because he debunked stories about the genocide of three million Bengalis, a lie endlessly repeated even by Mujib (pp.135-137). But the story of the Bihari Muslims is far more serious and tragic. Branded as 'traitors' by the Bengalis, they were tormented, terrorised and shoved into 66 squalid camps in Bangladesh after the Pakistan army surrendered to the invading Indian army on December 16, 1971. A number of them, including children, were bayonetted to death in front of television cameras by such terrorists as Kader Sidki, a close ally of Shaikh Hasina. Loraine Mirza describes that the Biharis are not only denied jobs by Bangladesh but even the relief agenciesùthe International Committee of the Red Cross, Christian missionaries etcùpoach on their souls. And they have been frustrated in their quest to go to Pakistan by successive regimes in Islamabad. In 1974, an estimated 170,000 were repatriated but another 300,000 still remain in Bangladesh, the victims of endless prevarications by successive Pakistani rulers

 

[akzaman]

Genocide by Pak Army

Jaffer Raza

In 1947, two independent states emerged on the face of the world map: India and Pakistan. Pakistan had two wings: East Pakistan and West Pakistan. The two wings had little in common other than religion. West Pakistan dominated East Pakistan in almost all spheres of life, disparaging the numerical majority of the East Pakistani population. Ultimately, Shaikh Mujib-ur-Rehman led the Bengali nation to strive completely for the autonomy of the Bengali nation, culminating with the birth of Bangladesh. However millions were slaughtered in the Bengali independence movement, with the West Pakistan army proving as mercenaries. The purpose of this study is to argue that the events of 1971 can be classified as genocide. This paper will
attempt to show the viciousness of the crimes and brutality perpetrated on the Bengali nation, and will also attempt to prove that the official Pakistani version is far from what really happened. The genocide committed by the West Pakistan army in Bangladesh was by no means justified.

We live in a world today where the death of one hundred people in a plane crash is viewed as a national tragedy, while the death of three million people has escaped the scope of common knowledge. One of the biggest genocides in history has been sidelined and September 11th, 2001 is still in the media limelight. It seems that the death of a single person is a national tragedy and the death of millions remains a mere statistic. What happened in Bangladesh between March 25 and December 16, 1971 epitomized the spirit of the human will, and, yet again proved man's unlimited capacity to be brutal towards his fellow beings. The events which will unfold throughout this paper will further strengthen this claim, as people of one country and religion were perpetrating atrocities on others. This paper will attempt to show the viciousness of the crimes and brutality perpetrated on the Bengali nation at the time of the “Fall of Dhaka” and will also attempt to prove that the official Pakistani version of the event is far from what really happened. The genocide committed by the West Pakistan army in Bangladesh was by no means justified. The purpose of this study is to argue that the events of 1971 in Bangladesh can be classified as genocide. The word
‘genocide’ means “The systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or ethnic group.”

In 1947, when the British withdrew from the Subcontinent, India and Pakistan emerged as two independent nations. The basis of this division was religion. Pakistan had the unique distinction of being a nation divided into two wings that were separated by miles of hostile Indian territory. This unnatural gulf of territory was naturally going to breed problems for the unity of the country at large. Therefore Pakistan, then the largest Muslim state, had a built-in problem. The two wings had little in common other than religion. Though East Pakistan had a clear majority of the population, the powerful minority of West Pakistan dominated. This domination was unfair and unjust. There was discrimination in every sector of public life. The civil service,
bureaucracy, business, industry, banking etc of East Pakistan were dominated by West Pakistan. Some sources suggest that the first seed of an independent Bangladesh was sown when Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan declared that “Urdu and Urdu only will be the language for Pakistan. ”This was declared at a meeting in Dhaka in 1948 and was not acceptable to the people of East Pakistan. This naturally made the people of East Pakistan agitated. There were immediate protests as Bengali speaking people made up around 55% of the total population in Pakistan. The language problem added fuel to their discontent. There was increasing frustration and mistrust towards the government of Pakistan, on the part of Bengalis. An incident took place where the police opened fire at a students protest march on 21
February 1952. Many innocent students and civilians died. The people of East Pakistan were freedom loving and the blood shed on that day further strengthened their independence movement. So the desire, and then demand, for a separate independent state became inevitable.

Historically, East Pakistan was allocated only 36 % of the total resources and East Pakistanis occupied only 20 % of the positions in the federal government. During the war against India in 1965, East Pakistan was left defenseless. In 1970, a terrible cyclone struck Bangladesh, in which more than 250,000 people died. The government showed a lack of concern for the Bengali people and the East wing was neglected by the Pakistan government. This alienation gave rise to the popularity of the Awami League and its
reflection was seen in the general elections that took place in December 1970 which were won by a huge majority by the party. The Awami League was seen as a platform where the people of East Pakistan could voice their concerns and grievances. Therefore the party won 167 of 169 seats in East Pakistan but none in West Pakistan. The results of the election are a proof of the popularity enjoyed by the party in the Eastern wing. Even though no seats were secured by the party in West Pakistan, it still secured absolute
majority in the Pakistan National Assembly, e.g. 167 of the total 313 seats. As the popularity of the party increased, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became a prominent leader in East Pakistan. At this point there were great differences between politicians of both the wings. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto along with General Yahya Khan refused to accept the majority party, therefore denying them their fundamental and democratic right.

What can be deduced from the above information is that the Bengali people were economically, socially and politically deprived. They did not have the right to self determination. As Pakistani citizens they had an equal right if not more, owing to their greater numbers, to economic well being, political representation and social acceptance. It seems that the distinction between an East and West Pakistani citizen was totally
unwarranted. Discriminating between different races and ethnical backgrounds within the same country is rather unfortunate. The Alienation of East Pakistan was a nail in our national coffin.

After the 1970 elections, Martial Law Administrator General Yahya Khan refused to hand over power to the elected representative Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. . Some efforts had been made for negotiations. Yahya Khan, President of Pakistan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto; Leader of Peoples Party of West Pakistan came to Dhaka to hold discussions with Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rehman that lasted a few days. After the failure of negotiations General Yahya Khan On March 25th, 1971 ordered the Pakistan Army to debilitate the Bengali Nation. A decision was taken to crush the Awami league and its supporters. Under General Yahya Khan’s direction the Pakistan Army began the genocide on 25th March, 1971. For the Pakistan army it was necessary to launch a campaign of genocide to eradicate the threat posed by the Awami
league, as their popularity and success was a threat to the administration. "Kill three million of them," said President Yahya Khan, "and the rest will eat out of our hands." A terror campaign was launched to intimidate the Bengalis into submission. Within hours a mass slaughter was carried out in Dhaka, with the heaviest attacks concentrated on University of Dhaka and the Hindu-dominated areas. The Pakistan Army came with hit lists and systematically killed several hundred Bengalis. Death squads roamed the
streets of Dhaka. An approximate number of 7000 people were murdered in a single night. The main targets of the genocide were Bengali military men, Hindus, supporters of the Awami league, students and the Bengali intellectuals. Shiekh Mujibur Rahman was captured and flown to West Pakistan for imprisonment.

A week after Shiekh Mujibur Rahman was imprisoned, half the population of Dacca had fled, and at least 30,000 people had been killed. At the same time Chittagong, had lost half its population. Innocent people of East Pakistan people were taking flight, and it was estimated by some sources that in April approximately thirty million people were wandering helplessly across East Pakistan to escape the grasp of the military. The military intervention of India was due to the influx of ten million refugees from East Pakistan to India, which overwhelmed the latter’s resources.

Almost all villages of Bangladesh were turned into a graveyard by the Pakistan army and its allies such as the Al- Badar gangsters. According to Rounaq Jahan, a Bengali national, "All through the liberation war,
able-bodied young men were suspected of being actual or potential freedom fighters. Thousands were arrested, tortured, and killed. Eventually cities and towns became bereft of young males who either took refuge in India or joined the liberation war. Especially during the first phase of the genocide, young able-bodied males were the victims of indiscriminate killings." Dead bodies could be seen on the streets of Bangladesh, floating down rivers, and near army concentration camps. Mass murders were committed
at places which could not be easily accessed by the journalists. Hindu houses were painted with yellow “H’s”. Hindu’s were robbed of their lands and shops and an organized extermination of the creed was carried out. “I was told by a friend of mine, who was in a concentration camp, about a Hindu prisoner who used to perform 'namaz' five times a day like the Muslims because he could escape torture only during prayer times,” said Maniruzzaman Mia a Bengali national.Along with these incidents there are several other
instances where the brutal and inhumane acts can be witnessed. These couples of examples are a mere reflection of what was happening in the Eastern wing in that period.

Atrocities were committed on the Bengali women as well, in the form of gang rape and murder. It is commonly known as the “Rape of Bangladesh.” Sources suggest that between 200,000 and 400,000 women were raped in the short period. Since the majority population in Bangladesh is Muslim, most women who were raped were Muslims. Rape in Bangladesh had hardly been restricted to beauty or religion as most women were Muslim. Age was also no barrier in this heinous act as girls of eight and grandmothers of seventy-five had been sexually assaulted. Apart from being assaulted on the spot; several Bengali women were abducted and were held by force in the military barracks of the Pakistan army, for nightly use. Another shocking fact that was revealed during the research was that some women were raped as many as eighty times in a night.

After the Pakistan Army cracked down on the innocent people of the then East Pakistan and committed the most heinous crimes against them, the Bengalis stood up as one to defend their freedom and fight for their liberation. Zia-ur-Rahman, a young Major in the Pakistan Army posted in Chittagong, volunteered to fight against this injustice and made the announcement of independence from the Chittagong radio station, on behalf of Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 27th 1971.

Most of the young and able bodied men, determined to fight back joined the Mukti Bahini, the Bengali liberation army. Such a force was formed to put a halt on the atrocities committed by the Pakistan army as it was a direct consequence to the actions undertaken by them. Thus a Liberation Force was formed in cooperation with the Indian Army, which ultimately turned out to become a disciplined force and defeated the Pakistan Army. On December 16th 1971 the Pakistan army surrendered to the allied forces of the Indian army and the Mukti Bahini. This was the point where the viciousness of the Pakistan army was put to a halt as they were made to surrender. Some sources suggest that it was one of the biggest surrenders in modern history.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission report states that the killings in East Pakistan took place at a rate of between six to twelve thousand people per day. The carnage went on for 267 days, which takes up the total death toll to about 3 million. On the occasion of the 33rd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UNHCR report stated that the genocide committed in Bangladesh was the worst in modern history.

What can be deduced from the above information is that the actions of the Pakistan army in East Pakistan were brutal and barbaric. It was a mass attack on the lives, respect and human rights of the Bengalis. What appears most appalling to me was the fact that the press was never allowed to investigate exactly went on at that time, as the atrocities committed were at places outside the reach of the press. This I feel was a mere tactic used by the authorities so that people are kept as far away from reality as possible. It is indeed sad that the school syllabus designed by the state, to date, contains no mention of such events. What is rather interesting to note here is that the killing of young men could have benefited the Pakistan
army in its cause but the rape of women can only be classed as sheer ruthlessness.

General A.K. Niazi, the Pakistani commander of the eastern command at the time of the fall of Dhaka, claimed that he and his subordinates were innocent. He claims that when he surrendered to General Aurora, he was merely following orders from the GHQ in Rawalpindi. A commission was set up and was called the Hamoodur Rehman Commission to investigate the incident. General Niazi disregards the work of that commission because it was headed by a Bengali Chief Justice. The report of the commission was released later, to be burnt by the Pakistani government. Most sources suggest that the report was unbiased and contained alarming facts and figures degrading the Pakistan army. The main reason for the report being unbiased was that an independent commission was set up and its proceedings were free from outside interference. The “original” report is claimed to be unbiased but the complete report is yet to be made public. Though an incomplete version of the report was published very recently in 1998. The proceedings and findings of the report also suggest that the acts of the Pakistan army can indeed be classified as genocide. But sadly the Pakistanis to date do not accept the events of 1971 and feign innocence.

I feel that hiding the facts from the general public cannot cover up our unjustifiable treatment of the Bengalis. The time has come for the people of West Pakistan to realize that their attitude towards people in the other wing was biased and unjust. It is indeed sad that the people who were involved in such a heinous act remain unquestioned even today. One can only hope that such atrocities will not be committed on other human beings in the future.
http://www.batkhela.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=973

 

[roadrunner]

So, you feel being related is something that gives one fame?

So you are an advocate of the pickaback concept?

Great!

I am related to Jesus Christ!

A stupid example.

Krishna Bose is also related to Subash Chandra Bose. Heard of her?

Well yes. She's quite famous having made it into rediff.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/may/04look.htm

Do you know the relatives of Bahadur Shah Zaffer, the last Mogul Emperor of India?

Your logic astounds!

Nope, but perhaps they'd be quite well known in the locality they live. I'm sure they feel enough fame, even if you're going back centuries now in a desperate attempt to prove some sort of point.

Let's assume you're correct, and Bose did it just for fame (which obviously she didnt), why then did all the Bangladeshi professors, doctors, OBE's, ambassadors agree with her at the conference? Did they want fame too?

 

[roadrunner]

Why post all this?

What will Roadrunner understand?

He wishes to run away from history that has been recorded the world over and his only straw that a drowning man clutches is the relative of Netaji Subash Bose - a failed assistant editor of a Bengali newspaper of Calcutta sensationalising to be recognised!

Not quite a falied assistant editor, she's a relation of a famed Bharati and a Professor who's worked at Washington University amongst many others. Her article is in fact agreed upon by many Bangladeshi professors, and the Bangladeshi Ambassador.

He doesn't even give credence to his President's statement in the book he wrote!

He believes Bose to Musharraf!

Could be because Musharraf liked a Bengali girl when he was commissioned!

Musharraf says the same thing actually. In his recent visit he refused to apologize, but said that the excesses were regrettable. No regret for the excesses of the Muktihi Bahini though now which have already been proven.

I've said the same thing all along.

 

[HK-47]

Her article is in fact agreed upon by many Bangladeshi professors, and the Bangladeshi Ambassador.

where exactly?may I see the source?I thought she gave lectures to the Americans,where did BD ambassadors and envoys come from?or perhaps I missed something.

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

RR

Read his book.

If you can't buy it, go to a library!

Alamgir,

Are you suggesting that there was no genocide and the world was wrong.

I presume the Bengalis merely wilted with fear and had a widespread epidemic of heart attacks by just observing the valiant uniformed Punajbis!

 

[roadrunner]

where exactly?may I see the source?I thought she gave lectures to the Americans,where did BD ambassadors and envoys come from?or perhaps I missed something.

It's been quoted in a previous post. All this cut & paste flame makes it difficult to follow.

During the seminar, Bangladeshi scholars acknowledged that their official figure of more than 3 million killed during and after the military action was not authentic.

They said that the original figure was close to 300,000, which was wrongly translated from Bengali into English as three million.

Shamsher M. Chowdhury, the Bangladesh ambassador in Washington who was commissioned in the Pakistan Army in 1969 but had joined his country’s war of liberation in 1971, acknowledged that Bangladesh alone cannot correct this mistake.

http://www.dawn.com/2005/07/07/nat3.htm

 

[roadrunner]

RR

Read his book.

If you can't buy it, go to a library!

Alamgir,

Are you suggesting that there was no genocide and the world was wrong.

I presume the Bengalis merely wilted with fear and had a widespread epidemic of heart attacks by just observing the valiant uniformed Punajbis!

I guess you could use that argument for all the Biharis also. Perhaps fatalistic fright made them all wilt at the first sign of the well built, but atrociously discriminated Bengalis who had 4 leaders of Pakistan in the first 10 years of its formation.

And Musharraf claims only excesses. There was no political discrimination against them (or economic in my view). Since you know, tell what was was hugely discriminatory about government policy

 

[akzaman]

Genocide in East Pakistan

The most fundamental of all rights the right of a man to come to the aid of a fellow human being is now being denied with a degree of official arrogance seldom displayed in recent history.

The people of East Pakistan, who are still suffering from homelessness and hunger caused by the tidal waves of less than a year ago, are now caught up in a man-made disaster. Their land has become a locked-in arena of authorized slaughter. Communications with the outside world have been reduced almost to the vanishing point. Those who have offered emergency medical aid or other help have been told to stay out.

The present situation has its remote origins in the division of the Indian subcontinent into two nations in 1947. The movement for independence from Great Britain had been complicated and imperiled by the existence of Hindu and Moslem blocs. Great Britain had fostered the concept of a partitioned subcontinent in which India would be predominantly Hindu and Pakistan would be predominantly Moslem. For a long time, Gandhi and Nehru had opposed partition, believing it imperative fat both religious orders to be accommodated within a single large national design. Gandhi and Nehru withdrew their opposition to partition, however, when it appeared certain that national independence might otherwise be indefinitely delayed.

The design for partition called for two nations. Actually, three nations emerged. For Pakistan was partitioned within itself, into East and West. The Western part was larger geographically and became the capital. The Eastern part was more populous and richer in resources. The units lay more than 1,000 miles apart.

In order to comprehend the geographical anomaly this physical separation represented, one has only to imagine what would have happened if Maine and Georgia had decided to form a separate nation, Maorgia, with practically the whole of the United States lying in between. Let us further suppose that the capital of the new nation would have been Augusta, Northern Maorgia, while most of the people and resources would have been in Southern Maorgia. The result would have been an administrative, political, and economic shambles. What has happened in Pakistan roughly fits that description. Further compounding the situation are the severe cultural and historic differences between Punjabi (West) and Bengali (East) societies.

For a time, the peoples of East and West Pakistan were held together by the spiritual and political exhilaration of a new nationalism. But the underlying difficulties grew more pronounced and visible year by year. The people of East Pakistan chafed under what they felt was West Pakistan's latter-day version of British colonialism. They claimed they were not being represented in proportion to their numbers in either high posts or policies of government. They charged they were being exploited economically, furnishing labor and resources without sharing fairly in the profits from production. They pointed to the sharp disparity in wages and living conditions between East and West.

It was inevitable that the disaffection should reach an eruptive stage. There is no point here in detailing the facts attending the emergence of political movements seeking self-rule for East Pakistan. All that need be said that the central government at Islamabad finally did agree to submit self-rule propositions to the East Pakistan electorate. The result of the general election was an overwhelming vote in favor of self-rule. The central government at Islamabad not only failed to respect this popular decision, but ordered in armed troops to forestall implementation. The official slaughter began on March 26th.

A few documented episodes:

1) Tanks and soldiers with submachine guns and grenades seized Dacca University early in the morning on March 26. All students residing in Iqbal Hall, the dormitory center, were put to death. The building was gutted by shells from tanks.

2) One hundred and three Hindu students residing in Jagannath Hall of Dacca University were shot to death. Six Hindu students were forced at gunpoint to dig graves for the others and then were shot themselves.

3) Professor C. C. Dev, widely respected head of the Department of Philosophy, was marched out of his home to an adjacent field and shot.

4) The last names of other faculty members who were killed or seriously wounded: Minirussaman, Guhathakurta, Munim, Naqui, Huda, Innasali, Ali.

5) Central government troops forced their way into Flat D of Building 34 at the university, seized Professor Muniru Zaman, his son, his brother (employed by the East Pakistan High Court), and his nephew, and marched the group to the first-floor foyer, where they were machine-gunned.

6) A machine gun was installed on the roof of the terminal building at Sadarghat, the dock area of Old Dacca. On March 26, all civilians within range were fired upon. After the massacre, the bodies were dragged into buses. Some were burned. Some were dumped into the Buriganga River, adjacent to the terminal.

7) On the morning of March 28, machine guns were placed at opposite ends of Shandari Bazar, a Hindu artisan center in old Dacca. Central government forces suddenly opened fire on civilians trapped in the bazaar. The corpses were strewn on the street.

8) On the evening of March 28, soldiers invaded Ramna Kalibari, an ancient small Hindu settlement, killing all the occupants (estimated at 200). On March 29, about one hundred corpses were put on display in the village.

9) The flight of civilians from Dacca was blocked at gunpoint.

10) On the morning of April 2, forty soldiers entered a village named Barda, rounded up the male population (approximately 600) and marched them at gunpoint to Gulshan Park; where they were interrogated. Ten members of the group were then taken off; their fate is unknown.

The foregoing represents a small fraction of the authenticated accounts that in the aggregate tell of widespread killings; especially of youth and educated people. It is futile to attempt to estimate the number of dead or wounded. Each city and village has its own tales of horror. It is significant that the government at Islamabad, until only last week, enforced vigorous measures to keep out reporters.

The U.S. State Department is in possession of authenticated descriptions not just of the incidents mentioned above but of countless others. Such reports have been sent to Washington by the American Consul General in Dacca and by American physicians attached to AID. For some reason, the State Department has issued no report covering the information at its disposal.

American guns, ammunition, and other weapons sent to Pakistan were used in the attack on Bengali people.

So were weapons from the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. The United Nations has been helpless in the present situation. The Central government in Pakistan claims it is dealing with an internal situation beyond the jurisdiction of the U.N. the nation.

This may help to explain why the U.N. has so far been unable under its Charter to take action against what appears to be a provable case of genocide. But it doesn’t explain why men of conscience have not stood up in the United Nations to split the sky with their indignation.

The central government at Islamabad has forestalled efforts to send food, medicine, and medical personnel into the devastated zones. It seems inconceivable that this decision can be allowed to stand. The Bengalis may not possess political sovereignty, but they do possess human sovereignty under the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

The United States has not hesitated to speak sharply and effectively wherever its national interests were involved. Americans have every right to expect the United States to speak sharply when the human interest is involved. If the United States can find it within its means and its morality to send guns to Pakistan, it can also find it within its means and its morality to send food and first aid.

The President has said that events in Vietnam represent a test of American manhood. The proposition is dubious. What is certain, however, is that events in Pakistan are a test of American compassion and conscience.

Saturday Review May 22, 1971; p. 20-21

 

[Tiki Tam Tam]

I guess you could use that argument for all the Biharis also. Perhaps fatalistic fright made them all wilt at the first sign of the well built, but atrociously discriminated Bengalis who had 4 leaders of Pakistan in the first 10 years of its formation.

And Musharraf claims only excesses. There was no political discrimination against them (or economic in my view). Since you know, tell what was was hugely discriminatory about government policy

Why? Can't you spend some money and buy Musharraf's book?

Or now that things are getting uncomfortable, you wish to show your loyalty to the Opposition blokes?

Could it be that the educated is required to govern and not the feudal lot with Divine blessed rights being the sole criterion and hence the four leaders? !

Who were the bureaucrats and the stalwarts of the Judiciary - the Mohajir. Again it was education that got them there.