Dispute on Pakistani POW figures in 1971 War

[Venkat]

We all know the dispute on Pakistani POW figures in the 1971 War.

One one side - Indians commonly claim - 93000 Pak Army POWs
Pakistan claims - only half were Army and rest were civilians.

The truth lies somewhere in between.

I am posting here figures for future reference - this is as accurate as it gets

India took approximately 93,000 prisoners of war that included Pakistani soldiers as well as some of their East Pakistani collaborators. 79,676 of these prisoners were uniformed personnel, of which 55,692 were Army, 16,354 Paramilitary, 5,296 Police, 1000 Navy and 800 PAF. [4]. The remaining prisoners were civlians - either family members of the military personnel or bihari razarkars.

So the totals are

55,692 Army
16,354 Para Military
5, 296 Police
1,000 Navy
800 PAF
-----------------
79,676

14,000 family members.

I hope it settles discussion once.

 

[Awesome]

your source?

Fewer family members than the serving personnel?

 

[sword9]

I too have read similar figures, as posted by Venkat. The reason for few family members is that, military cantonments in the subcontinent catered mainly to barraks for troops and very little family accomodation. There buildings were are all hand-me-downs from the British Raj. Most soldiers could not bring their families to EP, and later when the situation became bad in March 1971, many officers would have sent their families back to the west, however, many major cantonments had officer families when the war ended.

You may verify this logic, with the family accomodation assets currently held in any cantonment in Pakistan.

 

[sparten]

Well since the 1980s its been Army policy to have more family accomodation at military cantts.

As for soldiers, do the maths, 9, and 14 divs were there. 16 Ad Hoc div was raised hastily and from memory never reached much beyond 2 Bns. Fighting streght was something like 35,000.

Rest were paramilitary police, etc.

 

[sword9]

This is the orbat of the Pak army in East Pakistan in 1971.

Eastern Command
5 divisions (2 Ad Hoc, only 5 new bns arrived); 14 brigades (4 Ad Hoc)

- 4 Army Aviation Squadron [LTC L.A. Bukhari]
6 Mi-8, 6 Alouette 3; escaped to Burma

- 6 Light Anti Aircraft Regiment


- Three signals battalions
One or two may have belonged to divisions

9 Division [MG M.H. Ansari] (Jessore)
Sent from Mardan May 1971

- 49 Field Regiment


- 55 Field Regiment


- 211 (I) Mortar Battery


57 Brigade [Brig. Mazoor Ahmad] (Jhenida)


- 18 Punjab


- 20 Baluch


- 50 Baluch


- ?/29 Cavalry


107 Brigade [Brig. Malik Hayat Khan] (Khulna)


- 6 Punjab


- 12 Punjab


- 15 Frontier Force


- 21 Punjab (R & S) (two companies)


- 22 Frontier Force


- 38 Frontier Force


- 55 Field Regiment
15 guns only

- 7 Engineer Company
From 10 Engineer Battalion

- Two M24 Chaffee tanks


14 Division [MG Qazi Abdul Majid] (Dacca)
Permenently stationed Eastern Command

- 22 Baluch
Assignment yet to be determined

- ? Tochi Scouts
Assignment yet to be determined; Frontier Corps

17 Brigade (Comilla)


27 Brigade [Brig. Saadullah]


202 Brigade [Brig. Brig. Salimullah] (Sylhet)
Ad hoc brigade; battalions assigned from other brigades

- 11 Frontier Force


- 30 Frontier Force
60 km front as opposed to normal 4 km

- 31 Punjab
55 km front as opposed to normal 4 km

313 Brigade [Brig. Rana]


16 Division [MG Nazar Hussain Shah] Sent from West May 1971

23 Brigade [Brig. Saeed Akhtar Ansari]
Dinajpur-Rangpur

107 Brigade [Brig. Naeem]
3 battalions

205 Brigade [Brig. Tajjamal Hussain Malik]
Hilli; also Field Regt; Mortar Battery; Tank Sqdn; Elements R&S Bn

- 4 Frontier Force


- 13 Frontier Force


36 Division [MG Jamshed] Ad Hoc division: no increase in strength; only one Bde HQ and 2 Bns

93 Brigade [Brig. Qadir Niazi] (Mymensingh)


- 31 Baluch


- 33 Punjab


39 Division [MG Rahim Khan]
Ad Hoc Division: no increase in strength

53 Brigade [Brig. Aslam Niazi] (Comilla/Chittagong)


117 Brigade [Brig. M.H. Atif] Former Olympic Hockey Gold Medallist


314 Brigade [COL Fazal Hamid]
Ad hoc, no increase in stsrength; yet to be placed

91 (I) Brigade [Brig. Aata Malik]
Yet to be placed

The figures are close to 50,000

 

[Banana]

Even I have heard that The figure is quite more than one quoted in India!

 

[Leviza]

We all know the dispute on Pakistani POW figures in the 1971 War.

One one side - Indians commonly claim - 93000 Pak Army POWs
Pakistan claims - only half were Army and rest were civilians.

The truth lies somewhere in between.

I am posting here figures for future reference - this is as accurate as it gets



So the totals are

55,692 Army
16,354 Para Military
5, 296 Police
1,000 Navy
800 PAF
-----------------
79,676

14,000 family members.

I hope it settles discussion once.

BTW what is your source of this information as you are calling it 'this is as accurate as it gets '

care to post your non-indian and non-Pakistani source????

 

[Asian.Century]

We all know the dispute on Pakistani POW figures in the 1971 War.

One one side - Indians commonly claim - 93000 Pak Army POWs
Pakistan claims - only half were Army and rest were civilians.

The truth lies somewhere in between.

I am posting here figures for future reference - this is as accurate as it gets

So the totals are

55,692 Army
16,354 Para Military
5, 296 Police
1,000 Navy
800 PAF
-----------------
79,676

14,000 family members.

I hope it settles discussion once.

I heard this same figure, Indians claims (93k), cannot believe it, always need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

 

[AUz]

It was ~ 50,000 army...rest were civil services like police etc and not combat forces.

 

[NP-complete]

This is what Lt Gen Kamal Matinuddin has to say in his book 'Tragedy of Errors - East Pakistan crisis 1968-1971',
"The total strength of the military and para-military personnel in East Pakistan immediately prior to the outbreak of war was 1,833 officers, 50,232 junior commissioned officers (JCOs) and other ranks. Out of these 354 officers, 192 JCOs and 5,320 other ranks lost their lives. 26,000 men in uniform and 65,000 civilians were taken prisoner and moved to POW camps in India where they remained till 1974."

 

[Rajaraja Chola]

I heard this same figure, Indians claims (93k), cannot believe it, always need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Hope you guys got the answer.

 

[Tangent]

Hope you guys got the answer.

90,000 ??? what we did of them ????

 

[veekysingh]

90,000 ??? what we did of them ????

Sent them to Pakistan after they accepted all what we hv asked. Case closed.

Sir

This is what Lt Gen Kamal Matinuddin has to say in his book 'Tragedy of Errors - East Pakistan crisis 1968-1971',
"The total strength of the military and para-military personnel in East Pakistan immediately prior to the outbreak of war was 1,833 officers, 50,232 junior commissioned officers (JCOs) and other ranks. Out of these 354 officers, 192 JCOs and 5,320 other ranks lost their lives. 26,000 men in uniform and 65,000 civilians were taken prisoner and moved to POW camps in India where they remained till 1974."

by this data thr were 52000 thousand man in uniforms. Out of them 6000 died. And only 25000 surrendered so where the rest of then go? Became Bangladeshi?