Interesting response from a Quora forum:
Answer (1 of 21): This is a convoluted question. Indian Army took away huge catches of arms, ammunition’s, tanks and equipment etc that were abandoned by Pakistan Army in the cantonments and depots ( Pakistanis were in great rush to surrender to avoid being caught by poor Bengali villagers who h...
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Piyush Ghosh
(
former Former Colonel Gorkha Regiment Officer at Indian Army (1962-1992)
Bangladeshi Arms and equipment in 1971 ? what were these and from where they got these ?
This is a misinformation some pro pakistani and anti Indian persons in Bangladesh are now propagating through the media. Bangladesh was ruled by Pakistan as a colony before their independence in 1971. Their was no Bangladesh Army before their Independence . Pakistan Army in Bangladesh was an army of occupation and officially sworn as enemy of the people of Bangladesh by themselves . Indian Army and Bangladesh Mukti Bahini jointly fought against the Pakistan Army and defeated them .The Bangladesh Mukti bahini , an irregular guerilla force was trained and provided weapons and ammunition by the Indian army . otherwise where could they get their weapons from ? Pakistan Army in East Pakistan surrendered ( 93000 including civilians , air force and navy ) . In the surrender ceremony at Dacca , Pakistan army in East pakistan formally surrendered their weapons to the Indian Army ( see the famous viral picture of surrender by Pak general Niazi and rows and rows of pak army officers and men laying down their weapons and surrendering . As per international conventions and traditions of war internationally accepted and practiced , the weapons and equipment of a defeated and surrendered army are the property of the Victor . Obviously it would have been very foolish and dangerous to leave weapons in the hands of the defeated Enemy Army .As on the day of surrender a Regular Bangladesh army did not exist . Indian Army could have removed all Pakistani weapons to India and since these weapons and equipment were of no use to the Indian army , either destroyed them or give it to people who were enemies of pakistan to be used against Pakistan . The fact is that Indian Army did not do so . Bulk of these weapons and equipment t were handed over to the Newly formed Bangladesh government . You ask Old Bangladesh Army Veterans , ( not the mukti bahini ) what weapons and equipment their newly raised Regular Army had in 1972 ?/ from where they got these ? They were equipped with weapons and equipment captured from Pakistan Army given to them by Indian Army . They had no other source of getting weapons or equipment for couple years after 1971 , as most weapons providing /selling nations did not recognise Bangladesh initially including Muslim nations who sided with pakistan . Yes some weapons and tanks were made useless and brought to India as war trophies for display by indain Army . This was perfectly legitimate and as per international conventions . Some rifles were retained for use against Pakistan Army in future . There were few cases of Indian Army personnel illegally and clandestinely smuggling in Pakistan army small arms and ammunition as personal trophy . This is a very common practice amongst soldiers world over . They could not get license for such weapons in their States . most of them were caught , they were punished . At least one case I remember where the officer was caught by our own Military Police , was court martialed and dismissed . Such cases were rare, may be less then 100 cases , Such activity was not officially allowed by Indian army .Obviously they could not bring in big guns and vehicles . Indian Army Military police and Intelligence units were checking all Indian Army vehicles and personnel at the border at the time of their return to India . 99 % of the weapons and equipment of pakistan Army were either handed over to the new bangladesh Government or were abandoned all over Bangladesh in as is , where is basis . If there was any looting it was done by Razakars , pro Pak elements of Bangladesh . Razakars indulged in large scale looting of hindu property in the country side .
Question of looting Bangladeshi Army weapons and equipment in 1971 war by Indian Army is an improbability because Bangladesh Army did not exist before the cease fire , it was Pakistan army before the end of the war. Bangladesh mukti bahini a guerilla irregular force was given training , weapons and equipment by Indian Army from it’s own inventory of weapons . have you seen any toyota jeep like SUVs and Toyota Trucks after 1971 in India?. pakistan Army had these vehicles in place of mahindra Jeep or Jongas and tata or shaktiman trucks of the Indian Army . has any one seen any such Pak Army vehicles in India after 1971.? I had used one of these Pakistan Army toyota light vehicle after cease fire in Bangladesh to travel across bangladesh and then abandoned it at dacca . all these vehicles including Chaffee tanks , Guns, Toyota jeep like vehicles, trucks were all handed over to bangladesh government or abandoned in “as is where is state” in Bangladesh when indian army left Bangladesh , They were of no use to Indian army .
The Indian Army had collected all personal belongings , money, jwellery , gadgets and personal private small arms of surrendered pak Armed Forces personnel , at the time of surrender , for security reasons as is done to prisoners every where , These items were labelled with tags and stored in central Army ware houses created for this purpose. . After the war , I , as a major was head of an Indian Army team at Lucknow with the job of processing claims of pakistan prisoners of War regarding their personal belongings taken from them by the Indian army at the time of surrender .. We verified their claim , if claim was authentic , identified their belongings in the stores and returned them to the claimants at the time of their release and repatriation. Incidentally we had returned hundreds of crores of Pakistani money to these prisoners . Pakistan government had promptly demonitised their currency when prisoners went home ,putting them into financial distress . My team must have successfully processed at least 1000 such claims . Dozens of such teams were set up in 1972 .No other army , definitely not the Pakistan Army would have done that .
What is strange is that a section of people of Bangladesh have forgotten that 3 million of their country men were murdered, thousands of their women raped , their natural resources and foreign exchange were looted and used only for west pakistan , Not allowing Bangladshi party Awami league to form government despite clear majority , treating Bangladeshis as some lower grade human beings by Pakistan , not recruiting them in Pakistan army except few as tokens , Forgetting all these , now they are rooting for pakistan and propagating hatred for India . They do not even spare Rabindra Nath Tagore and kazi Nazrul . A section of Bangladeshis want to change their National Anthem written by Tagore as Tagore was a Hindu and not born in East Bengal . India baiting has become fashionable for a section of educated Bangladeshis. Hopefully majority of the people of bangladesh know what is the truth and know who are their freinds .