Looking for more : Bangladesh Liberation War

[Dante80]

@Species Many thanks friend for the comprehensive summary. I will be eagerly awaiting your next post.

Pak’s ultimate objective is to be a central power in the Muslim world based on the historical precendences and geographic locations. Original dreamers of Pak put no room for the current BD in this grand scheme...

Wouldn't that contribute to alienating the residents of East Pakistan to the point where a civil war was inevitable? I was under the original impression that the leadership in West Pakistan was not friendly to notions of - however limited - autonomy, a federal 2 state system or cessation.

 

[Species]

Talk about historical revisionism...

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Rehmat Ali, Muhammad Iqbal, Syed Ahmad Khan, Aga Khan, Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, Liaquat Ali Khan, Muhammad Zafarullah Khan and Fatima Jinnah are easily some of the most prominent and dominant members to spearhead the Pakistan movement. None of these individuals were Bengali.

Were there Bengalis involved in Pakistan's creation? Yes. Were they important? Yes. But they were not the main spearhead.

This has been discussed a lot in this forum. Historical revisionism is rather done on part of some Pakistanis in PDF, there are countless videos on YouTube, let alone academic sources, where Pakistani scholars themselves saying Bengali Muslims being the main pioneers of Pakistan Movement.

Except for Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan, the rest of the names in your post simply have no direct contribution to the political movements, protests and leadership towards Pakistan's cause. Even these two people were also Muhajirs. The most prominent and active political leaders in the Pakistan Movement were Hussain Suhrawardi, Khawja Nazimuddin, A K Fazlul Haque, Abul Hashim, Maulana Akram Khan along with the two names you mentioned. Please understand that political movements are conducted by politicians and leaders, not by scholars or poets. Almost all the political leaders in Pakistan Movement belonged to Bangladesh and Northern India. My mentioning of this phenomenon was to argue that there was hardly any experienced leader from West Pakistan at Pakistan's independence in 1947, which has been manifested by the low presence of West Pakistanis in the early years of Pakistani politics.

Alright, this is the second part of my post explaining the actual conflict. @Dante80

Beginning of the civil war and formation of Mukti Bahini
The elected representatives from Awami League formed a provisional government in mid-April 1971 and fled to India to seek Indian govt.'s support. Meanwhile, in Bangladesh the defected Bengali officers and troops from Pakistan military began to get organized under a resistance force called "Mukti Bahini" (Freedom Force) under its Commander in Chief Colonel Osmani (later promoted to General during the war), who was a retired officer of Pakistan Army. Gen. Osmani and other leading defected Bengali officers from Pakistan military sat on a meeting in Sylhet in Northeastern Bangladesh in April 1971 and chalked out the war strategy for Mukti Bahini. According to the plan,

• Bangladesh was divided into 11 battle zones or 'sector', each led by a sector commander.
• It was decided to fight the Pakistan military on guerilla tactics which would gradually evolve into a conventional warfare through the course of the war.
• The formation of Mukti Bahini had several components. The defected Bengali troops from Pakistan military as well as paramilitary (East Pakistan Rifles and Police) formed the core of this force. This core was split into three battle groups, Z Force (led by Maj. Ziaur Rahman), K Force (led by Maj. Khaled Mosharraf) and S Force (led by Maj. Safiullah). Around this core was Gonobahini (Peoples' Force) consisting of civilian fighters. Besides, some individuals formed some regional forces like Kader Bahini (led by Kader Siddiqui and operated around Tangail District), Hemayet Bahini (led by Hemayet Uddin and operated around Faridpur District) etc. In addtion, the Awami League activists formed a separate force called Mujib Bahini which was trained by India. There are certain controversies whether Mujib Bahini really had any contribution to the liberation war.

India began to supply arms and ammunition provided by the Soviets, as well as substantial logistical support to the Mukti Bahini but refrained from directly intervening to the war.

Mukti Bahini's performance initially was not really successful. They were scattered and disorganized and were only able to inflict minimal damages on the Pakistan military. However, things began to turn around during the monsoon, in July-August 1971. The heavy rain submerged the marshy plains in most of Bangladesh that raised the logistical pressure on Pakistani military by manifolds while boosting Mukti Bahini's operational strength based on their knowledge of local terrain and climate. Pakistan military halted their advances and Mukti Bahini started getting more organized while its fighters became better trained and experienced. It was also during this time when Mukti Bahini began successful special commando operations in Dhaka that caught the attention of the international journalists present there, thus turning the global limelight on the event. By November 1971, Pakistan military was reduced to only the cantonments in few major cities while the entire countryside came under Mukti Bahini's control. Pakistani troops were also steadily losing their morale as they realized the declining public opinion of the locales towards Pakistan military and govt.

War strategy of Pakistan
Initially Pakistan military went for all out military operation throughout the country but after the monsoon, they had to retreat to the few military bases. Soon after, their supplies began to fade as their entire logistical chain collapsed.

The Pakistan high command used to follow a major military doctrine, 'Defence of the East lies in the West' that meant to defend East Pakistan from India, they had to fight from West Pakistan. Towards the end of November, Indians were preparing to invade East Pakistan and to begin a naval blockade over Bay of Bengal. Pakistan thought by declaring a war on India and invading from the western front, it would succeed to draw the Indian forces to the West, thus, preventing them from invading East where Pakistani troops were already losing ground.

On 3rd December 1971, PAF launched pre-emptive air strikes on the air bases in western India, thus, turning the civil war into a full scale regional war. Indians began to retaliate on the western front but sent troops to East Pakistan anyway, albeit a small, but a more-than-enough force that was escorted by Mukti Bahini to enter without any resistance. Rather than fighting the Pakistani troops scattered in the different cities, the joint force of Mukti Bahini and Indian Army marched towards Dhaka and put it under a siege for two days. On 16th December, Pakistan's Eastern Command submitted an unconditional surrender to the joint forces.

Indian strategy
The Indian military didn't want to invade East Pakistan immediately and wanted to wait till winter mainly fearing possible Chinese intervention. The winter would make it hard for the Chinese to cross the Himalayas which would effectively neutralize the Chinese troops. However, the Indian strategy was to keep the conflict in Bangladesh boiling and hence, provided the logistical support to the Mukti Bahini. India planned to invade by 4th December and finally intervened directly following the air strikes by PAF on 3rd December.

Atrocities during the war
There was a prevailing narrative among the Pakistani leadership that Hindus were the main instigators and were influencing all the instabilities in East Pakistan as Indian agents. Hindus occupied a substantial portion of the population in the East, comprising about 30% of the provincial population and was also a reason behind the Bengali majority within Pakistan.

During their cleansing operations, Pakistan military mainly targeted this Hindu population. Being victims of massive killings and rapes, a large of Hindus fled to India thus considerably reducing their share in Bangladesh's population. Pakistan military was also assisted by the local workers and supporters of some Islamic political parties like Jamaat - E - Islami, whose volunteers known as Razakars also took part in the atrocities.

 

[Hamza913]

The most prominent and active political leaders in the Pakistan Movement were Hussain Suhrawardi, Khawja Nazimuddin, A K Fazlul Haque, Abul Hashim, Maulana Akram Khan along with the two names you mentioned.

Almost nobody cares about those names. Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Iqbal are the most well known and important figures from the movement.

which has been manifested by the low presence of West Pakistanis in the early years of Pakistani politics.

Make no mistake, we always called the shots.

 

[Homo Sapiens]

Almost nobody cares about those names. Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Iqbal are the most well known and important figures from the movement.

Because you are the only one now holding the banner of Pakistan , so you are setting the narrative. In this process you have eliminated the contribution from Bengal and made the whole Pakistan movement things as exclusively yours. That's why you are elevating the obscure figure from West Pakistan while downsizing and denying the contribution from Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. You are the only one bearing the legacy. So it is your right to make it suitable as your liking. No one is going to interfere with that.

 

[Rusty]

Because you are the only one now holding the banner of Pakistan , so you are setting the narrative. In this process you have eliminated the contribution from Bengal and made the whole Pakistan movement things as exclusively yours. That's why you are elevating the obscure figure from West Pakistan while downsizing and denying the contribution from Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. You are the only one bearing the legacy. So it is your right to make it suitable as your liking. No one is going to interfere with that.

It's not our fault you betrayed the Pakistan movment.
If you want to have your leaders glorified, you should not have started a civil war.
Your heros are now Indians.
While ours are the people who created Pakistan.

 

[countryman]

Wouldn't that contribute to alienating the residents of East Pakistan to the point where a civil war was inevitable? I was under the original impression that the leadership in West Pakistan was not friendly to notions of - however limited - autonomy, a federal 2 state system or cessation.

Alienation: I don't think they ever joined Pakistan wholeheartedly at first place - majority of their leadership and people were struggling either for separate country or united Bengal before the partition. But Britishers given the people of Indian subcontinent only two choices: either join India or Pakistan. Third country was impossible. Soon after joining Pakistan - rebellion started showing its signs - initial cause was language and Bengali nationalism. More than 20% of the population of that region was Hindu that was never willing to join Pakistan and not only that, that 20% of population was in control major percentage of economy, held much more positions in academics or other influential positions. India had its own interest in dividing Pakistan and through these influential people India was able to spread its propaganda and bunch of other issues fueled rebellion further. Even among the Muslim population, there was lack of trust on both sides. Pakistan as state did what any other state would do thinking of protecting its people. After war broke out between India and Pakistan - Overwhelmingly large support to Pro-Independence groups by people of that region brought Pakistan's leadership to it's senses. Pakistan's army surrendered after realizing they're not fighting for People of Pakistan. Call it miscalculation but only thing we, as Pakistanis, regret that our leadership took too long to realize the allegiance of those people to Bengali Nationalism - loss of lives occurred.

 

[Hamza913]

Because you are the only one now holding the banner of Pakistan

Because it's ours. You always have been and always will be from the land we just so happened to rule over.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

A question. I am looking for links, PDFs or other material regarding the Bangladesh War of Independence. I'm interested in both the conflict and the general history that culminated to it.

The wikipedia page citations provide a starter for the subject at hand, I would love to read some more though. Could you provide if you can any links to additional information online (written in english)?

Any help would be vastly appreciated, cheers..C:

The only view is the real view and a pragmatic view and a honest view of whole problem

During early 1947 -1965's
The condition across both side of Pakistan was similar , people had large families but not enough resources but they had each other for comfort. However as Pakistan (East / West) started to stand on it's feet it became apparent that one side of Pakistan (East) suffered from regular weather calamities (Floods). Every few years
Floods would come in and destroy large amount of Property.

So if we view a 10 year cycle , a family in West Pakistan , would work and gather few assets and grow have bank account because we did not had flooding. The story on East Pakistan was different the floods would continue to wipe up properties owned , do damages and would not allow the middle class to prop up.

We can say a East Pakistan (Bangladesh) community was not able to develop their middle class who can setup their own small business due to flood related poverty

Eight Major Floods (Reference of Flood History in Bangladesh)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floods_in_Bangladesh

1954 - 36,920 Sq km Flooded 25% of country
1955 - 50,700 Sq km Flooded 34% of country
1956 - 35,620 Sq km Flooded 24% of country
1962 - 37,404 Sq km Flooded 25% of country
1963 - 43,180 Sq km Flooded 29% of country
1968 - 37,300 Sq km Flooded 25% of country
1970 - 42,640 Sq km Flooded 28% of country
1971 - 36,475 Sq km Flooded 24% of country

Just for reference the floods sustained in 2005 in Pakistan it took us good 3-5 years to recover, in current Pakistan , so you can imagine what the situation as on East Pakistan specially at that time Pakistan was relatively poor economy


Note: Floods are common even now
Bangladesh gets all the flood water from India even to this day

India's Role in Flooding
India was the number one culprit for releasing excess water many times without warning in to East Pakistan, due to lack of Dams and protective barriers , the Floods caused massive damage. Current Pakistan (West Pakistan) , never really had any say on that water release as all these rivers were inside India where the Floods emerged from in first place

a) So what was taking place was a Flood War damaging East Pakistan's Economy

b) Secondary war was taking place as lies were spread at ground level that cause of East's
poverty was West Pakistan



Espionage / Stirring of Terrorism inside East Pakistan

India continued to finance the internal rift between 1965 up to 1971 by support of certain political minds who wanted political favors and power in return for raising anti Pakistan sentiment locally.


"1970's also say a massive Cyclone strike East Pakistan killing 500,000 people which infuriated local people due to massive amount of deaths "
Note: India still declared war on Pakistan in 1971 when their was such a massive calamity due to natural disaster mere few months later

Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Bhola_cyclone

Birth Of Textile Industry in East Pakistan
One of the major political tools used by Indian lobby was to spread lies that no major industrial centers were being setup in East Pakistan, so West Pakistani Industrialist setup Textile industries and hired local workers to help remove poverty

However due to flood the local population always had trouble maintaining the cash / money as flood regularly destroyed assets property every few years on massive scale

In order to counter the sentiment , many of the Industrialist in West Pakistan actively setup Textiles industries inside East Pakistan , so that the RAW's narrative can be countered.


Political Fall out from Last Election prior to War:
Looking back most Pakistanis (West Pakistani) feel the issue of election should have been approached differently. Any objection to Mujib was on security grounds due to his ties with India.

However instead of exposure of his ties to India he was allowed to contest in elections
and that created a politically unstable situation in East Pakistan.

India started the war and various lies were spread in Local Circles against Pakistan's military

Lack of Navy and Transport of Troops :
At that time lack of Navy and Transport capabilities between East and West Pakistan hindered proper defense

Bhutto in 1974 visited Bangladesh but what is the point then when it was already too late should have stood down politically in 1971

Pakistan also was not able to upgrade it's fighter Jets between 1965 and 1971
and position a strong Airforce in East Pakistan

Bhutto himself was hanged for his role in political unstability in 1970's
He openly refused to let Awami league form government even when they were in Majority

Post War :

• 1975 Mujibur Rehman killed by his own folks, these were internal elements in Bangladesh and internal power struggle which followed post war

Economic Views you can see in 1950 both Bangladesh and Pakistan had similar GDP
So the stories of massive wealth in East Pakistan were not true

Another graph shows Pakistan/Bangladesh economies were almost identical in 1971

Both nations continue to thrive as brotherly muslim nations

Before we leave this discuss it is also important to note the result of elections in 70's in Pakistan by virtue of which East Pakistani party was suppose to form the majority government

The political wrong decisions by Bhutto further escalated the problem and that must be acknowledged as Pakistani and I personally understand that issue

If Mujib was a conspirator he should be have been disqualified from election in 68

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970_Pakistani_general_election


Lessons Learned

a) Weather devastation played a massive role in hindering East Pakistan's economic growth and growth of middle class between 1947-1970

b) Lack of Dams prevented mass flooding , India did not helped as it released flood waters
unannounced.

c) Lack of Prison Sentence , if evidence existed against Mujib Ur Rehman, he should have been disqualified to prevent any disharmony in election.

d) Post Election confusion and refusal to allow East Pakistan's party to form government Bhutto, PPP and other elements created a political mess.

[No war crime was committed during war as Pakistan was defending it's own citizens, the military at borders were protecting the border , a majority of that is a massive fabricated illusion, once a full blown war starts we know their are casualties Bombardment, firing , air bombing etc]

A majority of people who lived in that time for example my parents state clearly it was 100% Bhutto's blind refusal to step down and accept election results, I agree to some degree that Bhutto did create a massive issue out of no issue.




Looking back their is regret that East Pakistan is not there but at least their is a Muslim country still doing well known as Bangladesh




Local Malitias continued to kill local population who were Sentimentally tied to Pakistan
Most of deaths also occurred after the war was over from Pakistan's side

Many East Pakistani / Bangali elderly describing the role of Mukti Bani and Militia's actions

History was not too kind on Indra Gandi

Taken out by her own security guards for oppression against minorities

 

[Dante80]

Many thanks for the comprehensive answers given on the topic, I'm learning a lot, and each one gives me another perspective to read about and ponder.