Loot and plunder by Indian army after liberation war in 1971

[leonblack08]

General Aurora and the looting by Indian Soldiers

Monday May 23 2005 12:15:12 PM BDT

Tuhin Reza from UK

Lt. General Jagjit Singh Aurora, the commander of the Indo-Bangla Joint Forces in 1971 has recently passed away. In this article I am going to share some comments with the readers regarding the late General’s financial impropriety following the Bangladesh war of independence that I learnt in the Indian Capital.

In 1990 I went to Delhi to attend the wedding of a Sikh friend. This friend is a relative of Aurora. The wedding reception took place at the famous Gymkhana Club and was attended by many dignitaries. If I am not mistaken, the Lt. Governor of Delhi and the then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Saeed (it was the time of V P Singh) also attended briefly.

General Aurora, however, missed the reception, as he was taken ill. His daughter attended and my friend introduced me to her. She invited me to meet her famous father and said that ‘daddy’ would be home the next morning to receive and talk to me. Unfortunately, I could not take this invitation as the next day was my last full day in India and I was faced with two options, either to stay in Delhi and meet the General for breakfast and talk about 1971, or to go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal. I opted for the latter.

At the wedding reception, my friend also introduced me to General Jacob. Gen. Jacob was Aurora’s second-in-command in the Eastern Command in 1971 and as many people say, was probably the chief architect of the 1971 Indian invasion and war plan in the eastern theatre. Although the General knew a few more people at the reception than I did, he to some extent like me felt stranger in that gathering. For some unknown reasons, the General liked me a lot and spent the next couple of hours in my company. He also introduced me to few people that he knew at the party. Drinks were served. While I opted for a coke, the general settled for a small beer.

We kept on talking. It was mainly about 1971. The General was very passionate about the whole thing. He spoke about his role and experience during the entire conflict. He did not like General Osmani that much. He found it difficult to work with him. On the other hand, the General was full of praises for Zia and Khondhker (the deputy commander in chief of Bangladesh forces during the 1971 campaign and the first Air Force Chief). The General said that these two were professionals and brilliant officers and that he had really enjoyed working with them.

I asked General Jacob, did he not want to visit Bangladesh, the country that he helped to liberate? The General sounded very disappointed and hurt. In an emotionally choked voice, the General said. “How I can I go to Bangladesh when no one has ever invited me?

I was never invited to Bangladesh.” The General continued, “I have never taken anything from Bangladesh. There are many who took a lot. Someone brought me some bananas. I even paid for them. I have never taken a thing, even General Aurora …” The General stopped and did not complete his sentence. As it was a sensitive topic, I did not want to press the General what did he mean by ‘even General Aurora.” However, one does not need to be a genius to appreciate the meaning of General Jacob’s comments.

Later, the day I was leaving India I was talking to my friend’s father, a relative of General Aurora. He wanted to know why did the Indo-Bangla relationship turn sour? I apprised him of what I thought the main reasons, including Tin Bigha Corridor, Farakkha, Chakhma problems and even the lootings by the Indian forces following the occupation of Bangladesh by them.

My friend’s father said that even in India there were talks about lootings and appropriation of Bangladeshi properties and assets by the Indian forces and that the Indian government had also commissioned an investigation. He then said that there was wide perception that even General Aurora had received a lot from Bangladesh.

Although these comments by two close associates do not establish conclusively that General Aurora had actually received any shares of the booty personally, but it may lead at least one to question the propriety and integrity of the General. Sadly, the General is now dead and will not be able to answer these allegations and clear his name.

General Aurora might not have ordered his troops to go for high scale looting, and one may argue that this might have happened because of lack of discipline and supervision among individual members of Indian armed forces.

However, there is no evidence as to what the General did to stop his soldiers from looting. History will probably remember General Aurora not only as the military commander who successfully negotiated the surrender of the Pakistani forces in Bangladesh without much bloodshed and thus paved the way for an independent Bangladesh, but also as a failed commander who miserably failed to impose discipline and supervision in the conduct of his troops when they resorted to stealing the assets of the country they allegedly came to liberate. The failure to prevent this full scale looting actually planted the first seed of discontent in the hearts of the Bangladeshis.


Tuhin Reza
London

http://www.bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidDate=2005-05-24&hidType=OPT&hidRecord=45804

 

[leonblack08]

However,there is no concrete evidence that Gen.Aurora was involved in looting.If there was any looting,it may be by the lower level commanders.

 

[leonblack08]

General Jacob though had his wish granted when he was invited to Bangladesh on the Independence day this year.


FFs fought valiantly to free Bangladesh in ’71 war

Former chief of the Indian army’s eastern command Lt Gen (retd) JFR Jacob yesterday said it was the freedom fighters’ gallantry that liberated Bangladesh from Pakistan occupation.

He said the full credit goes to them. They have done the real job and their acts of valour won the nation independence.

The man who is credited with making Gen Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, the then commander of Pakistan army’s eastern command, surrender in public on December 16, 1971, said the freedom fighters including the soldiers of the East Bengal Regiment had emerged as “terror for the Pakistani troops”.

Now leading an 11-member delegation of Indian war veterans on a visit to Bangladesh at the invitation of Chief of Army Staff Gen Moeen U Ahmed, he was talking to newsmen at the Indian high commission in Dhaka. He expressed gratitude for having them in the Independence Day celebrations.

Looking back to the days in the lead-up to December 16, 1971, he spoke about his negotiations with Niazi on the instrument of surrender and the Pakistani general’s threat of revenge and submitting another person’s revolver as his own.

He also related how his country became involved in Bangladesh’s war of independence unofficially in early April, 1971.

Jack Jacob, who drafted the historic “instrument of surrender”, enlisted in the army in 1941 when it was under British command, and retired in 1978.

Recounting how Niazi insisted on holding the surrender ceremony in his office, he said: “This man really behaved badly with Bangladesh people. Their army, as you know, what they did…I don’t want to mention all that.”

He continued: “I wanted him to surrender in front of the people of Dhaka…to be harassed. He said, ‘I won’t surrender, I surrender in Dhaka office.’ I said, ‘No, you would surrender in the Racecourse Maidan [now Suhrawardy Udyan] in front of the people of Dhaka.’ It’s the only public surrender in history.”

On views that it was risky to arrange the surrender ceremony in public with not much troops mobilised, he said, “I knew we had hardly any troops outside Dhaka which was problematic for public surrender…But would it have been better to be in safety and make him surrender in his office? No. I wanted him to face the people.”

Recollecting those historic moments, the architect of surrender ceremony said, “Niazi retorted, ‘Dhaka would fall over my dead body.’ But I did it the way I thought it should be. I didn’t have any directives or instructions for it. Was it wrong, I ask you?”

In the morning of December 16, Jacob was contacted to “go and get the surrender”.

“What happened on December 13…there was an American resolution vetoed by the Soviet Union. The Russians said, ‘You better hurry up, we can’t be going.’ Then on 14th December, we intercepted a message that there was a meeting in government house. With the governor and Niazi in the meeting, we arranged to have an air strike on the government house. And the governor resigned.

“General Niazi, Farman Ali went to see the American Consul-General Spivack (Herbert Spivack) on the 14th (December 14) afternoon with the proposals for ceasefire under UN, withdrawal under UN, handover of government to UN, withdrawal of anybody including ethnic minorities under UN and no war crimes, and there were some other clauses. This was given to Spivack. He then sent it.”

Bhutto, who was then at the UN office in New York, refused to accept the ceasefire, Jacob said, adding, “So, on the 15th (of December), the Americans gave it to us in Delhi and we accepted the ceasefire. On the 16th morning, I was told to go and get the surrender.”

About Niazi’s reaction to the proposal for surrender, Jacob recalled: “He [Niazi] said, ‘Who said I would surrender? You have only come here to a ceasefire.’ So, this argument went on. Then Farman Ali chipped in and said, ‘You have put down joint command. There is no question of anything with Bangladesh Army.’ The document I gave him for surrender it was joint Indo-Bangladesh command, it was not Indian army. He said, ‘I’m not accepting it.’ I’m not going to all the details; this was a very difficult negotiation.”

Later, Niazi told the Hamidur Rahman Commission that he [Jacob] had blackmailed him into surrender. “He said, ‘I was forced to surrender because General Jacob blackmailed me.’ I never blackmailed him.”

Giving Niazi 30 minutes to make up his mind, Jacob walked out. “Going back, I put the paper on his table and asked him, ‘Do you accept this document?’ For three times he didn’t answer and I picked it up and said [it's] taken as accepted,” he went on.

During the negotiations, he also asked the Pakistani general to surrender his revolver. “I told him to surrender his revolver. He put a dirty little revolver. The lanyard was dirty and frayed in parts.”

In his book “Surrender at Dacca: Birth of a Nation”, Jacob said he realised only later that the pistol was not Niazi’s. It was a normal army issue .38 revolver.

“The barrel was choked with muck and apparently had not been cleaned for some considerable time…More likely, Niazi had taken it from one of his military policemen and surrendered it as his personal weapon. I could not help feeling that in his own way, Niazi had got a little of his own back,” he wrote.

On the absence of General MAG Osmany, then the commander in chief of the Bangladesh armed forces, at the surrender ceremony at Racecourse Maidan, Jacob said, “He was in Sylhet. He had a helicopter but he couldn’t make it. It’s not our fault. We wanted him there.”

Queried exactly when India had engaged in the war, Jacob chuckled and asked back, “Officially or unofficially?”

Going into details, he said India was monitoring the situation since the launch of Operation Searchlight on March 26 and was shocked at the events that unfolded across the border.

“We’ve Mujib’s declaration…Zia’s declaration on independence. When the refugees started coming in, I was standing on the border. They were in a very shocking state. So, we started getting more and more refugees and the government of India decided that we should help the Muktibahini, the freedom fighters.”

The official orders certainly came later, he recalled.

“The help was extended and more and more involvement took place. For instance, Tajuddin, Nazrul Islam, Osmany, Khondker–they all came to the Theatre Road, and the Muktis were organised.”

“The time…it was in April unofficially.” Officially, India’s involvement in the war began on December 3.

In conversation with New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg that day, Jacob said the eastern army was confident of liberating Bangladesh in a short time.

Asked yesterday what made him that confident, Jacob said, “We were prepared for this. Anyone knew we were going to liberate Bangladesh. The Muktibahini were trained, equipped, the East Bengal Regiment was there, and the Indian army was waiting to go.”

On December 3 evening, Pakistan bombed Indian airfields in the west, therefore it was taken as a war. “So, we moved in.”

Asked about his interrogation of Niazi and some of his generals after the surrender, Jacob replied, “They denied the atrocities, they denied everything. And they let us know that they would never forget the humiliation and they would take “badla” (revenge) for it.”

Reminiscing his days with famous Bangladesh politicians, Jacob described former prime minister Tajuddin Ahmad, who was instrumental in forming the first government of Bangladesh, as “one of the finest people I’ve ever met”.

“I had great privilege of working with him. Nazrul Islam, Osmany–we worked together. I found them dedicated nationalists, great people.”

Asked why India and Bangladesh failed to try the Pakistani prisoners of war, he said: “As far as I recollect, political agreement was that Pakistan government would try them when they would go back.”

Talking on Bangladesh-India tie, Jacob said it was very good from the beginning, “and getting stronger and stronger”.

However, there should be much more interaction between the two countries in commerce, trade, investment and other areas of economy. They share common interests, border, and have Bangla-speaking people, he said.

“On the whole it is very, very good. We’ve common interest and we’ve to work together. We’re both powers in the region; Bangladesh is a very powerful country.”

Jacob said 1,400 Indian troops were killed and 4,000 wounded during the Liberation War.

 

[leonblack08]

FFs fought valiantly to free Bangladesh in ?71 war

 

[Indicom]

BD is now ruled by people who were mostly Collaborators,so one can only expect this kind of statements from them.I really am disgusted with our politicians who did not complete the job after the Liberation,like consolidate Mujib's positon,take care of the last of the Razakars,elements from the Army like Mjr.Dalim,Mjr.Farook etc.Rather than leaving BD within months we should have remained there for some more time till the nation was able to hold on it's own.

My comments are however not targetted to the real Bangladeshis,with whom we share a lot in Culture & Linguistic pattern & consider them as friends.

 

[leonblack08]

BD is now ruled by people who were mostly Collaborators,so one can only expect this kind of statements from them.I really am disgusted with our politicians who did not complete the job after the Liberation,like consolidate Mujib's positon,take care of the last of the Razakars,elements from the Army like Mjr.Dalim,Mjr.Farook etc.Rather than leaving BD within months we should have remained there for some more time till the nation was able to hold on it's own.

My comments are however not targetted to the real Bangladeshis,with whom we share a lot in Culture & Linguistic pattern & consider them as friends.

Sheikh Mujib himself pardoned the rajakars as, if he had given ordered to kill them,there would be something like witch hunt in a newly formed country,which would be disastrous.Unfortunate for him,among his killers were people whom he pardoned.
If Indian army would stay a bit long,which it wanted to,then BD would have turned into Afganistan.I am not talking about looting but nobody likes to see foreign troops in their country.There would be incidents like in Okinawa,Japan.

 

[BanglaBhoot]

Unfortunate for him,among his killers were people whom he pardoned.

I think you will find that the army persons who killed Sheikh Mujib were all freedom fighters who took an active part in the 1971 war. Several were honoured after the war as Bir Bikram and Shresto. All were pardoned by another freedom fighter Ziaur Rahman who in trun was killed by the Indians.

 

[SurvivoR]

However,there is no concrete evidence that Gen.Aurora was involved in looting.If there was any looting,it may be by the lower level commanders.

But he did not stop his lower level commanders from looting and plunder although commander himself is not some lower level officer.

 

[BanglaBhoot]

Why should they all be dead? I know for certain several of the killers were Bir Bikrams.

 

[vish]

I think you will find that the army persons who killed Sheikh Mujib were all freedom fighters who took an active part in the 1971 war. Several were honoured after the war as Bir Bikram and Shresto. All were pardoned by another freedom fighter Ziaur Rahman who in trun was killed by the Indians.

Really Munshi, haven't we been through this already? Ziar was a freedom fighter... yeah sure...

 

[BanglaBhoot]

Ziaur Rahman declared independence on behalf of Sheikh Mujib and then took active part in the war. There is no dispute about this. The question is how the freedom fighters turned against Mujib within 3 years of independence for being too close to India. The freedom fighters did not fight to make Bangladesh a vassal state of India.

 

[Goodperson]

I think you will find that the army persons who killed Sheikh Mujib were all freedom fighters who took an active part in the 1971 war. Several were honoured after the war as Bir Bikram and Shresto. All were pardoned by another freedom fighter Ziaur Rahman who in trun was killed by the Indians.

So called educated person Barrister, Teacher Lawyer should educate others of their country and not spread balant negative propaganda. No where it was heard or written "Ziaur Rahman" was killed by Indians it nothing but absolute lie.

President Zia was assassinated in May 1981 as part of an abortive military coup. He was succeeded by Vice President Abdus Sattar, who won election to the presidency in his own right in November. However, a military coup in March 1982 brought Lieutenant General Hossain Mohammad Ershad to power.

Bangladesh - MSN Encarta

 

[EagleEyes]

I am glad Bangladeshis took out the Indian elements from their country as soon as possible. Otherwise, Bangladesh would still be a proxy nation.

 

[m15t3r7]

from what I heard Indian took a lot of stuff from Bangladesh because my uncle fought that war and he told me that and if you ask be Bangladesh would've been batter off sticking with Pakistan

 

[leonblack08]

I think you will find that the army persons who killed Sheikh Mujib were all freedom fighters who took an active part in the 1971 war. Several were honoured after the war as Bir Bikram and Shresto. All were pardoned by another freedom fighter Ziaur Rahman who in trun was killed by the Indians.

You are wrong here,All Bir Shresthos are dead.Among the killers were some officers who were trapped in West Pakistan during the war and Mujib brought them back home.