Mujib's Search for the Fact about the Killing of Pakistan Army
- Thread starter Md Akmal
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Better you read the post Md. Akmal is sending and next time use this essay as a reference. It is written by genuine truth seekers and the authenticity of it can be verified.
It is no use sending trash written by people living 12000 miles away and writing trashes they were fed by the WAR TIME propaganda machine of india and bangladesh. No one ever believed AL weeping figures. You are becoming too facist like a Hitler. This country belongs to all whoever is born here.
Your facist mind did not take it kindly when I have posted proofs that many of our ancestors were foreign born, as if Bangalis are genetically superior to all other people of the sub-continent. On the contrary, non-bangalis do not like our looks. Is there any reason to become a FACIST? You just want to deny history to suit your stubborn ego that lives in imagination.
Md Akmal
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@ Dear iajdani. I have great respect for you as you have written so many thread and posters here and became a Lt General which I even cannot think ?
@ No, I am not a Bihari nor I am comming from Rajakar/Al-Sams/Al-Badr family. I am Bengalee, "Khash Bangali" staying in the centre of Dhaka. My grand father was involved in Congress politics in the fourties later on just before the independance he joined the Pakistan movement. My father used to do Student politics of Muslim Leaque. Later on he joined in Pakistan Army and most of the time posted in West Pakistan. For that reason I was also in West Pakistan for some years but fortunately during the liberation struggle I was here(Bangladesh) and keenly observed all the events.
@ I fully agree with eastwatch about the Bihari killing in greater Rangpur and Dinajpur districts. Some of the killing I closely observed, some I heard from our relatives, some I heard from other people but killing took place in mass which cannot be expressed in words. It was a wholesale masacre, a total ethnic cleansing with can be compared only with the muslim killing of Bosnia and Harjogovina by the Serves and Croates which again I physically saw while I was in Bosnia. Now, the facts reveals that along in greater Rangpur and Dinajpur Districts more than 1 lacs Bihari people died. Bihari peopel were killed in Puchagarg, Thakurgaon, Birganj, Pirganj, Setabganj, Dinajpur, Parbatipur, Phulbari, Saidpur, Rangpur and many other places. Not to mention about other districts of the then East Pakistan. Tell me in which industrial complex the Biharies were not killed ???????? Are the Biharies are not human being ? Look, iajdani, the country in which you and I are staying was the outcome of common struggle of all the muslims of Indian sub-continents. So, the Biharees had also struggled for the creation of Pakistan. They have the equel right to stay in Bangladesh like you and me. You remember the Calcutta riot of 1946 how many muslim Bengalees and Biharies were buchered ? It was almost 10,000 in seven days. All the Noakhali and Chittagonion labours and "sharens of Calcutta Port were killed just in one day and that was the reason the reparcation took place only in Noakhali itself where even Ghandi visited losing his "Chagol"(Goat). May be for that reason the place is known as "Chagolnaiya". Riots also took place in Bihar for that reason all most all muslim Biharees migrated to the then East Pakistan. Near about 20/25 lacs of Biharees including other non-Bengalees came from India.Roughly 20/25 lacs of Bengalee muslims came from West Bengal, Assam, Tripura of India. Similarly around 50 lacs of Hindus migrated to India.
@ The Indian sub-continent was partitioned on the basis of religion that is to say on the "Two Nation Theory", propagated by Jinnah who inturn was inspired by the President Wilson of USA by his famous doctrone "One Nation One State". 95 % muslims of the then East Bengal supported it whole heartedly. Some people like you and our close neighbour believes that the "Two Nation Theory " is dead now. No ! No ! my dear iajdani, "History Repeats Itself".
@ What ever I have posted in this forum is a history and I have not done anything on it. You will see how the people in this forum will respond ????? So far for the last 40 years we had been hearing onesided propaganda of AL and Indian media which could not convince the people. Now, for get about the Biharee and Non-Bengalee killing. People says from March 1971 till 1973 near about 17/19 thousand own Bengalee politicians, para-military forces(Razakar/Al-Badre/Al-Sams), muslims intellectuals, Lawyers, doctors who ever were involved with ML, JI, PDP, Nizam-e-Islami and other pro-Pakistani people were killed systematically. And others were placed close arrest. Many were trialed and placed on bar. I found each and every family was affected less the non-muslims and Awami Leaquer's family.
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of course
Do you have any doubts ? Why a expression with only two words ????????
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Look at the indian posters......... Havin fun guys? 3 million would always remain a poor joke.
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The Making of the Myth
1.1. A Belated Bust-up:
In May 1973, Abdul Gaffar Choudhury, a well known newspaper columnist and close associate of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, said: ‘We are now saying three million Bengali’s have been martyred. Without any survey we are telling three million Bengali’s have died.’ [1] After openly raising doubts about the alleged figure, Choudhury left Bangladesh for good for Britain.
It took another twenty years for the question to be raised again. Participating in a debate in the National Assembly of Bangladesh on 15 June 1993, Col. Akbar Hussain, a decorated ‘Mukti Juddha’ and a Cabinet Minister under both General Ziaur Rahman and Mrs Khaleda Zia, returned to the question. Making a pointed attack on the Awami League for its 'propensity to falsify history', he said that the Awami League had created the myth of 'three million killed', whereas in reality it was closer to a tenth of that figure. On the following day Shudhangshu Shekar Haldar, a Hindu member of Awami League, challenged Col. Hussain to substantiate his assertion with ‘recorded proof’. Responding to the challenge, the Minister told the National Assembly that after the creation of Bangladesh an announcement was made to pay Tk. 2,000 to every family that suffered loss of life where upon only three hundred thousand families had claimed such compensation. Had there been three million individuals dead, their families would have claimed for compensation. Poignantly, Haldar could not, and did not, challenge the figure of those actually claimed compensation. Nor could he give any satisfactory explanation for the missing two million seven hundred thousand. Instead, he began inquiring as to what could have prompted the Minister to question' a well-known fact'.
The tactic was "a clear one: if you cannot 'kill' the message, 'kill' the messenger. Having done that however, he requested the presiding Deputy Speaker to expunge Col. Hussain's remarks from the proceedings of the Assembly. At this point Abdus Samad Azad, standing in for the Awami League leader, stood up and spoke in support of his party colleague's demand for the effacement of the remarks. His argument was: 'So far no one, including General Ziaur Rahman, has challenged the figure of three million. We had it from our leader Sheikh Mujib and it must stand as correct'. [2]
1.2. Mujib’s Part in the Myth Making:
Indeed, it was Mujib's stamp of approval which gave the oft quoted number both its life and respectability. On 10 January 1972, the very day of his return to Bangladesh from prison in West Pakistan, he publicly announced:
..... "Three million people have been killed. I believe that there is no parallel in the history of the world of such a colossal loss of lives for the struggle for freedom." [3]
He repeated the same charge before the world in a television interview given to the British broadcaster David Frost. In the same interview, which was recorded at his private residence in Dhaka and was broadcasted from New York on 18 January 1972, he also made the astounding claim that the very house in which the interview was taking place had been destroyed by the Pakistani Army! [4] A day earlier the Time Magazine quoted Mujib saying,
‘if Hitler could have been alive today he would be ashamed’ [5]
During the following weeks and months, his insistence on the three million figure grew and it became his all-purpose 'opening song'. Let me give an example.
"The vice-secretary asked me to sit in the corridor crowded with at least 50 persons. He then walked into the office and informed Mujib of my presence. I heard a terrible growl and the poor man reappeared shaken, asking me to wait. I waited. One hour, two hours, three hours, four hours, then at eight o'clock I was still there in that damned corridor. At 8-30 a miracle occurred: Mujib was ready to receive me. I was asked to enter. I entered into a large room with a sofa and two armchairs. Mujib was sprawled all over the sofa and two fat ministers were seated in the armchairs with their bellies in the air. No one rose. No one made a greeting and no one responded to mine. There was a very long silence until Mujib gestured to me to sit down. I sat on a small corner of the sofa and opened up the tape recorder preparing the first question. But, I didn't have time for that. Mujib started to shout: 'Hurry up, quick, understand?' 'I have no time to waste, is that clear?' 'The Pakistanis have killed three million people, is that clear? Yes, three, three, three.' (How he arrived at that figure, I'll never understand. The Indians speaking of the victims have never gone over the one million figure). I said: 'Mr Prime Minister...' Mujib started to shout again: ‘They killed my women in front of their husbands and children, the husbands in front of their sons and wives, the sons in front of their fathers and mothers, the nephews before their grandfathers and grandmothers, the grandfathers and grandmothers in front of their nephews, cousins in front of cousins, aunts in front of uncles, brother-in-law in front of sister-in-law .. . ‘Mr Prime Minister, I would like .. .’ ‘Listen to her, she would like! She would like. You have no right to want anything, understand? Is that clear?"
This is the account of the well-known Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci's interview with Mujib. [6]
Yet, only on 8 January 1972 in London, on his way back to Bangladesh, the same Mujib had claimed that 'one million people had been killed in Bangladesh.' [7] One might wonder who updated the figure for Mujib? Was it done between his journey from London to Dhaka, via New Delhi or immediately after his arrival in Dhaka? It has been claimed by one of the 'involved' Indian organisers of the 'Freedom Movement' that 'By and by he [Mujib] came to know more details and later in Dacca he put the figure at 3.5 million' .[8] Since Mujib focussed on three million, rather than on his long time benefactor's averred three and a half million, one might think he was still hesitant to paddle out everything his 'involved' benefactors were handing him out. But, where did he get this figure form?
1.3. The Myth Makers at Work:
However inventive Mujib was with facts and however insistent he became with the fiction of 'three million killed' and 'three hundred thousand raped', as we shall see he himself did not fabricate it. He simply parroted in public, what was given to him in private. In fact, the figure which he was eventually handed out, went through several updates at the hands of a number of involved quarters.
1.4. The Swadhin Bangla Betar:
Up to 10 December 1971, Mujib’s own Awami League colleagues, few of whom ever ventured out to face the Pakistan Army and most of whom had reportedly spent their Indian sojourn in enjoyment with their friends and families [9] had been circulating an estimated casualty figure of three hundred thousand, through the 'Swadhin Bangla Betar'. [10] Even years later his party Vice President, Zahirul Qayyum, would implicitly contest the myth of three million by pointing to this estimate broadcasted by the official organ of the Bangladesh Government in exile.[II]
1.5. Indian Authorities:
Yet, on 7 January 1972 the Press Trust of India, quoting Sheikh Abdul Aziz, the newly appointed Communication Minister of Bangladesh [12], reported from Calcutta a casualty figure of over one million. However, the news communicated by the Indian national news agency stressed that the casualty toll was a provisional one and disclosed that the Government of Bangladesh was going to collect statistics in order to obtain the actual figure. Apparently, to give some credibility to the Minister's newly updated estimate, he was quoted as saying that in his own village the Pakistan Army had killed 107 persons. [13] There was no explanation as to how the estimated death toll rose by three-fold in a matter of three weeks, during most of which the ‘culprit’ Pakistan Army had been under Indian custody.
To be fair to the Minister, this figure of one million killed was floating around from the beginning of the insurgency. One Asad Choudhury wrote a poem, called 'Report 1971' at the start of the insurgency. In it he told his readers that the Pakistani Army had, by then, massacred one million Bengalis and have raped forty thousand women. [14] Likewise, on 24 June 1972 the ‘Swadhin Bangla Betar’ broadcasted a speech, supposedly written by Maulana Bhashani, which, inter alia, claimed that 'after sacrificing one million invaluable lives, the struggling masses of independent Bengal would not accept any thing else. Their only road is either full independence or death.' [15] But, one might still want to know, why the Minister suddenly found this preferable over the 'Swadhin Bangla Betar's' hitherto ‘official’ figure of three hundred thousand?
In this connection, it is to be noted that the Indian authorities, including India's military establishment, have consistently maintained that so far as they were concerned the casualty figure stood at one million. What is more interesting, M.R.Akhtar Mukul, who as the head of the' Swadhin Bangla Betar' and the presenter of its best known programme 'Charampatra' (Dire Letter) had been regularly disseminating out the three hundred thousand figure up to 10 December 1971, in his book of recollection ‘Ami Bijoy Dekhechi’ (I Have Seen Victory) he piously authenticated the one million casualty toll without ever mentioning his old vaunted death toll. [16] Those who are familiar with Mukul' s professed willingness to lie for facilitating Indian cover-ups [17] would not be surprised at his volte face. Nor would they doubt that like Mukul, Sheikh Abdul Aziz was also made to endorse the figure deemed appropriate for the occasion by the Indian authorities.
In his reminiscence Field Marshall Sam Manekshaw simply presented the figure as a ‘well-known fact’ and expressed utter incredulity at the figure of three million with which Mujib's name became inextricably linked. [18] Likewise, in a mass produced video interview Lt Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora said that 'all of us knew' that the Pakistan Army had brutally killed 'about a million people'; yet Sheikh Mujib who 'was more an agitator and less an administrator' decided to 'make it more brutish' by saying that the Pakistan Army had killed three million Bengalis. He pointed out that Mujib's figure was 'absolutely impossible', because the Pakistan Army had 'simultaneously fought within the country and at the borders'. [19] Earlier, Maj.Gen.D.K.Palit, who also had a hand in 'the birth of Bangladesh engineered by the Indian Army', gave the same one million figure as if it was an indubitable fact which required no supporting proof. [20] Despite Palit's stance, one should heed the significance of the fact that neither Manekshaw nor Aurora have vouched for the authenticity of the Indian figure beyond that it was a 'well-known fact' or some how 'known to us'.
The 'absolutely impossible' figure of three million to which Mujib publicly tied up his own name was not absolutely his own invention. The 'credit' for its fabrication was due to one Ehtesham Haider Choudhury, editor of the Dhaka daily Purbadesh and his Russian friend, the Pravda representative in Dhaka.
1.6. The Purbadesh/Pravda/ENA:
In a signed editorial under the heading of 'Hang the Yahya Junta' on the 22 December 1971 issue of the Purbadesh, Choudhury claimed that the 'enemy occupation forces have savagely killed about three million innocent people and more than two hundred intellectuals'. [21] Curiously enough, only on the previous day the same daily printed an eight column red coloured banner heading, asking: 'How many people of Bengal have been killed?' In it Ershad Majumdar, the paper's senior reporter, categorically said that 'every where people are asking: How many people of Bangladesh have been killed? How many 'lakhs' (unit of hundred thousand)? 10,20,30,40 or 50 lakhs? No one seems to have the answer. But the people are not likely to leave the question unanswered. Answer we must have.' [22]
Within days the Pravda printed a news claiming that over three million people have been killed by the Pakistan Army. The Soviet daily carried the news without mentioning the Purbadesh editorial. The report was credited to its Special Correspondent. ENA, the Bangladesh news agency, lifted the Pravda news and reproduced it in all major Dhaka dailies under the beading: 'Pak Army Killed Over 30 Lakh People'. Now it read
"The Communist Party Newspaper Pravda has reported that over 30 lakh persons were killed throughout Bangladesh by the Pakistani occupation forces during the last nine months, reports ENA.
Quoting its Special Correspondent stationed in Dacca, the paper said that the Pakistani military forces immediately before their surrender to Mukti Bahinis and the Allied Forces had killed about 800 intellectuals in the capital city of Bangladesh alone.[23]
The change from 'less than three million' of the Purbadesh editor into 'over three million' is to be marked. The effortless four-fold increase in the number of intellectuals allegedly killed is also to be noticed. We may also keep in mind Jyoti Sen Gupta's false claim regarding Mujib's announcement that 3.5 million people have been killed.
1.7. How Mujib Took to Parroting the Last Figure:
It was reported that on his arrival in Dhaka on 10 January 1972 the lobby behind the fabrication of the ‘absolutely impossible’ figure promptly briefed the returning Bangladesh leader with the added 'fact' of three hundred thousand women raped, who in turn immediately went on parroting it. [24] Thus, the self-serving fiction of ‘three million killed’ and ‘three hundred thousand women raped’ was created.
1.1. A Belated Bust-up:
In May 1973, Abdul Gaffar Choudhury, a well known newspaper columnist and close associate of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, said: ‘We are now saying three million Bengali’s have been martyred. Without any survey we are telling three million Bengali’s have died.’ [1] After openly raising doubts about the alleged figure, Choudhury left Bangladesh for good for Britain.
It took another twenty years for the question to be raised again. Participating in a debate in the National Assembly of Bangladesh on 15 June 1993, Col. Akbar Hussain, a decorated ‘Mukti Juddha’ and a Cabinet Minister under both General Ziaur Rahman and Mrs Khaleda Zia, returned to the question. Making a pointed attack on the Awami League for its 'propensity to falsify history', he said that the Awami League had created the myth of 'three million killed', whereas in reality it was closer to a tenth of that figure. On the following day Shudhangshu Shekar Haldar, a Hindu member of Awami League, challenged Col. Hussain to substantiate his assertion with ‘recorded proof’. Responding to the challenge, the Minister told the National Assembly that after the creation of Bangladesh an announcement was made to pay Tk. 2,000 to every family that suffered loss of life where upon only three hundred thousand families had claimed such compensation. Had there been three million individuals dead, their families would have claimed for compensation. Poignantly, Haldar could not, and did not, challenge the figure of those actually claimed compensation. Nor could he give any satisfactory explanation for the missing two million seven hundred thousand. Instead, he began inquiring as to what could have prompted the Minister to question' a well-known fact'.
The tactic was "a clear one: if you cannot 'kill' the message, 'kill' the messenger. Having done that however, he requested the presiding Deputy Speaker to expunge Col. Hussain's remarks from the proceedings of the Assembly. At this point Abdus Samad Azad, standing in for the Awami League leader, stood up and spoke in support of his party colleague's demand for the effacement of the remarks. His argument was: 'So far no one, including General Ziaur Rahman, has challenged the figure of three million. We had it from our leader Sheikh Mujib and it must stand as correct'. [2]
1.2. Mujib’s Part in the Myth Making:
Indeed, it was Mujib's stamp of approval which gave the oft quoted number both its life and respectability. On 10 January 1972, the very day of his return to Bangladesh from prison in West Pakistan, he publicly announced:
..... "Three million people have been killed. I believe that there is no parallel in the history of the world of such a colossal loss of lives for the struggle for freedom." [3]
He repeated the same charge before the world in a television interview given to the British broadcaster David Frost. In the same interview, which was recorded at his private residence in Dhaka and was broadcasted from New York on 18 January 1972, he also made the astounding claim that the very house in which the interview was taking place had been destroyed by the Pakistani Army! [4] A day earlier the Time Magazine quoted Mujib saying,
‘if Hitler could have been alive today he would be ashamed’ [5]
During the following weeks and months, his insistence on the three million figure grew and it became his all-purpose 'opening song'. Let me give an example.
"The vice-secretary asked me to sit in the corridor crowded with at least 50 persons. He then walked into the office and informed Mujib of my presence. I heard a terrible growl and the poor man reappeared shaken, asking me to wait. I waited. One hour, two hours, three hours, four hours, then at eight o'clock I was still there in that damned corridor. At 8-30 a miracle occurred: Mujib was ready to receive me. I was asked to enter. I entered into a large room with a sofa and two armchairs. Mujib was sprawled all over the sofa and two fat ministers were seated in the armchairs with their bellies in the air. No one rose. No one made a greeting and no one responded to mine. There was a very long silence until Mujib gestured to me to sit down. I sat on a small corner of the sofa and opened up the tape recorder preparing the first question. But, I didn't have time for that. Mujib started to shout: 'Hurry up, quick, understand?' 'I have no time to waste, is that clear?' 'The Pakistanis have killed three million people, is that clear? Yes, three, three, three.' (How he arrived at that figure, I'll never understand. The Indians speaking of the victims have never gone over the one million figure). I said: 'Mr Prime Minister...' Mujib started to shout again: ‘They killed my women in front of their husbands and children, the husbands in front of their sons and wives, the sons in front of their fathers and mothers, the nephews before their grandfathers and grandmothers, the grandfathers and grandmothers in front of their nephews, cousins in front of cousins, aunts in front of uncles, brother-in-law in front of sister-in-law .. . ‘Mr Prime Minister, I would like .. .’ ‘Listen to her, she would like! She would like. You have no right to want anything, understand? Is that clear?"
This is the account of the well-known Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci's interview with Mujib. [6]
Yet, only on 8 January 1972 in London, on his way back to Bangladesh, the same Mujib had claimed that 'one million people had been killed in Bangladesh.' [7] One might wonder who updated the figure for Mujib? Was it done between his journey from London to Dhaka, via New Delhi or immediately after his arrival in Dhaka? It has been claimed by one of the 'involved' Indian organisers of the 'Freedom Movement' that 'By and by he [Mujib] came to know more details and later in Dacca he put the figure at 3.5 million' .[8] Since Mujib focussed on three million, rather than on his long time benefactor's averred three and a half million, one might think he was still hesitant to paddle out everything his 'involved' benefactors were handing him out. But, where did he get this figure form?
1.3. The Myth Makers at Work:
However inventive Mujib was with facts and however insistent he became with the fiction of 'three million killed' and 'three hundred thousand raped', as we shall see he himself did not fabricate it. He simply parroted in public, what was given to him in private. In fact, the figure which he was eventually handed out, went through several updates at the hands of a number of involved quarters.
1.4. The Swadhin Bangla Betar:
Up to 10 December 1971, Mujib’s own Awami League colleagues, few of whom ever ventured out to face the Pakistan Army and most of whom had reportedly spent their Indian sojourn in enjoyment with their friends and families [9] had been circulating an estimated casualty figure of three hundred thousand, through the 'Swadhin Bangla Betar'. [10] Even years later his party Vice President, Zahirul Qayyum, would implicitly contest the myth of three million by pointing to this estimate broadcasted by the official organ of the Bangladesh Government in exile.[II]
1.5. Indian Authorities:
Yet, on 7 January 1972 the Press Trust of India, quoting Sheikh Abdul Aziz, the newly appointed Communication Minister of Bangladesh [12], reported from Calcutta a casualty figure of over one million. However, the news communicated by the Indian national news agency stressed that the casualty toll was a provisional one and disclosed that the Government of Bangladesh was going to collect statistics in order to obtain the actual figure. Apparently, to give some credibility to the Minister's newly updated estimate, he was quoted as saying that in his own village the Pakistan Army had killed 107 persons. [13] There was no explanation as to how the estimated death toll rose by three-fold in a matter of three weeks, during most of which the ‘culprit’ Pakistan Army had been under Indian custody.
To be fair to the Minister, this figure of one million killed was floating around from the beginning of the insurgency. One Asad Choudhury wrote a poem, called 'Report 1971' at the start of the insurgency. In it he told his readers that the Pakistani Army had, by then, massacred one million Bengalis and have raped forty thousand women. [14] Likewise, on 24 June 1972 the ‘Swadhin Bangla Betar’ broadcasted a speech, supposedly written by Maulana Bhashani, which, inter alia, claimed that 'after sacrificing one million invaluable lives, the struggling masses of independent Bengal would not accept any thing else. Their only road is either full independence or death.' [15] But, one might still want to know, why the Minister suddenly found this preferable over the 'Swadhin Bangla Betar's' hitherto ‘official’ figure of three hundred thousand?
In this connection, it is to be noted that the Indian authorities, including India's military establishment, have consistently maintained that so far as they were concerned the casualty figure stood at one million. What is more interesting, M.R.Akhtar Mukul, who as the head of the' Swadhin Bangla Betar' and the presenter of its best known programme 'Charampatra' (Dire Letter) had been regularly disseminating out the three hundred thousand figure up to 10 December 1971, in his book of recollection ‘Ami Bijoy Dekhechi’ (I Have Seen Victory) he piously authenticated the one million casualty toll without ever mentioning his old vaunted death toll. [16] Those who are familiar with Mukul' s professed willingness to lie for facilitating Indian cover-ups [17] would not be surprised at his volte face. Nor would they doubt that like Mukul, Sheikh Abdul Aziz was also made to endorse the figure deemed appropriate for the occasion by the Indian authorities.
In his reminiscence Field Marshall Sam Manekshaw simply presented the figure as a ‘well-known fact’ and expressed utter incredulity at the figure of three million with which Mujib's name became inextricably linked. [18] Likewise, in a mass produced video interview Lt Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora said that 'all of us knew' that the Pakistan Army had brutally killed 'about a million people'; yet Sheikh Mujib who 'was more an agitator and less an administrator' decided to 'make it more brutish' by saying that the Pakistan Army had killed three million Bengalis. He pointed out that Mujib's figure was 'absolutely impossible', because the Pakistan Army had 'simultaneously fought within the country and at the borders'. [19] Earlier, Maj.Gen.D.K.Palit, who also had a hand in 'the birth of Bangladesh engineered by the Indian Army', gave the same one million figure as if it was an indubitable fact which required no supporting proof. [20] Despite Palit's stance, one should heed the significance of the fact that neither Manekshaw nor Aurora have vouched for the authenticity of the Indian figure beyond that it was a 'well-known fact' or some how 'known to us'.
The 'absolutely impossible' figure of three million to which Mujib publicly tied up his own name was not absolutely his own invention. The 'credit' for its fabrication was due to one Ehtesham Haider Choudhury, editor of the Dhaka daily Purbadesh and his Russian friend, the Pravda representative in Dhaka.
1.6. The Purbadesh/Pravda/ENA:
In a signed editorial under the heading of 'Hang the Yahya Junta' on the 22 December 1971 issue of the Purbadesh, Choudhury claimed that the 'enemy occupation forces have savagely killed about three million innocent people and more than two hundred intellectuals'. [21] Curiously enough, only on the previous day the same daily printed an eight column red coloured banner heading, asking: 'How many people of Bengal have been killed?' In it Ershad Majumdar, the paper's senior reporter, categorically said that 'every where people are asking: How many people of Bangladesh have been killed? How many 'lakhs' (unit of hundred thousand)? 10,20,30,40 or 50 lakhs? No one seems to have the answer. But the people are not likely to leave the question unanswered. Answer we must have.' [22]
Within days the Pravda printed a news claiming that over three million people have been killed by the Pakistan Army. The Soviet daily carried the news without mentioning the Purbadesh editorial. The report was credited to its Special Correspondent. ENA, the Bangladesh news agency, lifted the Pravda news and reproduced it in all major Dhaka dailies under the beading: 'Pak Army Killed Over 30 Lakh People'. Now it read
"The Communist Party Newspaper Pravda has reported that over 30 lakh persons were killed throughout Bangladesh by the Pakistani occupation forces during the last nine months, reports ENA.
Quoting its Special Correspondent stationed in Dacca, the paper said that the Pakistani military forces immediately before their surrender to Mukti Bahinis and the Allied Forces had killed about 800 intellectuals in the capital city of Bangladesh alone.[23]
The change from 'less than three million' of the Purbadesh editor into 'over three million' is to be marked. The effortless four-fold increase in the number of intellectuals allegedly killed is also to be noticed. We may also keep in mind Jyoti Sen Gupta's false claim regarding Mujib's announcement that 3.5 million people have been killed.
1.7. How Mujib Took to Parroting the Last Figure:
It was reported that on his arrival in Dhaka on 10 January 1972 the lobby behind the fabrication of the ‘absolutely impossible’ figure promptly briefed the returning Bangladesh leader with the added 'fact' of three hundred thousand women raped, who in turn immediately went on parroting it. [24] Thus, the self-serving fiction of ‘three million killed’ and ‘three hundred thousand women raped’ was created.
Zabaniyah
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Yes, the number is a joke. Propaganda in fact.
Whatever truth finding mission there will be in Bangladesh at the moment, it will be hindered no matter what.
Md Akmal
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The Probity of the Myth
2.1 An Affront to Common Sense?
It has already been noted that Lt Gen. Aurora has dismissed the very claim of three million killed as 'absolutely impossible'. No firmer rejection of it could have been conceived.
2.2 Fabrication Cant Stand for Fact
Moreover, the way it had been fabricated by the Purbadesh/Pravda/ENA combined could hardly be said to be worthy of any confidence in terms of reliability and validity. Given the dislocated communication systems and the completely anarchic situation of the time, with the Bangladesh Government still waiting in Calcutta for the Indian permission to return to Dhaka [1], the editor gentleman was apparently in no position to make even a few random estimates with his correspondents outside Dhaka for producing a crude guess-work. This gentleman seemed to have simply taken the mean average of the five hypothetical figures mentioned in a plainly searching mood by his paper's correspondent only twenty four hours before.
2.3 Could the Indian Figure Be Any Better?
Some of the above reasons, for which no confidence could be accorded to the Purbadesh/Pravda/ENA combination's guesswork, apply equally to the figure adopted by the Indian authorities and to which Field Marshall Manekshaw, Lt. Gen. Aurora and Maj.Gen. Palit wanted us to repose our trust. One may ask, if the figure of three million was 'absolutely impossible', could the figure of one million be deemed within the realm of probability?
2.4 From Comparative Perspective
In answering the above we may apply a number of tests. Firstly, a comparison with countries which have all seen 'much bitter and prolonged armed conflict'.
Comparative Casualty Figures
War
Duration*
Casualty
Annual average
Vietnam
12 1,000,000 83,333
Algeria
7.5 100,000 13,333
Cambodia 23 1,100,000**
47,826
Afghanistan 14 2,000,000
142,857
Angola 16 300,000 18,750
Iran/Iraq
9 1,000,000 111,111
Bosnia
3 (up to March '94) 142,592 47,531
Sri Lanka 13 50,000 3,846
Bangladesh 0.75
Purbadesh/Pravda/ENA
3,000,000 4,000,000
Indian
1,000,000 1,333,333
* in year **exclude the citizen who were killed at the hands of the Pol Pot regime.
In Vietnam the US waged a war of attrition of unprecedented scale for 12 years. There was barely any lethal weapon, excepting the atomic bomb, which the mighty Superpower did not use against the North Vietnamese Forces and their South Vietnamese proxies, the Viet Cong guerrillas. Thousands and thousands of tons of bombs were used for carpet bombing insurgent infested villages and valleys. Yet the total Vietnamese casualty figures during the 12 years of contest did not exceed one million or an average yearly toll of little over 83,000.
From 1954 to 1962 the Algerians waged an all-out guerrilla war against French rule provoking serious attacks against them not only from the French Government but also from the Algerian-born Frenchmen. In this seven and a half year long struggle for independence, 100,000 Algerians lost their life at a yearly rate of little over 13,000.
Cambodia has continuously suffered either direct foreign invasion or internal civil war at the behest of foreign powers or both, non-stop for over two decades. The VS alone has dropped 539,129 ton bombs on Cambodia. Yet, over a period of 23 years the Cambodian casualty figure stood at 2,100,000, averaging less than 48,000 a year.
The Afghan Mujahideen confronted Soviet occupation for 14 years. In the plains they fought against the Communist Superpower's tanks and armoured cars and on the hills and valleys they suffered savage aerial bombardment. Their total cost in life was 2,000,000 with an annual average of less than 143,000.
The 16 year long Angolan civil war in which the Government forces aided by the Cuban military personnels fought for the control of the country against the Unita rebels who had the backing of the USA and South Africa. The total loss in Angolan lives was 300,000 with an annual average of less than 19,000.
Between them Iran and Iraq have fought a particularly savage all out frontal war for nine years. In the war both sides even used forbidden chemical weapons and completely destroyed each others towns and cities. Even in that vicious war the average yearly loss of life was about 111,000.
Amidst untold Serb savagery and ethnic cleansing, implicitly facilitated by the Russians and the West European powers, the Muslims of Bosnia have been fighting a grim war to preserve their existence and the integrity of their country. During the first three years up to March 1994 the total casualty figure stood at 142,592 with an annual rate of 47,531.
In Sri Lanka, the Tamil separatists have been fighting a bitter war for the last 13 years. As on January 1996 the total casualty figure of that Indian engineered civil war in Sri Lanka has cost about 50,000 lives at an annual average of 3,846.
Compared to any of the above, as summarized in the preceding Table, either of the casualty figures for Bangladesh, i.e. the Purbadesh/Pravda/ENA three million, and Indian one million, look simply incredible. Lt. Gen. Aurora's description of 'absolutely impossible' could be appropriate not only to the Purbadesh/Pravda/ENA fabricated figure but to his preferred Indian figure as well. Both are inflated out of proportion to suit their much loved propaganda.
2.5 Some Indications of Combatant Casualty:
In this connection one might note that by trawling numerous participant accounts of the Mukti Bahini's 'heroic exploits and sacrifices' that have appeared in print, one would not be able to gather together a grand casualty figure of more than a few thousand. This was not surprising. First, the Mujib Bahini, a major component of the 130,000 or so Mukti Bahini [2}, was specially trained and kept in reserve away from insurgency duty in case the ordinary Mukti Bahini become defiant of India and needed to be brought in line. Secondly, the ordinary Mukti Bahini's primary function was not so much to fight the Pakistan Army but to gather intelligence and to serve as scouts to the Indian Army. Last but not least, much of the publicized encounters between Pakistan Army and the Mukti Bahini were in fact clashes between Pakistan Army and Indian Forces in the guise of Mukti Bahini. As disclosed by Moralji Desai, who later briefly succeeded Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister of his country, about 5,000 regular Indian soldiers were killed while fighting in the disguise of Mukti Bahini. [3] This was further confirmed by the Indian Army's later demand for the formal recognition of these fallen soldiers. [4] Apart from the regular Indian Army, members of her Border Security Forces were also known to have fought under the guise of the Mukti Bahini.
2.6 The Extent of Civilian Casualty:
Apparently, the authors of the different casualty figures were aware of the miniscule size of the casualty among the Bangladeshi fighting men, including the Mukti Bahini. Their allegation of indiscriminate killing of civilians was partly intended to cover this up. But how plausible were these claims?
2.7 From Another Comparative Perspective:
To have a measure of their probability, let us compare the two vaunted figures with that of Nazi Germany's. The attempt at the extermination of the Jews during the Second World War, the most extensive and methodical effort of its kind ever, is a legend. It would be recalled that over a six year period the Nazi Germany rounded up the Jews, not only from Germany but also from all other conquered countries of Central and Western Europe, herded them in Concentration Camps and systematically gas them to death on a mass scale. Altogether six million Jews were killed at an annual rate of 1.5 million. As against this, the rate implied in the two vaunted figures for Bangladesh would be as follows:
Purbadeshl/Pravda/ENA - 4 million; and Indian - 1.3 million. Although the last figure is slightly less than that of Nazi Germany's, once the German territorial and population sphere, scale of operation, use of concentration camps and gas chambers were taken into account, the fantastic nature of both the figures for Bangladesh emerge with force.
In order to kill three million the Pakistan Army would have had to kill 11,494 persons a day non-stop from 26 March onwards. If on the other hand, they were to kill one million people, their daily killing would come to 3,831. Seen in another way, for the 60,000 Pakistan Army to kill three million and rape three hundred thousand women, each and everyone of them had to kill 50 persons and rape 5 women. In this context let me quote an apparent believer of the myth of three million:
"Considering that 60,000 armed officers and men had managed this abominable feat in course of few months, it would appear that each individual had on an average, committed about 50 murders, inflicted injuries on about 3 persons, raped about 7 girls/women, burnt numerous houses and looted a sizeable amount of money!" [5]
Plainly, despite his apparent agreement with the myth, the inner incredulity of the author of the above lines could not remain unchecked. His own exclamation mark said it all.
Anyone who has any semblance of rationality would recognise that to produce any of the above killing rates, each and every member of the Pakistan Army would have to be more than a homicidal killing machine. Even the worst serial killers known in human history have not succeeded in killing people at such a high rate! On top of that make them responsible for producing a rape figure of three hundred thousand. One needs to be extra imaginative to even contemplate the scenario. Probably, in spinning the telltale figures the spin doctors' head went spinning! Apparently, in hailing 'the Chief' all 'the Indians' went berserk.
2.8 From Ground Level Perspective:
According to the Government statistics, in 1971 East Pakistan had 69,774,000 people, 12,673,000 family households, 68,385 villages, and 4,472 unions. If either of the above imagined figures were placed alongside the above demographic facts the following ratio of casualty should in reality be found:
Demography and Implied Killing Rate
@3 million
@ 1 million
Per 1000 people
43.154 14.385
Per 100 families 23.675 7.892
Per village
45.03 15.01
Per union
670.84 223.61
Hardly anyone in Bangladesh could relate his or her local knowledge of casualties to any of the above. Although Sheikh Abdul Aziz, the Communication Minister of Bangladesh of the time, had been quoted by the PTI claiming that his own village had suffered a total loss of 107 persons, personal enquiry has shown the utter baselessness of the reported claim. Some of the villagers who have lived through the terrible year of 1971 are still alive, they would freely testify to the make believe nature of the alleged casualty figure.
2.9 Certain Local Testimonies:
Jessore is a boarder district, nearest to Calcutta. The Provisional Government of Bangladesh was presented before the world at Baidayanathtala, a border village of the same district and throughout the civil war the district remained a hotly contested and disruptive area. From a part of Jessore, Maulana Khandkar Abul Khair, a popular religious preacher and published author of several widely circulated books, has said:
"I clearly remember, in our Jessore district there was hardly any village from which 20/25 people did not flee to India. But I shall be able to name numerous villages which did not experience a single killing. For example, my own village and a number of villages around did not encounter a single death." [6]
Jauhuri, a Bangladeshi journalist wrote:
It is beyond me how three million people could get killed in a guerrilla war of eight months and 21 days. The raping of two hundred thousand women is also beyond my comprehension
.
I. have spoken to no less than five hundred peoples of different districts and have asked them, 'Has anyone in your family or among your relatives, friends or acquaintance been raped by Pakistani soldiers?' None affirmed, everyone said 'no'. It may be that some of them were ashamed to disclose. Besides, it is not impossible for the Pakistan Army to have a few characterless soldiers. But, how could these produce the figure of two hundred thousand? Moreover' how was this figure arrived at within a week of the liberation of the country? Who did the survey? [7]
William Drummond of The Guardian was no less emphatic:
The figure of three million' deaths has been carried uncritically in sections of the world press. My judgement, based on numerous trips around Bangladesh and extensive discussion with many people at the village level as well as in the government, is that the three million deaths is an exaggeration so gross as to be absurd. [8]
Peter Gill, another western journalist, said:
"Sheikh Mujib's wild figure of three million Bengalis killed during those 10 terrible months is at least 20 times too high, if not 50 or 60." [9]
Reporting from the Noakhali district Abdul Muhaimin, well-known author, Awami League MCA and long time friend of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had this to say:
"As a Member of the Constituent Assembly I was entrusted with the responsibility of finding out the casualty figure for the whole of Noakhali district. After contacting different Police Stations and Unions the figure I had was less than seven thousand. Even after adding up the number of Razakars killed, the total did not exceed seven and a half thousand. At that time, Bangladesh had 19 districts. All these districts were not equally affected by the war. Noakhali was one among the districts which had seen severe fighting. If the figure obtained from Noakhali was seen as the mean average for the rest of the districts, even then the total killed would not exceed more than one hundred twenty five thousand. [10]
So, we are not alone in casting our doubts! Even Sheikh Mujib and his colleagues were not convinced about the story of three or even one million dead and were eager to know the real facts! Was it then that despite telling us 'children' the 'Ghost Story', as grown-up men they knew all along that the 'Monstrous Ghost' did not exist?
Notes and References
1. Jauhuri, Tirish Lakher Telesmat (The Riddle of Thirty Lakh) Asha Prokashan, 435 Elephant Road, Dhaka - 1217, 1994 : 13.
2. India's Defence Minister, J agjivan Ram was quoted in Jyoti Sen Gupta, History of Freedom Movement in Bangladesh, 1943-1973 : Some Involvement, Naya Prokash, 206 Bidhan Sarani, Calcutta -6,1974,:305.
3. Oriana Fallaci, Interview with Morarji Desai, The New Repub¬lic, Washington, 2 and 9 August, 1975.
4: Souvenir of 45 Indian Armored Regiment, December, 1983; also Cf. Subir Bhaumik, Insurgent Crossfire: North-East India, Lancer Publishers, 56 Gautam Nagar,New Delhi, 1996 : 52
5. Abul Hasanat, The Ugliest Genocide in History, Muktadhara [Swadhin Bangla Sahitya Parishad], 74 Farashganj, Dhaka -1, 1974: 79.
6. Maulana Abul Khair, Sowal Jwab (Question and Answer), vo1.5; also cfJauhuri, op cit : 52.
7. Jauhuri, op cit: 14
8. William Drummond, The Missing Millions The Guardian, London, 6 June, 1972.
9. Peter Gill, Pakistan Holds Together, Daily Telegraph, London, 16 April, 1973.
10. Yahya Mirza, Interview with Mr Abdul Muhaimin, The Tarokalok, Dhaka, 1 March, 1990 cf. also cf. Jauhuri, ibid: 48-49.
2.1 An Affront to Common Sense?
It has already been noted that Lt Gen. Aurora has dismissed the very claim of three million killed as 'absolutely impossible'. No firmer rejection of it could have been conceived.
2.2 Fabrication Cant Stand for Fact
Moreover, the way it had been fabricated by the Purbadesh/Pravda/ENA combined could hardly be said to be worthy of any confidence in terms of reliability and validity. Given the dislocated communication systems and the completely anarchic situation of the time, with the Bangladesh Government still waiting in Calcutta for the Indian permission to return to Dhaka [1], the editor gentleman was apparently in no position to make even a few random estimates with his correspondents outside Dhaka for producing a crude guess-work. This gentleman seemed to have simply taken the mean average of the five hypothetical figures mentioned in a plainly searching mood by his paper's correspondent only twenty four hours before.
2.3 Could the Indian Figure Be Any Better?
Some of the above reasons, for which no confidence could be accorded to the Purbadesh/Pravda/ENA combination's guesswork, apply equally to the figure adopted by the Indian authorities and to which Field Marshall Manekshaw, Lt. Gen. Aurora and Maj.Gen. Palit wanted us to repose our trust. One may ask, if the figure of three million was 'absolutely impossible', could the figure of one million be deemed within the realm of probability?
2.4 From Comparative Perspective
In answering the above we may apply a number of tests. Firstly, a comparison with countries which have all seen 'much bitter and prolonged armed conflict'.
Comparative Casualty Figures
War
Duration*
Casualty
Annual average
Vietnam
12 1,000,000 83,333
Algeria
7.5 100,000 13,333
Cambodia 23 1,100,000**
47,826
Afghanistan 14 2,000,000
142,857
Angola 16 300,000 18,750
Iran/Iraq
9 1,000,000 111,111
Bosnia
3 (up to March '94) 142,592 47,531
Sri Lanka 13 50,000 3,846
Bangladesh 0.75
Purbadesh/Pravda/ENA
3,000,000 4,000,000
Indian
1,000,000 1,333,333
* in year **exclude the citizen who were killed at the hands of the Pol Pot regime.
In Vietnam the US waged a war of attrition of unprecedented scale for 12 years. There was barely any lethal weapon, excepting the atomic bomb, which the mighty Superpower did not use against the North Vietnamese Forces and their South Vietnamese proxies, the Viet Cong guerrillas. Thousands and thousands of tons of bombs were used for carpet bombing insurgent infested villages and valleys. Yet the total Vietnamese casualty figures during the 12 years of contest did not exceed one million or an average yearly toll of little over 83,000.
From 1954 to 1962 the Algerians waged an all-out guerrilla war against French rule provoking serious attacks against them not only from the French Government but also from the Algerian-born Frenchmen. In this seven and a half year long struggle for independence, 100,000 Algerians lost their life at a yearly rate of little over 13,000.
Cambodia has continuously suffered either direct foreign invasion or internal civil war at the behest of foreign powers or both, non-stop for over two decades. The VS alone has dropped 539,129 ton bombs on Cambodia. Yet, over a period of 23 years the Cambodian casualty figure stood at 2,100,000, averaging less than 48,000 a year.
The Afghan Mujahideen confronted Soviet occupation for 14 years. In the plains they fought against the Communist Superpower's tanks and armoured cars and on the hills and valleys they suffered savage aerial bombardment. Their total cost in life was 2,000,000 with an annual average of less than 143,000.
The 16 year long Angolan civil war in which the Government forces aided by the Cuban military personnels fought for the control of the country against the Unita rebels who had the backing of the USA and South Africa. The total loss in Angolan lives was 300,000 with an annual average of less than 19,000.
Between them Iran and Iraq have fought a particularly savage all out frontal war for nine years. In the war both sides even used forbidden chemical weapons and completely destroyed each others towns and cities. Even in that vicious war the average yearly loss of life was about 111,000.
Amidst untold Serb savagery and ethnic cleansing, implicitly facilitated by the Russians and the West European powers, the Muslims of Bosnia have been fighting a grim war to preserve their existence and the integrity of their country. During the first three years up to March 1994 the total casualty figure stood at 142,592 with an annual rate of 47,531.
In Sri Lanka, the Tamil separatists have been fighting a bitter war for the last 13 years. As on January 1996 the total casualty figure of that Indian engineered civil war in Sri Lanka has cost about 50,000 lives at an annual average of 3,846.
Compared to any of the above, as summarized in the preceding Table, either of the casualty figures for Bangladesh, i.e. the Purbadesh/Pravda/ENA three million, and Indian one million, look simply incredible. Lt. Gen. Aurora's description of 'absolutely impossible' could be appropriate not only to the Purbadesh/Pravda/ENA fabricated figure but to his preferred Indian figure as well. Both are inflated out of proportion to suit their much loved propaganda.
2.5 Some Indications of Combatant Casualty:
In this connection one might note that by trawling numerous participant accounts of the Mukti Bahini's 'heroic exploits and sacrifices' that have appeared in print, one would not be able to gather together a grand casualty figure of more than a few thousand. This was not surprising. First, the Mujib Bahini, a major component of the 130,000 or so Mukti Bahini [2}, was specially trained and kept in reserve away from insurgency duty in case the ordinary Mukti Bahini become defiant of India and needed to be brought in line. Secondly, the ordinary Mukti Bahini's primary function was not so much to fight the Pakistan Army but to gather intelligence and to serve as scouts to the Indian Army. Last but not least, much of the publicized encounters between Pakistan Army and the Mukti Bahini were in fact clashes between Pakistan Army and Indian Forces in the guise of Mukti Bahini. As disclosed by Moralji Desai, who later briefly succeeded Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister of his country, about 5,000 regular Indian soldiers were killed while fighting in the disguise of Mukti Bahini. [3] This was further confirmed by the Indian Army's later demand for the formal recognition of these fallen soldiers. [4] Apart from the regular Indian Army, members of her Border Security Forces were also known to have fought under the guise of the Mukti Bahini.
2.6 The Extent of Civilian Casualty:
Apparently, the authors of the different casualty figures were aware of the miniscule size of the casualty among the Bangladeshi fighting men, including the Mukti Bahini. Their allegation of indiscriminate killing of civilians was partly intended to cover this up. But how plausible were these claims?
2.7 From Another Comparative Perspective:
To have a measure of their probability, let us compare the two vaunted figures with that of Nazi Germany's. The attempt at the extermination of the Jews during the Second World War, the most extensive and methodical effort of its kind ever, is a legend. It would be recalled that over a six year period the Nazi Germany rounded up the Jews, not only from Germany but also from all other conquered countries of Central and Western Europe, herded them in Concentration Camps and systematically gas them to death on a mass scale. Altogether six million Jews were killed at an annual rate of 1.5 million. As against this, the rate implied in the two vaunted figures for Bangladesh would be as follows:
Purbadeshl/Pravda/ENA - 4 million; and Indian - 1.3 million. Although the last figure is slightly less than that of Nazi Germany's, once the German territorial and population sphere, scale of operation, use of concentration camps and gas chambers were taken into account, the fantastic nature of both the figures for Bangladesh emerge with force.
In order to kill three million the Pakistan Army would have had to kill 11,494 persons a day non-stop from 26 March onwards. If on the other hand, they were to kill one million people, their daily killing would come to 3,831. Seen in another way, for the 60,000 Pakistan Army to kill three million and rape three hundred thousand women, each and everyone of them had to kill 50 persons and rape 5 women. In this context let me quote an apparent believer of the myth of three million:
"Considering that 60,000 armed officers and men had managed this abominable feat in course of few months, it would appear that each individual had on an average, committed about 50 murders, inflicted injuries on about 3 persons, raped about 7 girls/women, burnt numerous houses and looted a sizeable amount of money!" [5]
Plainly, despite his apparent agreement with the myth, the inner incredulity of the author of the above lines could not remain unchecked. His own exclamation mark said it all.
Anyone who has any semblance of rationality would recognise that to produce any of the above killing rates, each and every member of the Pakistan Army would have to be more than a homicidal killing machine. Even the worst serial killers known in human history have not succeeded in killing people at such a high rate! On top of that make them responsible for producing a rape figure of three hundred thousand. One needs to be extra imaginative to even contemplate the scenario. Probably, in spinning the telltale figures the spin doctors' head went spinning! Apparently, in hailing 'the Chief' all 'the Indians' went berserk.
2.8 From Ground Level Perspective:
According to the Government statistics, in 1971 East Pakistan had 69,774,000 people, 12,673,000 family households, 68,385 villages, and 4,472 unions. If either of the above imagined figures were placed alongside the above demographic facts the following ratio of casualty should in reality be found:
Demography and Implied Killing Rate
@3 million
@ 1 million
Per 1000 people
43.154 14.385
Per 100 families 23.675 7.892
Per village
45.03 15.01
Per union
670.84 223.61
Hardly anyone in Bangladesh could relate his or her local knowledge of casualties to any of the above. Although Sheikh Abdul Aziz, the Communication Minister of Bangladesh of the time, had been quoted by the PTI claiming that his own village had suffered a total loss of 107 persons, personal enquiry has shown the utter baselessness of the reported claim. Some of the villagers who have lived through the terrible year of 1971 are still alive, they would freely testify to the make believe nature of the alleged casualty figure.
2.9 Certain Local Testimonies:
Jessore is a boarder district, nearest to Calcutta. The Provisional Government of Bangladesh was presented before the world at Baidayanathtala, a border village of the same district and throughout the civil war the district remained a hotly contested and disruptive area. From a part of Jessore, Maulana Khandkar Abul Khair, a popular religious preacher and published author of several widely circulated books, has said:
"I clearly remember, in our Jessore district there was hardly any village from which 20/25 people did not flee to India. But I shall be able to name numerous villages which did not experience a single killing. For example, my own village and a number of villages around did not encounter a single death." [6]
Jauhuri, a Bangladeshi journalist wrote:
It is beyond me how three million people could get killed in a guerrilla war of eight months and 21 days. The raping of two hundred thousand women is also beyond my comprehension
.
I. have spoken to no less than five hundred peoples of different districts and have asked them, 'Has anyone in your family or among your relatives, friends or acquaintance been raped by Pakistani soldiers?' None affirmed, everyone said 'no'. It may be that some of them were ashamed to disclose. Besides, it is not impossible for the Pakistan Army to have a few characterless soldiers. But, how could these produce the figure of two hundred thousand? Moreover' how was this figure arrived at within a week of the liberation of the country? Who did the survey? [7]
William Drummond of The Guardian was no less emphatic:
The figure of three million' deaths has been carried uncritically in sections of the world press. My judgement, based on numerous trips around Bangladesh and extensive discussion with many people at the village level as well as in the government, is that the three million deaths is an exaggeration so gross as to be absurd. [8]
Peter Gill, another western journalist, said:
"Sheikh Mujib's wild figure of three million Bengalis killed during those 10 terrible months is at least 20 times too high, if not 50 or 60." [9]
Reporting from the Noakhali district Abdul Muhaimin, well-known author, Awami League MCA and long time friend of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had this to say:
"As a Member of the Constituent Assembly I was entrusted with the responsibility of finding out the casualty figure for the whole of Noakhali district. After contacting different Police Stations and Unions the figure I had was less than seven thousand. Even after adding up the number of Razakars killed, the total did not exceed seven and a half thousand. At that time, Bangladesh had 19 districts. All these districts were not equally affected by the war. Noakhali was one among the districts which had seen severe fighting. If the figure obtained from Noakhali was seen as the mean average for the rest of the districts, even then the total killed would not exceed more than one hundred twenty five thousand. [10]
So, we are not alone in casting our doubts! Even Sheikh Mujib and his colleagues were not convinced about the story of three or even one million dead and were eager to know the real facts! Was it then that despite telling us 'children' the 'Ghost Story', as grown-up men they knew all along that the 'Monstrous Ghost' did not exist?
Notes and References
1. Jauhuri, Tirish Lakher Telesmat (The Riddle of Thirty Lakh) Asha Prokashan, 435 Elephant Road, Dhaka - 1217, 1994 : 13.
2. India's Defence Minister, J agjivan Ram was quoted in Jyoti Sen Gupta, History of Freedom Movement in Bangladesh, 1943-1973 : Some Involvement, Naya Prokash, 206 Bidhan Sarani, Calcutta -6,1974,:305.
3. Oriana Fallaci, Interview with Morarji Desai, The New Repub¬lic, Washington, 2 and 9 August, 1975.
4: Souvenir of 45 Indian Armored Regiment, December, 1983; also Cf. Subir Bhaumik, Insurgent Crossfire: North-East India, Lancer Publishers, 56 Gautam Nagar,New Delhi, 1996 : 52
5. Abul Hasanat, The Ugliest Genocide in History, Muktadhara [Swadhin Bangla Sahitya Parishad], 74 Farashganj, Dhaka -1, 1974: 79.
6. Maulana Abul Khair, Sowal Jwab (Question and Answer), vo1.5; also cfJauhuri, op cit : 52.
7. Jauhuri, op cit: 14
8. William Drummond, The Missing Millions The Guardian, London, 6 June, 1972.
9. Peter Gill, Pakistan Holds Together, Daily Telegraph, London, 16 April, 1973.
10. Yahya Mirza, Interview with Mr Abdul Muhaimin, The Tarokalok, Dhaka, 1 March, 1990 cf. also cf. Jauhuri, ibid: 48-49.
I will not agree with this kind of conclusion that Bangladesh should have reamained East Pakistan, because there were many supporters for Pakistan. AL and most of the political parties based in the easet always championed autonomy for this part of Pakistan. The west was averse to it.
But, when the ball was in the court of Yahya Khan, he played it with stupidity. AL wanted a showdown with the west, and was looking for an opportunity so that people do not blame it for breaking Pakistan. Yahya fell perfectly well into this trap when it sent army to quell the revolt. The 6-point program of AL turned into an 1-point program of liberation when PA tried to disarm Bangali police and troops.
A politiocal issue shouild have been solved by a political wisdom.
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Birangana and Heroine have different meaning even though they could be translated to to the same.
The article used that word with sarcasm not only that it was highlighted with RED. You should be smart enough to understand that.
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A genuine truth seeker with a preemptive prenotion!!!
I dont have any problem with the number of the essay but has genuine reservation of the language it uses. It was certainly not a historic paragraph rather another propaganda to counter what you say AL propaganda.
Regarding the ancestry, I dont give a fck where my ancestor came from, some do look like european but all of them are Bengali. Even they dont know where they came from or aware of that. They did not maintain Syed type title to prove their arabian blood either. I never said that, Bengalis are all native rather I always maintained a postion that Bengalis are of mixed blood. Munda, Daravid, Aryan, Mongoloid all are mixed up here. It was always the land of immigrant and the Muslim were the last ones to settle here.
Now instead of blaming me with facism which might be applied more to you as you categorically denied that a major portion of current Muslim population were the convert of Buddhist ancestry. You were hell bent on proving that the Muslims are of foreign blood and had nothing to do with local. Now who is facist or I could say racist?
You are wrong. I never categorically denied that Muslims were converted mostly from the local Buddhists. Even the Pathans of Afghanistan were all Budhists before they accepted Islam. Don't teach me history lessons. I was telling the other part of the muslim population in Bengal. can you tell me what happened to those who came as worriors and settled in our land. What happened to those impoverished Arabs who settled also in Bengal. What happened to all those central asian nomads who also came after a muslim power was established in Bengal and who settled here? You either do not know these or you are trying to deny this out of facism. Respect your own ancestors.
You are coming with twisted logic and no proof abot 1971 killing. Say, how many of your own family died? How many of your neighbours died? Did 4.3% of your villagers die? I must agree that there were killings, but I do not accept the rate of killings. No one does in bangladesh and abroad any more. You guys are just destroying history. Better, go and count the number of deads in your own village, and then send the truth. You guys think that we do not count numbers, isn't it? It is you who do not know how many people make a million. Now, stop sending rubbish that is only enjoyed by the Indians.
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