South Asian nations should work to alleviate poverty: PM Hasina to Pakistani High Commissioner

[SkyWolf]

It's not that easy to forget.
The attorocities cimmitted by Mukti Bahini were horrendous.
Politically the hateful narrative was sown by Sheikh mujeeb. He deleted Islam and based his agenda on Bengali ethnic nationalism alone.
That led to the alienation of all non bengalis living in East Pakistan. From what I heard from my family elders living at the time. All non bengalis were dehumanised. We biharis were branded "Bijju" which is a rat like rodent.
Once our human identity was taken away from us and made rodents, killing us was just as easy as killing a rat.
My grand dad was well off. He bought land in East Pakistan after he migrated from Bihar in 1947.
He did well and by 1960s he had a mansion.
In October 1971 his house was raided by Mukti Bahini. He as an old man , was a non combatant and had nothing to do with politics, was shot dead in front of the family in his living room.
The Bengali neighbours came to the rescue for the rest of the family, as he had always been good with everyone.
One of his son was an electrical engineer and was on duty at Dhaka power management office, called WAPDA.
He was just keeping the city electrical flowing, under those difficult situations.
Mukti Bahini raided that building and picked up all non bengalis, including him.
He was taken to Dhaka stadium and in front of a cheering crowd, tortured to death, and he was not alone.
Dhaka stadium was killing grounds then, and Bengali crowds enjoyed watching beharis and other non bengalis tortured to death.

I know its not your fault or none of current generation fault.
But when you ask Pakistan for an apology, also look at what your own "National heroes " did to people like us.

Your story is tragic. West pakistans actions brought unfair retaliation against biharis. The whole thing was terribly sad. There were terrible excesses on all sides. War is hell. But this was a completely foolish and avoidable one makes it even worse.

Respectfully.

 

[imadul]

Many say he was a reluctant participant in the entire process and immediately wanted to reconcile. But then this lady is India’s poodle and ipso facto making entire Bangladesh one too.

Still diplomacy and pragmatism calls for good relations with BD.

 

[Aesterix]

Your story is tragic. West pakistans actions brought unfair retaliation against biharis. The whole thing was terribly sad. There were terrible excesses on all sides. War is hell. But this was a completely foolish and avoidable one makes it even worse.

Respectfully.

Ours wasn't that bad , comparatively.
From what I heard from my unless and aunts and older cousins who were there and saw it all, it was much worse for many.
The Dhaka train station used to smell like barbecue.
But it was the smell of human flesh , burning inside railway engines.
People were still alive when they were bundled up inside the furnaces of coal burning train engines.
Just one of the many ways of torture and enjoyment used by Mukti Bahini.

 

[Bilal9]

Ours wasn't that bad , comparatively.
From what I heard from my unless and aunts and older cousins who were there and saw it all, it was much worse for many.
The Dhaka train station used to smell like barbecue.
But it was the smell of human flesh , burning inside railway engines.
People were still alive when they were bundled up inside the furnaces of coal burning train engines.
Just one of the many ways of torture and enjoyment used by Mukti Bahini.

I am not going to question your anecdotes, which would be in very bad taste and inhuman as well.

Not all Bangladeshis are as evil or as animalistic as the Muktis that took your family members' lives. In Bangladesh most of us know Bihari-origin or Urdu speaking folks today - they are our close friends, colleagues and compatriots. It would be unthinkable now for an educated Bengali person to mistreat a Bihari person based on their ethnicity. Maybe it was different fifty years ago when politics blinded us and made us animals.

However - although I sympathize with the senseless and mind-numbing/painful loss of your family members and while nothing that is done now can bring them back, we should still remember that atrocities were committed by all sides during 1971 and nothing justified the brutality committed. All sides ultimately suffered - which of course does not reduce the importance of your loss. That is however the nature of war.

But at least now, Hasina is doing something to help the 250,000 Bihari folks and their children left in Bangladesh when Pakistan refused to take Bihari folks. Biharis were given full citizenship in 2008 and Hasina also promised to move them out of the refugee camp and provide them housing. We discussed this here in PDF two years ago. I hope we can finally integrate Biharis and Bengalis into our respective national milieus in both countries and make them fully functioning educated members of society.

PM Hasina announces flats for stranded Pakistanis and abandoned Biharis

PM announces flats for abandoned Biharis Tribune Desk Published at 05:15 pm March 7th, 2019 This file photo shows the cramped buildings at the Geneva Camp - a colony of the stranded Pakistanis and Biharis - in Mohammadpur, Dhaka Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune The prime minister also said...

defence.pk

 

[Shehryar Ashraf]

Whatever the factual numbers it is us pakistanis that must apologize with empathy.

The world is globalized now. Your thinking is outdated.

1) Shiekh Mujib Ur Rehman's mismanagment of the economy, the famine, the misery he caused, and the fact that he was hanged by his own people is proof enough that we dodged a bullet by not having him as our prime minister. An apology will NEVER arrive. He may have won the election, but he was never capable of managing an economy.

2) Sure, the world is globalized, but we are not looking towards Bangladesh for economic goods. there is too much historical baggage for that. and the fact that the long distances and the lack of road and rail connectivity makes it infeasible to trade with Bangladesh at the time being. Sure, there was trade pre 1971, but that was because it was one country and trade was deemed necessary to try and keep the country together Hence East Pakistan was always given a priority. as Bangladesh went its separate way, they should look elsewhere for trade, they now have to compete with many other countries and have to be competitive., which they are NOT

 

[Bengal71]

It's not that easy to forget.
The attorocities cimmitted by Mukti Bahini were horrendous.
Politically the hateful narrative was sown by Sheikh mujeeb. He deleted Islam and based his agenda on Bengali ethnic nationalism alone.
That led to the alienation of all non bengalis living in East Pakistan. From what I heard from my family elders living at the time. All non bengalis were dehumanised. We biharis were branded "Bijju" which is a rat like rodent.
Once our human identity was taken away from us and made rodents, killing us was just as easy as killing a rat.
My grand dad was well off. He bought land in East Pakistan after he migrated from Bihar in 1947.
He did well and by 1960s he had a mansion.
In October 1971 his house was raided by Mukti Bahini. He as an old man , was a non combatant and had nothing to do with politics, was shot dead in front of the family in his living room.
The Bengali neighbours came to the rescue for the rest of the family, as he had always been good with everyone.
One of his son was an electrical engineer and was on duty at Dhaka power management office, called WAPDA.
He was just keeping the city electrical flowing, under those difficult situations.
Mukti Bahini raided that building and picked up all non bengalis, including him.
He was taken to Dhaka stadium and in front of a cheering crowd, tortured to death, and he was not alone.
Dhaka stadium was killing grounds then, and Bengali crowds enjoyed watching beharis and other non bengalis tortured to death.

I know its not your fault or none of current generation fault.
But when you ask Pakistan for an apology, also look at what your own "National heroes " did to people like us.

What happened to your family and loved ones is unfortunate and sad; people of any ethnicity, color or creed don;t deserve it. However, this was the result of the Bihari people siding with the Pak Army in committing atrocities against Bengalis. I am not trying to mitigate what Mukti Bahini did to the Biharis (and Rajakars), just adding the context.

 

[SQ8]

Still diplomacy and pragmatism calls for good relations with BD.

Friends not masters

Mujeeb was never in favour of independent Bangladesh, but a lose confederation, in which Pakistan takes responsibility of defence and foreign affairs, and East Pakistan takes care of everything else.
In March 1971 General Yehya bundled up Bhutto and flew him to Dhaka for a meeting with Mujeeb.
in that meeting Bhutto lured Mujeeb to fly back with him to West Pakistan and have the rest of negotiations over there. Mujeeb fell for the trap. Upon arrival in West Pakistan, Mujeeb was arrested and shipped to Mianwali jail. He remained there , until a month after Bangladeshi freedom, totally unaware of whatever happened in East Pakistan.
The news of creation of Bangladesh as a free country was personally delivered to Mujeeb in prison by ZA Bhutto.

Almost as if Bhutto wanted this to happen so he could rule west Pakistan. Zulfi was planning this from the earliest days of his time in bureaucracy.

 

[Michael Corleone]

Food crops were produced in the east and west .Cash crops in the east mainly.
Plus east had frequent natural disasters and then the food crop would come entirely from the west.
This was evident soon after 1971 .
The east had no food crop reserves.
New Bangladesh faced shortage of food grain soon after independence and by 1974 it was officially called "Famine " and caused the death of 1.5 million Bangladeshis.

The famine in 69 was completely avoidable. People in bd got more pissed for the lack of response after the cyclone at the time. Ex pk army officers of bd blame the war on that incident partly.
as for famine post war.Partly due to no crop season in 71 but mostly due to mujib’s socialist experiments which failed like all previous socialist experiments

 

[pakpride00090]

Many say he was a reluctant participant in the entire process and immediately wanted to reconcile. But then this lady is India’s poodle and ipso facto making entire Bangladesh one too.

What is this nonsense...Rewriting of history to make Mujeeb look all innocent... Pathetic.

There is a bangladeshi respectfully talking to us about a sensitive topic and you are telling him his own history. This attitude is the reason they separated from us. This attitude is why we are not allies.

Whatever the factual numbers it is us pakistanis that must apologize with empathy.

The world is globalized now. Your thinking is outdated.

Abey chup...

You don't know anything... You should like one of those "progessive" chutiya from LUMS or QAU who completely ignores the atrocities and inhumanity displayed by Bengali people against Non-Bengali folks.

@Aesterix has given few personal stories but they are just tip of the iceberg. Real nasty stuff is still untold.

There can be no apology whatsoever...

 

[Aesterix]

The famine in 69 was completely avoidable. People in bd got more pissed for the lack of response after the cyclone at the time. Ex pk army officers of bd blame the war on that incident partly.
as for famine post war.Partly due to no crop season in 71 but mostly due to mujib’s socialist experiments which failed like all previous socialist experiments

Probably you are on about the Bhopa cyclone of 1970, as there was no famine in 1969.
You do realise that Bhola cyclone was a world record breaker and not just another cyclone.
The cyclone itself was a category 4 and It made landfall at the exact moment of spring high tide.
As a result the storm surge was a world record which stands to this date.

 

[Avicenna]

I've heard stories from my family about the things that happened in Dhaka at the time.

My paternal grandfather was well known in his locale and was targeted by people for death.

He was against independence.

My maternal grandfather was a judge and was posted in West Pakistan.

His family spent alot of time in Lahore I believe and went all over West Pakistan to places like Quetta, etc.

From what I hear from family (as I wasn't born yet) there was alot of conflict at the local level.

Including personal grievances.

It was a completely terrible and regrettable part of the two nations history.

But half a century has past.

Brothers will always fight, whether its in one's own family or on a more macro level.

As long as one identifies as a Muslim, we are brothers.

Once you fail to acknowledge that, your whole worldview is different.

To me, its absolutely essential for Pakistan and Bangladesh to move past their history and learn to cooperate for the future.

And I will say this:

I give the Islamic Republic of Pakistan alot of credit for the sacrifices she has made to balance India.

Bangladeshis absolutely have to respect this, because if not, India would have been a heck of worse problem for ALL Muslims of South Asia.

 

[Aesterix]

What happened to your family and loved ones is unfortunate and sad; people of any ethnicity, color or creed don;t deserve it. However, this was the result of the Bihari people siding with the Pak Army in committing atrocities against Bengalis. I am not trying to mitigate what Mukti Bahini did to the Biharis (and Rajakars), just adding the context.

Nobody sided with anyone in any attorocities.
A rebellion is quashed by any country of the world with force. Give me one example from anywhere in the world where the country's military went soft on an armed rebellion?
Pakistan army was no different.
Bihari people and many bengalis, later called and killed as "Rojakar" supported Pakistan army against an armed militancy, and weren't wrong.
It was an ideological support, not a practical one.
For Mukti Bahini, it didn't matter. They went on a killing spree as soon as Pakistan army surrendered.
They would stop people at random and make them say some Bengali language phrases , which only a native Bengali could pronounce correctly. If you didn't say it right , you were dead anyway, support for Pakistan army or not.
Some Bengali students did volunteer at road stops with Pakistan army, for random checks to stop weapons transport.
However now I regret that why our elders didn't pickup weapons and fight against Mukti Bahini.
They were killed anyway and made penny less, just for being against splitting the country. They should have fought and killed a few Mukti Bahini, before being killed themselves.
As for Pakistan army, thee wee many soldiers who got captured by Mukti Bahini, nine of them survived and met a horrible end.
This is an actual picture of Pakistani soldiers being tortured by Mukti Bahini . If Pakistani army quashing armed rebellion was an attorocity, so was this ?

 

[Aesterix]

I've heard stories from my family about the things that happened in Dhaka at the time.

My paternal grandfather was well known in his locale and was targeted by people for death.

He was against independence.

My maternal grandfather was a judge and was posted in West Pakistan.

His family spent alot of time in Lahore I believe and went all over West Pakistan to places like Quetta, etc.

From what I hear from family (as I wasn't born yet) there was alot of conflict at the local level.

Including personal grievances.

It was a completely terrible and regrettable part of the two nations history.

But half a century has past.

Brothers will always fight, whether its in one's own family or on a more macro level.

As long as one identifies as a Muslim, we are brothers.

Once you fail to acknowledge that, your whole worldview is different.

To me, its absolutely essential for Pakistan and Bangladesh to move past their history and learn to cooperate for the future.

And I will say this:

I give the Islamic Republic of Pakistan alot of credit for the sacrifices she has made to balance India.

Bangladeshis absolutely have to respect this, because if not, India would have been a heck of worse problem for ALL Muslims of South Asia.

I never said all Bengali are evil. Saying that would be as stupid as it gets.
I myself have been to Bangladesh many times, never had any problems.
One of my aunt was married to a native Bengali guy and her children still live in Dhaka.
He was a great guy, but my aunt had swear PTSD and didn't recover from it until her death in 2015.
Due to PTSD from what she saw in 1971, she was too scared to be recognised as Bihari, and barred her own family from ever contacting her.
My cousins, her children were in contact with me, and hence my trips to Bangladesh. But we always met away from Dhaka, in secrecy from my aunt. Because any knowledge of her family, us, coming to BD caused immense psychological trauma to her due to PTSD.

 

[fitpOsitive]

South Asian nations should work to alleviate poverty: PM Hasina to Pakistani High Commissioner

BANGLADESH
BSS
25 October, 2021, 02:50 pm
Last modified: 25 October, 2021, 04:17 pm

Photo: BSS

Photo: BSS

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said South Asian nations should work to eliminate the curse of hunger, poverty and illiteracy and for the well-being of the people in the region.

She said this while newly-appointed Pakistan High Commissioner to Bangladesh Imran Ahmed Siddiqui paid a courtesy call on her at her official Ganabhaban residence here.

After the meeting, Prime Minister's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed the newsmen.

The prime minister said the cardinal principle of Bangladesh's foreign policy, enunciated by Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is "Friendship to all, malice to none".

During the meeting, High Commissioner Imran Ahmed Siddiqui said Pakistan is keen to promote relations to Bangladesh.

The high commissioner presented an original copy of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's message.

He also presented a photo album, photo of the painting and video footage of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's visit to Pakistan as Bangladesh's prime minister to attend the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Countries) summit in 1974.

Sheikh Hasina thanked the Pakistan high commissioner for handing over the historic souvenir related to the memories of Bangabandhu.

The prime minister also appreciated the publication of a calligraphy book in Bangla by Pakistan on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of Bangladesh's independence.

Ambassador-at-Large Mohammad Ziauddin and PM's Principal Secretary Dr Ahmad Kaikaus were present.

South Asian nations should work to alleviate poverty: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today said South Asian nations should work to eliminate the curse of hunger, poverty and illiteracy and for the well-being of the people in the region. She said this while newly-appointed Pakistan High Commissioner to Bangladesh Imran Ahmed Siddiqui paid a courtesy...

www.tbsnews.net

The first step will be to not become party against each other.

 

[MH.Yang]

You're right. Salute you, madam.