EAST PAKISTAN
TO BANGLADESH
THE TRUTH
BEFORE ‘DAWN’
SARASIJ
MAJUMDER
1971
WAR just didn’t happen. It was caused as a result of many factors not properly
attended by PAKISTAN’S RULING MASTERS.
There were a series of events that led to the war between India, and
Pakistan—creating ‘Bangladesh’. What were domestic events (though historic)
like a natural disaster, a political stalemate and a full-fledged civil war,
and finally, an injudicious decision by Pakistan led to the war of 1971. A war
that eventually broke Pakistan into two and created Bangladesh.
About
the 1971 war there are many debates but there was one issue which spurred
Bengali Nationalism. That is never adequately mentioned by the historians as
one of the main reasons for disgruntlement of the then Bengalis of East
Pakistan with their leaders in
Islamabad.
On November 12, 1970 Cyclone
Bhola struck East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). link: 1970
Bhola cyclone - Wikipedia. This is considered as the
most devastating tropical cyclone in recent history.
East
Pakistan was completely devastated by this cyclone. Over 500,000 people died in
this disaster. The cyclone totally destroyed areas it struck and those who
survived lost their houses, cattle, farmlands, and most importantly their
family members, relatives, and friends.
The
Government led by General Yahya Khan’s approach towards the people of the Cyclone
devastated East Pakistan was CALLOUS
AT BEST. This angered the
Bengalis. The earlier feelings of discrimination and step-brotherly treatments
were re-verified. There was a strong resentment, and cyclone Bhola turned out
to be the first of many events that led to the war. Failing to respond
appropriately was the FIRST BLUNDER.
The
second event , rather which lead to SECOND BLUNDER, was the
elections held on December 7, 1970. The
election was held within four weeks
after the cyclone had devastated East-Pakistan. Though the first constitution
of Pakistan was promulgated in 1956, declaring Pakistan as a secular,
democratic country, it was Abrogated
By Dictator (Later Field Marshall And President) Ayub Khan, who
presented a new constitution with Presidential form of Govt., Under this
constitution the first ever election was held in 1970, and it is considered to
be the cleanest and fairest of elections in Pakistan’s history to date.
Politicians
like Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was the Foreign Minister in Yahya Khan’s Govt,
misread the situation totally. Bhutto was very popular in Wes Pakistan, but he did not realize the deep under-current
of resentment (even hatred) that Bengalis had for their political masters in
Western part.
In
these elections Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League won a landslide victory.
See brief of results at the top, posted as image of this BLOG
Normally,
in a democratic process, Awami League should have formed the Govt, but that did
not happen, and this was THIRD BLUNDER by the outgoing Govt. of Pakistan.
Zulfiqar
Ali Bhutto had thought that he was the most popular leader in Pakistan and that
his party - PPP’s (Pakistan People’s Party) victory was a foregone
conclusion. He was right about West-Pakistan but the results in East-Pakistan
was a stunner. Yahya Khan and his blue eyed boy, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto were in no mood to relinquish power to
the ‘Black Bengalis’.
I
will go back to an incident (one of the events in the series) which also had a
major impact which led to the war. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was one of the
Principal leaders who had fought tooth
and nail for creation of Pakistan (by dividing India). However, some incidents
kept cropping up which irked the Bengalis. The first among them was way back in
1948 when M. A. Jinnah had declared that the national language of Pakistan
(east and west) should be Urdu. This irked the Bengalis and they protested
heavily which led to the Govt retract on that issue. However, there was one
major incident which was to play a huge part leading to 1971 war.
In
1968, Sheikh Mujib and 34 members of his Awami party members were arrested on
sedition charges which went on to be known as the ‘Agartala Conspiracy Case’. Sheikh Mujib was the
tallest leader of East-Pakistan and his arrest did not go down well with the
Bengalis, and there were massive protests and rioting in EAST BENGAL.
Eventually, before the elections, charges against Sheikh Mujib were dropped and
elections were held peacefully. Refer Agartala Conspiracy Case - Wikipedia
Now,
Sheikh Mujib called for transfer of power but Yahya Khan and Bhutto were
dismissive of the appeals by Sheikh Mujib. When Mujib threatened to shut down
East-Pakistan with strikes, Bhutto and Mujib had a meeting in Dacca (Dhaka) to
come to an agreement, overseen by Yahya Khan who was present in the meeting.
The meeting ended without a result and the dead-lock continued. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
also presented his ‘SIX
DEMANDS’ which were basic in nature like greater say in state of
affairs, running of the Govt in economy and parity; these were rejected by
Bhutto and Yahya Khan. Then Sheikh Mujib launched a protest which spread across
the eastern wing of Pakistan. East-Pakistan was now on strike.
Then
came the BIGGEST reason which led to the war between Pakistan and India. To
quell the rebellion and break the strikes, Pakistan army launched
- OPERATION SEARCHLIGHT! This was the FOURTH BLUNDER. Refer my BLOG on this
listed under ‘REFERENCE’ East-Pakistan
would now see the greatest massacre since WW-II. The sheer scale of this
massacre was mind-boggling.
Pakistan
army launched the operation on March 25, 1971 and went on a killing and raping
spree. There was no force to stop them because this was being done within (East)
Pakistan. When the massacres started, Bengalis in thousands started to take
refuge in India. The day the operation began, all foreign journalists were
forced out of East Pakistan.
Seeing the genocide, a few days later Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman declared that the Awami League was no more fighting for greater
autonomy; it was now going to fight for a liberated independent land - Bangladesh.
At
the time India couldn’t manage the hundreds of thousands refugees who were
arriving (by December of 1971 India had nearly 10
million refugees). India sent out an appeal and the world press and media started to take
notice but the scale of persecution wasn’t coming through. There was a total
news blackout about the genocide in West-Pakistan; the people of this part of
Pakistan had no idea what was going on in the Eastern Wing. However, gradually news started to trickle in through
the International media and
mainly through the refugees who were coming in, and settling in the REFUGEE
CAMPS in eastern part of WEST BENGAL.. In the meantime, the Pak army had
created two monsters which were to act as army’s proxy (mainly recruited
from the Urdu speaking immigrants who had come from Bihar, and called ‘Biharis’).
These proxies were called Al Shams and Al Badr. Al-Badr
(East Pakistan) - Wikipedia - and - Al-Shams
(East Pakistan) - Wikipedia—Commonly known as
‘RAJAKARS’
Pak
Govt decided to take some journalists from west-Pakistan on a guided tour of
East-Pakistan to show what the army was doing - it was suppressing a separatist
movement of the ‘few’ Bengalis who were ‘dark-skinned Hindu agents’.
Among
them was a Goa born journalist Anthony Macarenhas who did not buy what was
being fed to the media. He did his own investigations and when he saw the real
situation, he returned to Karachi where he was working from. He shifted his
family overnight to London and in Sunday Times of UK., his story was published on the front page. THIS WAS THE FIFTH
BLUNDER. IT LEAD TO EXPOSE PAKISTAN.
When
the article hit the stands the world woke up to the ‘Genocide’ that was
being perpetrated. There was world-wide condemnation of Pak Govt but nothing
concrete was done, as USA was behind ‘PAKISTAN’. Meanwhile, the atrocities,
raping and killings continued unabated for weeks, leading to months.
Operation
Searchlight would result in death of up to three million Bengalis, and rape of
up to 300,000 women. See references below.
When
Operation Searchlight started, soldiers from two Pak Army Regiments 'East
Pakistan Rifles' and 'Bengal Regiment' revolted to form the core of 'Mukti
Bahini', supporting Sheikh Mujib in his fight to create Bangladesh. The
Mukti Bahini soldiers were then armed and trained especially in guerrilla
warfare by India. This bolstered the Mukti Bahini and their fight for an
independent Bangladesh started to see results when the Pak Army was being
harassed and pushed back by Mukti Bahini.
On
December 03, 1971 Pakistan Air Force planes struck six Indian bases but
could cause little damage because the Indian armed forces had been anticipating
such an attack and had put their planes in bunkers. This was the final act (though
it makes no sense to me to this day why they attacked India knowing fully that
India would retaliate). This attack brought India into open warfare and now
Pakistan would have to fight a war on many fronts. The Pakistan Air Force had
called the Operation - Operation Chengiz Khan. THIS WAS
THE SIXTH BLUNDER. Operation
Chengiz Khan - Wikipedia
That
evening, India declared WAR on Pakistan,
all arms of the Indian Défense Forces went on attack, and executed their well
laid out plans.
The
war ended 13 days later with the surrender of Pakistan army at Palton Maidan in
Dacca. India had 93,000 POWs, including 37,000 armed soldiers. The Untold Story of India's Decision to Release 93,000
Pakistani POWs After 1971 War—published in the ‘WIRE’.
Pakistan ultimately broke into two. The larger population of the
eastern wing became liberated as ‘BANGLADESH’.
Anecdote:-
Bhutto had some chances to avoid the break-up of Pakistan.
The first was when he met Mujibur Rahman in Dacca in March that year. The best
chance to salvage the situation came in December as the war was raging on. The
UN had presented a draft resolution which could have resulted in ceasefire,
thus saving Pakistan from the rout which eventually happened two days later.
But Bhutto (contrary to what Pakistanis consider as an act of bravery, it was
an act which ensured break-up of Pakistan)
tore up the papers and walked out of the UNSC floor, and this action
turned the neutral countries like Poland and Czechoslovakia to side with the
Indian perspective. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto denouncing U.N.
Security Council. It was ‘WORST’ political act in International Forum.
References:-
1.0
GENOCIDE-by Anthony Mascarenhas, The Sunday Times, June13, 1971. I HAVE READ IT IIN BRITISH LIBRAY
2.0https://draft.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/9116460033038176660/8854039838309282550
3.0 A leaf from history: After
Operation Searchlight - DAWN
4.0 SATYA A Novel - By Siddharth S. Sinha-https://books.google.co.in/books/publisher/content?id=X6MpCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT2&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U1Zw42kyghnwaHJP_rDwwpQ19ZA_g&w=1280
5.0
Lajja—Taslima Nasreen. A Bengali Novel, based on Genocide in East Pakistan.
IMAGES:-
1.0 PRINT. Copy Right is acknowledged.
2. 0 INTERNET-- POSSIBLY A STILL FROM A YOU-TUBE. UNKNOWN. AUTHOR IS ACKNOWLEDGED.
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