After the demise of Quaid-e-Azam and Liaquat Ali Khan, regionalism
raised its ugly head in smaller provinces particularly in East Pakistan
where India started a whispering campaign to poison the minds of the
youth and seculars against West Pakistan. India exploited the cultural
affinity between East and West Bengal by underplaying Allama Iqbal and
promoting poetry of Tagore. Since over 90% posts of teachers and
professors were held by Hindus, they played a key role in subverting the
minds of students and making them hate West Pakistanis. History books
of the subcontinent were distorted to paint Muslim rulers in poor light
and ancient Hindu rule glamorized. Their hatred against Hindus was
gradually mellowed and converted into amiability. Cultural programs and
stage dramas enacted by Hindus helped in bringing a change in the
mindset of the Muslim Bengalis. Bengali nationalism was stirred by
agitating language issue. Politics of agitation was introduced through
frequent strikes and mob violence.Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who had nurtured the dream of independent Bengal from early days came into prominence in East Pakistan during the language riots in 1948. He again took active part in 1952 language riots. His rebellious stance against West Pakistan Establishment made him popular among Bengalis. He joined Awami League (AL) as a disciple of Suhrawardy. After the death of Suhrawardy in 1964, he maintained his pro-India stance and went astray.
He and his henchmen got in touch with Indian intelligence agencies and during one of the meetings in Agartala, finalized the plan to detach East Pakistan from rest of Pakistan. Under the garb of remedying political and economic grievances of East Pakistan, he formulated six points formula and fanned Bengali nationalism. Unearthing of Agartala conspiracy case in 1968 turned the secessionist into a hero in the eyes of Bengalis. Indian media was instrumental in lionizing Mujib.
Breakup
of One-Unit Scheme, one-man-one-vote and change of separate electorate
to joint electorate by Gen Yahya Khan so as to appease the agitating
Bengalis gave the AL electoral victory in a platter. Year-long election
campaign allowed Mujib to use high-handed tactics to not only intimidate
the people of East Pakistan but also inflame Bengali nationalism.
Indian media and secular Bengali intellectuals presented West Pakistan
as a villain and publicized Mujib's six point program as a panacea for
all the problems of East Pakistan, which in actuality amounted to
secession. All criminal and illegal acts of AL thugs were ignored under
the policy of appeasement.
After sweeping the elections through
massive rigging, Mujib and his henchmen became more arrogant and
uncompromising. They stubbornly maintained that new constitution will be
framed strictly in accordance with six points and refused to
accommodate viewpoint of second largest party PPP. The situation became
uncontrollable in Dacca on 1 March after Yahya unwisely postponed
inaugural session scheduled in Dacca on 3 March on the insistence of
Bhutto and hawkish Generals. It sparked horrible conflagration and let
loose genie of Bengali nationalism. On late evening of 2 March, Army was
called in aid of civil power to control the situation at the request of
Mujib. Bengali officers conveyed to Mujib that troops were under order
not to open fire unless physically assaulted. Accordingly, Mujib
directed his militants to fearlessly violate curfew.
On the
afternoon of 3 March, Mujib demanded immediate return of troops to
barracks and to hand over security of Dacca to him, or else his men
would resist them. He also demanded cessation of flow of reinforcement
from West Pakistan and disarming of non-Bengalis. Eastern Command
Commander Lt Gen Sahibzada Yaqub capitulated to his wrongful demands,
which was a blunder. Gen Gul Hassan said that to allow Mujib to restore
calm was 'somewhat like leaving a virgin in the care of a habitual
rapist'.
A state within state was created and Bengalis took
orders from Mujib only. Everywhere the chanting of 'Joi Bangla' could be
heard. New Bangladesh flag was hoisted. Mujib's hostile tantrums
amounted to virtual independence. In order to provoke Gen Yahya to use
force and thus give an excuse to start a popular civil war aided by
India, a planned massacre of non-Bengalis including Biharis and
pro-government Bengalis and rape of West Pakistani girls was unleashed.
Their properties were torched and valuables looted. The madness
continued till 25 March filling the roads and streets of Dacca and other
major towns with blood. Stench of the dead bodies littered on the roads
unattended became unbearable and it became difficult to breathe. Over
100,000 people, mostly Biharis were hacked to death. Stories of 'torture
to death' are too horrifying and blood curdling to narrate and have
been narrated in hundreds of books.
Non-Bengali and loyal
elements butchery continued with unabated venom. None came to the rescue
of the hounded. They were baffled and found themselves at the mercy of
hounding wolves. They had no weapons to fend for themselves and no place
to hide and as such got slaughtered like sheep. Even our media was
blanked on the ill-conceived ground that broadcasting of atrocities
would evoke a severe backlash against Bengalis in West Pakistan. The
biased western media team located in Dacca turned a blind eye to the
carnage of non-Bengalis. It also turned a blind eye to India's meddling
and induction of 90,000 Indian soldiers in West Bengal in March 1971.
The
troops confined to barracks in Dacca, Sylhet, Saidpur, Khulna,
Rajshahi, Rangpur, Jessore, Khulna and Chittagong kept hearing the
savageries committed on men in uniform and their families with impotent
rage. It had become extremely difficult for those living inside
cantonment areas to procure fresh food items from markets. Deprived of
electric and water supply, conservancy and other essential services for
three weeks, Pak troops were virtually living on tinned rations while
the children remained deprived of milk. PAF special transport aircraft
from West Pakistan provided essential supplies. Attacks on Army pickets
were stepped up and the Army jeered at. Soldiers were spat upon and
called Yahya dogs.
Sizeable number of men in Khaki and their
families particularly those serving in East Pakistan Rifles (EPR) and
East Pakistan Civil Armed Forces were hacked to death. By such acts, the
Army was being deliberately provoked to lose patience and to take
punitive action. This would have given Mujib and his henchmen a weapon
to whip up anti-Army emotions thereby dubbing the Army as an occupation
Army. It would have paved the way for civil war thereby fulfilling the
requirement of India.
Yahya's regime was subjected to extreme
criticism for its procrastinating attitude and its passivity to confront
Bengali defiance against the state. All those who mattered in West
Pakistan and pro-Pakistan Bengalis exerted extreme pressure on President
Yahya to take punitive action against the dissidents. Even Bhutto
prodded him to use full force regardless of casualties before it was too
late. But Yahya had already made too many mistakes by granting
unreasonable concessions to Mujib and in the process had badly messed up
things.
During the ten-day negotiations in Dacca in March 1971,
Yahya team trying to find a way out of impasse remained totally
defensive and apologetic and had no card to play. They kept giving in
and got nothing in return. No political leader including Bhutto could
soften up Mujib. The Mujib led team on the other hand maintained a
highly belligerent and uncompromising posture. It was amply clear that
AL simply didn't want a constitutional agreement conducive to the
retention of national identity. His mentors had briefed him not to agree
on any point or concession offered at any cost. He was told to force
Yahya to use force so that India could convince the world that it was
Pakistan Army that had first denied them their constitutional right to
takeover power and had now opted to crush them under their boots. Under
the circumstances, AL would have a convincing case to pick up arms in
defence and also gain sympathy of the world. Military action would pave
the way for India to organize a civil war in East Pakistan leading
towards secession.
Matiur Rahman in his book 'Bangladesh Today'
writes, 'It was indeed most mind boggling to note that while Yahya Khan
and his team persistently offered power to Mujib, the latter constantly
hedged, refused to agree to any settlement, shifted his position from
six points and refused to accept any formula within the framework of a
united Pakistan'. Mujib had made up his mind to part ways and that too
through violent means.
It was on the evening of 24 March 1971
when Yahya got convinced that Mujib didn't want anything short of
confederation that he gave green signal to Gen Tikka Khan to save the
federation. Orders to unit commanders were passed verbally on the
morning of 25th March. The toughest challenge was in Dacca where the
outcome of crackdown would have decided the fate of East Pakistan. The
city and its suburbs housed heaviest concentration of armed rebels
followed by Chittagong. As per foreign press reports, there were 200,000
weapons with the militants in East Pakistan.
Despite
extremely heavy odds, the troops numbering 12000 went into action and by
early morning of 26th, Dacca was cleared of miscreants and in next few
days all other critical towns were also taken over since the rebels had
fled. Reinforcement from West Pakistan were rushed in only when it was
found that EBR, EPR and Police had also rebelled and rebellion had got
transformed into a well-planned civil war supported by India.
When
the prejudiced foreign journalists were ousted from Dacca by Gen Tikka,
the jilted journalists got settled in Calcutta and played into the
hands of Indian media. Indo-western media cooked up fabricated stories
of all kinds of atrocities and quoted highly bloated figures of those
killed in Army action on 25th March and subsequently. There were reports
published in foreign newspapers of razing of whole villages and
machine-gunning all the inhabitants. Rapes were also drummed up. Idea
was to demonize Pak Army and paint the soldiers as human eating monsters
and rapists. So-called genocide drummed up by Indian media was
magnified by western media. AL propaganda machinery added fuel to fire
by churning out series of horror stories of killings and rapes.
All
this was done to smoke-screen the large-scale atrocities committed by
AL urchins and anti-social elements. What was termed as genocide during
week-long disturbances all over the province, in actuality only 172
persons lost lives while 358 got injured! The next round of killings and
rapes was undertaken by Mukti Bahini after 23 November 1971, later
joined by Indian forces. Raping of Bengali girls and women at a mass
scale was undertaken by Indian Army and BSF soldiers in the refugee
camps in India during their confinement period of over nine months.
Interestingly,
figures of three million Bengalis and raping of 300,000 women by Pak
soldiers in East Pakistan were never mentioned throughout the civil war
and Indo-Pak war. These figures were first uttered by Sheikh Mujib after
he was released from prison in West Pakistan in January 1972. In my
next write up, I will try to dispel the myth of these incredible
figures.
It is ironic that today the AL led government at the
behest of India is demanding apology from Pakistan for the so-called war
crimes, and is convicting aged Jamaat-e-Islami members through Kangaroo
courts, who had played their honorable part to save their motherland,
but is completely ignoring the barbarities of its own members against
Biharis and West Pakistanis and their collaboration with hostile India.
Can
we notice the footsteps of India in Balochistan and in Karachi where
quite a few similarities with former East Pakistan crisis can be
discerned? Will the final battle be fought in Karachi as I had stated in
one of my articles in 2008? Are we alive to the two brewing lavas which
are primed to burst? The only thing which probably has frustrated the
designs of our adversaries is that the Army kept itself aloof. Hence the
story of 'genocide' couldn't be played. 'Missing persons' story played
up in Balochistan didn't prove so tantalizing to evoke an international
outcry, particularly when ground checks negated the stance of
propagandists.
By Asif Haroon Raja
The writer is a retired Brig, a defence analyst and a columnist. Email:asifharoonraja@gmail.com
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