WAR 1971

[Vinod2070]

Now let's take a look at how some Pakistanis looked at these events.

“…… we were told to kill the hindus and Kafirs (non-believer in God). One day in June, we cordoned a village and were ordered to kill the Kafirs in that area. We found all the village women reciting from the Holy Quran, and the men holding special congregational prayers seeking God’s mercy. But they were unlucky. Our commanding officer ordered us not to waste any time.”
Confession of a Pakistani Soldier


It all started with Operation Searchlight, a planned military pacification carried out by the Pakistan Army started on 25 March, 1971 to curb the Bengali nationalist movement by taking control of the major cities on March 26, and then eliminating all opposition, political or military, within one month. Before the beginning of the operation, all foreign journalists were systematically deported from Bangladesh. The main phase of Operation Searchlight ended with the fall of the last major town in Bengali hands in mid May.


According to New York Times (3/28/71) 10,000 people were killed; New York Times (3/29/71) 5,000-7,000 people were killed in Dhaka; The Sydney Morning Herald (3/29/71) 10,000 - 100,000 were killed; New York Times (4/1/71) 35,000 were killed in Dhaka during operation searchlight.


The operation also began the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities. These systematic killings served only to enrage the Bengalis, which ultimately resulted in the secession of East Pakistan later in December, 1971. The international media and reference books in English have published casualty figures which vary greatly; 200,000–3,000,000 for Bangladesh as a whole.
There is only one word for this: Genocide.
Genocide in Bangladesh, 1971

The mass killings in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) in 1971 vie with the annihilation of the Soviet POWs, the holocaust against the Jews, and the genocide in Rwanda as the most concentrated act of genocide in the twentieth century. In an attempt to crush forces seeking independence for East Pakistan, the West Pakistani military regime unleashed a systematic campaign of mass murder which aimed at killing millions of Bengalis, and likely succeeded in doing so.
In national elections held in December 1970, the Awami League won an overwhelming victory across Bengali territory. On February 22, 1971 the generals in West Pakistan took a decision to crush the Awami League and its supporters.



It was recognized from the first that a campaign of genocide would be necessary to eradicate the threat: “Kill three million of them,” said President Yahya Khan at the February conference, “and the rest will eat out of our hands.” (Robert Payne, Massacre [1972], p. 50.) On March 25 the genocide was launched. The university in Dacca (Dhaka) was attacked and students exterminated in their hundreds. Death squads roamed the streets of Dacca, killing some 7,000 people in a single night. It was only the beginning. “Within a week, half the population of Dacca had fled, and at least 30,000 people had been killed. Chittagong, too, had lost half its population. All over East Pakistan people were taking flight, and it was estimated that in April some thirty million people [!] were wandering helplessly across East Pakistan to escape the grasp of the military.” (Payne, Massacre, p. 48.) Ten million refugees fled to India, overwhelming that country’s resources and spurring the eventual Indian military intervention. (The population of Bangladesh/East Pakistan at the outbreak of the genocide was about 75 million.)


The Guinness Book of Records lists the Bangladesh Genocide as one of the top 5 genocides in the 20th century.
The gendercide against Bengali men

The war against the Bengali population proceeded in classic gendercidal fashion. According to Anthony Mascarenhas:


There is no doubt whatsoever about the targets of the genocide. They were: (1) The Bengali militarymen of the East Bengal Regiment, the East Pakistan Rifles, police and para-military Ansars and Mujahids. (2) The Hindus — “We are only killing the men; the women and children go free. We are soldiers not cowards to kill them …” I was to hear in Comilla [site of a major military base] [Comments R.J. Rummel: "One would think that murdering an unarmed man was a heroic act" (Death By Government, p. 323)] (3) The Awami Leaguers — all office bearers and volunteers down to the lowest link in the chain of command. (4) The students — college and university boys and some of the more militant girls. (5) Bengali intellectuals such as professors and teachers whenever damned by the army as “militant.” (Anthony Mascarenhas, The Rape of Bangla Desh [Delhi: Vikas Publications, 1972(?)], pp. 116-17.)


Mascarenhas’s summary makes clear the linkages between gender and social class (the “intellectuals,” “professors,” “teachers,” “office bearers,” and — obviously — “militarymen” can all be expected to be overwhelmingly if not exclusively male, although in many cases their families died or fell victim to other atrocities alongside them). In this respect, the Bangladesh events can be classed as a combined gendercide and elitocide, with both strategies overwhelmingly targeting males for the most annihilatory excesses.

London, 6/13/71). The Sunday Times…..”The Government’s policy for East Bengal was spelled out to me in the Eastern Command headquarters at Dacca. It has three elements:
1. The Bengalis have proved themselves unreliable and must be ruled by West Pakistanis;
2. The Bengalis will have to be re-educated along proper Islamic lines. The - Islamization of the masses - this is the official jargon - is intended to eliminate secessionist tendencies and provide a strong religious bond with West Pakistan;
3. When the Hindus have been eliminated by death and fight, their property will be used as a golden carrot to win over the under privileged Muslim middle-class. This will provide the base for erecting administrative and political structures in the future.”
​

How many died?

Bangladeshi authorities claim that 3 million people were killed, while the Hamoodur Rahman Commission, an official Pakistan Government investigation, put the figure as low as 26,000 civilian casualties. The fact is that the number of dead in Bangladesh in 1971 was almost certainly well into seven figures. It was one of the worst genocides of the World War II era, outstripping Rwanda (800,000 killed) and probably surpassing even Indonesia (1 million to 1.5 million killed in 1965-66).

1971 Bangladesh Genocide Archive

 

[Vinod2070]

Forget 1971, says Pakistan

Syed Badrul Ahsan
PAKISTAN has asked us to let bygones be bygones, to forget 1971. Now, that is indeed a queer proposition to make before a nation that Pakistan's soldiers so happily and brutally went into the job of murdering, raping and maiming over nine months of medieval barbarism. But, of course, we are ready to forget and forgive, ready to turn a new page if only Pakistan's government and its people would do their bit in helping us forget that sordid past. The trouble is their attitude has not helped all these years since the end of Pakistan and the rise of Bangladesh. It is always attitude that matters.


And how it matters was demonstrated beautifully and poignantly by Willy Brandt, that man of peace, when he went and knelt before Israel's Yad Vashem memorial in 1970 as a mark of penance for what Nazi Germany did to six million Jews in the Hitler years.


The German chancellor could well have declined to do that, seeing that he himself had run from the Nazis, that his politics had nothing in common with that of Hitler and his brutal regime. But, then again, Brandt knew that the road to the future would stay blocked until the past had adequately been tackled.


It is a lesson Pakistan and its leaders need to learn from. To be sure, Pakistanis will tell you in their turn that Pervez Musharraf once expressed his regret over any crimes that may have been committed in Bangladesh in 1971. When they do that, you might as well inform them that there is a huge difference between an expression of regret and a clear statement of apology.


When you regret something you have done, you are not exactly contrite over your action. But when you publicly let people know that you are apologetic over a crime or sin you have committed, you give out the good feeling that you have finally been able to catch up with history. More significantly, you have finally adopted the thought that in life morality matters than anything else.


Pakistan's people and its leaders have, to our clear displeasure, never tried to take the high moral ground when it comes to dealing with 1971. The history that is taught in schools is a travesty of the truth. While a detailed analysis is provided of the circumstances leading to the creation of Pakistan in 1947, nothing really is offered as an explanation for the disappearance of East Pakistan in 1971. Or if there is something of an explanation, the clear hint is there that a conspiracy, obviously by non-Pakistanis, broke the country into two. With that kind of approach to history, you only undermine history. An angry Zulfikar Ali Bhutto visited the National Memorial in Savar in June 1974 and made it clear he saw nothing wrong in what his country had done to Bengalis in 1971.


You would have expected a different kind of response from Bhutto, for he was an educated man and comfortable in the ways of the world. Yes, he did have a big hand in the genocide, but he could have redeemed himself if he had, on that trip, apologised in unambiguous terms to the Bengalis. He did not and neither did any of his successors. His daughter Benazir, a student at Harvard in 1971, scrupulously refused to believe the reports of the killings carried by the western media at the time.


All that mattered was what her father told her in his letters. And she believed him. To the end of her life, you might reasonably conclude, she thought the Bangladesh crisis was not brought on by the army or her father but by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his Awami League.


Naturally, therefore, you do not expect anything but professions of regret from Pakistan about the atrocities of its army in Bangladesh. Or there is the quixotic too. When Ziaul Haq travelled to Dhaka in 1985, he did a good thing of visiting the memorial at Savar. It was one opportunity he could have used to say sorry on behalf of his country. He did not do that. Instead, he told bemused Bengali journalists: "Your heroes are our heroes." So why then did his army go about picking off our freedom fighters and our innocent citizens? Imagine the Japanese telling the Chinese: "The people we massacred in Nanjing in 1937 were our brothers."


We will forget 1971 when Pakistan makes a move to remember it. That remembering ought not to be like Pervez Musharraf's. In his memoirs, the former military ruler notes that he and his fellow soldiers in Rawalpindi wept on the day the Pakistan army surrendered in Bangladesh. That weeping came a little late in the day and for the wrong reasons. For nine months the Pakistanis made Bengalis weep. And then it was their turn to cry, not because they had brutalised Bangladesh but because they had lost East Pakistan.


Roedad Khan, that incorrigible Pakistani bureaucrat, glowed at dawn on March 26, 1971. As Bengalis were shot down, he exclaimed: "Yaar, iman taaza ho gya." Pakistan must someday weep for that comment. And then we will forget.
Syed Badrul Ahsan is Editor, Current Affairs, The Daily Star.
E-mail: [email protected].

The Daily Star - Details News

This is the definition of iman by the Pakistanis! Great going!

​

 

[Vinod2070]

Rape of Unbelievers

Mindset of Pakistanis favouring 1971 Genocide

By Abul Kasem

This re-count starts when I was in Thailand in 1973 to do my post graduate studies in Engineering. The Institution was AIT and being an international institution for post graduate study there were students from many parts of the world, though the majority were from the Asian countries. There was sizable number of Bangladeshi as well as Pakistani and Indian students. Bangladesh was just liberated and most of us still had the fresh memories of the holocaust and never expected the Pakistanis to be friendly with us. But to our surprise, we found that most Pakistanis were quite nice a bunch of friendly helpful people. They were extremely curious about what had happened in Bangladesh during that turbulent nine-month period.

Many a time we used to have lengthy chat sessions with them. These Pakistanis were extremely religious. And they used to preach on us on all aspects of the last revelations of God, that is Islam. They used to think that our knowledge of Islam was incomplete, erroneous and filled with Hindu practices. They used to preach on us like a priest gives sermons on the followers. Their devotion to Islam was so strong that they forced the canteen manager to open counter for Muslim students so that they (the Muslims) can eat the food sanctioned by Islam. Naturally, many Bangalees who are religious minded were greatly impressed by their words and practices. But a sinner like me was very skeptical about their words and actions right from the very beginning.

Then came the topic of creation of Bangladesh. Naturally, they sided with the Pak army although they expressed sorrow for the lives lost. When they heard that 3 million people were massacred and that the action of Pak army cannot be dismissed simply as an act of restoration of peace and order they simply laughed. The reason was that they did not believe what had happened to our people in occupied Bangladesh. When we asked them how many Bangalees were killed, they quoted a figure of 3,000 or to that order. They also insisted that those killed were mostly Hindus so we should not bother too much about the massacre. That was to say that the killing of Hindus was all right. We pointed out that the figure of 3 million was not invented by the Government of Bangladesh but the figure was from reliable foreign sources such as AFP, Reuters, Time magazine, etc. We also told them that a Pakistani journalist by the name of Anthony Mascarenhas has written a book titled ‘The Rape of Bangladesh’ where he had quoted a similar figure. The Pakistanis simply dismissed those facts and said that the foreign journalists were bribed by India to write these figures. When we asked them how did they get the figure of 3,000, they said that that figure was released by the military authorities. And how about the 200, 000 rape cases? They were adamant that not a single woman was raped. Such is the power of Pak oligarchy and Pak military to condition peoples’ mind.

Now, the interesting point was that whenever the atrocities of the Pak army were mentioned to them, they were all adamant that we (the Bangalees) are to blame for that. Why? Simply because we were not good Muslims. How? If we were good Muslims, we should not have voted for the Awami League. They told us that the right parties to vote were Pakistan Muslim League or Jamat-i-Islami. It was no secret to guess that most Pakistanis considered us (Bangalees) as non Muslims as almost all of us voted for Awami League. Therefore they opined that the genocide was not really a genocide! It was getting rid of the non-Muslims. After all, they (the non-Muslims) were not really human beings.

Everyone knows that Thailand and especially Bangkok has plenty of seedy joints to have fun and frolic with young women. I shall admit that I went to one of those joints along with a couple of friends of mine. Being a sinner I did not have serious problem with those things. However, one day we got the shock of our lives when we found these Pakistani Islamists sitting comfortably and blithely at the massage parlour and ogling at the scantily dressed amorous Thai sex kittens. Then they saw us. To our surprise, they expressed no shame or they even did not try to hide their faces. They openly welcomed us and shook hands with us as per Islamic style. We were simply stunned and lost for any word. The Pakistanis even told us which girls were good and sexually attractive, etc. etc. They were not ashamed or afraid to admit that they visited those joints quite frequently. Most of them had their favourite girls with whom they had plenty of erotic fun. Those things were unbelievable to me and I thought that I must have been in Mars or another planet or that God has changed his mind on sins and virtues.

After a few weeks, an opportunity came for me to ask one of these Islamists as to what would happen to them since they have committed the sin of zina. They were very surprised at me for this impertinence. He told me that they have committed no sin. What? No sin! My brain must have failed to work! I simply could not hold my breath any longer to listen to what they had to say. He told me that Thais were not Muslims; so having fun with their girls were all right. In fact, he told me that that had been the practice in Islam for centuries. Whenever the Muslims defeated the non-Muslims, they could do whatever they (the Muslims) wanted with the non-Muslims. The Muslims can use the non-Muslim women as sex slaves and please themselves as they wished. A Muslim even had the right to kill the women if he wished. In simple language the non-Muslims were not really human beings. They (the non-Muslims) were inferior even to cattle and animals. Moreover, the Pakistani told me that the Prophet had allowed to have sex if a man is living overseas. I could not believe of what I was hearing! He then quoted me from his memory many verses from Koran and Hadith to support his views. Then I reminded my Pakistani friend that there was quite a small minority of Muslims in Thailand. So, if by accident he had sex with one of the Thai Muslim prostitutes what will befall him. He answered glibly, “No problem.” When I return to Pakistan I shall have a Milad Mehfil and ask for forgiveness. Finally, the Hajj is there for him to receive the forgiveness. But he said that that might not be necessary because he was very sure that none of the girls he had sex with were Muslims.

If a Pakistani reads this re-count he/she may be greatly offended, no doubt about it. Many Pakistanis will defend that the view by one person does not mean any thing. No apology will be sought. Any Pakistani can form whatever opinion he thinks is suitable. It is up to him/her. Let us look at the wider implications of what my Pakistani Islamists had said. Was it an individual’s wrong interpretations of the holy books of Islam? Was it the mindset of a mentally sick person? Do not be fooled by these thoughts. For when we look back, we see that that was the mindset of Pakistani army recruits who unleashed a reign of terror leading into massacring millions of Bangalees. Pakistanis may differ on many matters but when the question of Islamic superiority comes, they are unanimous. This was the work of the Oligarchy, the army and the clerics of Pakistan. These groups have rigidly programmed the vast majority of Pakistanis with the thought that they (the Pakistanis) have the absolute superiority in Islamic matters. And this thinking got a further boost with the detonation of Islamic bomb in 1998. We Bangalees have no problem with their superior thinking. The only trouble is that these dangerous thoughts have cost 3 million dear lives of Bangalees.

So, to put everything in a simple language, the Pakistani army did not kill any human being in Bangladesh. They only cleared the field from pest; just like a farmer spreads insecticide to free his crops from devastation. So, is the case of the Pak army. They simply eliminated the non-Muslims and the not so good Muslims to protect the good Muslims those who would follow them. The question of remorse or guilt feeling does not arise at all. You see, the Pak army did not rape any women. They simply enjoyed the flesh of non-Muslims. Even if there were some excessive force being applied, there is no need to feel guilty about that. The ubiquitous Milad is there; the Hajj is there too to remove even the slightest trace of culpability. A serial killer is a psychologically sick person. He gets pleasure in seeing the suffering of a dying person in his hands. But deep down, the serial killer knows that what he is doing is wrong. He is surely aware of the eventual punishment if he is caught. That is why, most serial killers readily admit their crime and on many occasions regret of their actions when he recovers from his sickness. How about the perpetrators of a genocide? They are perfectly normal. Most of them are really very nice, polite, and soft spoken (like the Islamic Circle of North America’s leader Ashrafuzzaman Khan). But there is one trait that separates them from the rest of us and that is, the uncompromising faith in the supremacy of what they belief and their inability to accept the existence of others if they do not follow them. Any means is justified to advance their belief even if that means the annihilation of an entire race. That is why no Pakistani has ever condemned the genocide of the Bangalees. That is why they will do that again if an opportunity lends itself. Since no crime has been committed, the question of trial of the perpetrators of genocide does not arise at all. Isn’t it so?

This is the mindset of the planners and executioners of Bangladesh genocide. This is the mindset of Yahya Khan, Tikka Khan, Golam Azam, Ayatollah, Ashrafuzzaman -------. This why we have Auswitcz, Kosovo,, Bosnia, Palestine, East Timor -----.

Is Islam the only religion responsible for the genocide? Surely not. Every organised religion on earth has sanctioned murder, rape loot, plunder --- etc, as long as that is directed towards the non-believers. Religion has a cousin to go with it. That is racism. Religion and racism go hand in hand. That is why we have Hitler, Radovan Karadzic, Slobodan Milosevic, Ratko Mladic and so on.

Karl Marx said, “Religion is the opium of the masses.” In today’s world that is a very understatement. If people take opium they become addicted and ruin their health. There should not be any problem for humanity on that. Today, religion has become a vermin (read pest) for humanity. This cancerous virus has spread in every human being on this planet. I am not sure if we will find an antidote for this disease in our life time or not.

Why did I write this essay after all these years? It can be summed up by a quotation from Shakespeare. The famous bard wrote,
“A little fire is quickly trodden out;
Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench.”
( Shakespeare, ‘Henry VI, Part Three,’ IV, viii,7. (A fire ‘suffered’ is one permitted to burn.).

The fire is still burning inside me although the events of 1971 may be more like some specks of dust in the minds of Bangalees who till this day would not admit that Pakistanis have done excess all in the name of religion.

Abul Kasem is an academic and writes from Australia

Rape of Unbelievers

Some horrific stuff. I think it explains well the mentality of many of those who claim to deny these events but actually may secretly be just condoning them as they don't see anything wrong with the genocide. They would do it again if they could.

 

[1.44]

Unbelievable and these guys are asking to let the past go as if didn't even happen!

 

[I-G]

Int meet calls for UN recognition of 1971 'genocide' in B'desh
Updated on Saturday, August 01, 2009, 13:06 IST

Dhaka: Amid efforts in Bangladesh to kickstart the trial of the 1971 "war criminals", the government has been asked to take diplomatic steps for UN recognition of the "genocide" by the Pakistan military.


An international conference in the capital called for a campaign for United Nations' recognition of the mass killings during the 1971 Liberation War as genocide.

Historians, academics and international legal experts told the conference, which ended yesterday, that the government should make necessary preparations for trying the "war criminals" and pursue diplomatic efforts to drum up international support in favour of the move, The Daily Star newspaper said today.

"The conference calls upon the media and the civil society at home and abroad to focus on the genocide in Bangladesh, and launch a campaign so that this is recognised in the UN as Genocide," said the declaration of the two-day 'Second International Conference on Genocide, Truth and Justice' organised by the Liberation War Museum.

Legal experts and academics from Germany, Vietnam, Hong Kong, UK and Canada were also present.

Bangladesh's Jamaat-e-Islami party chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid led the so-called Al-Badr forces, which is widely believed to have been involved in genocide, rape and murder of frontline intellectuals in an effort to cripple the emerging nation in 1971.

AB Tazul Islam, Bangladesh State Minister for Liberation War Affairs, said the government is doing everything possible to ensure fair trial for war criminals.

"The trial process can begin anytime," he underlined.

Earlier, Pakistan had cautioned Bangladesh that efforts to push ahead with the controversial trial may cast a shadow on bilateral ties.

The ruling Awami League, which has vowed to punish the criminals during the 'independence war', has demanded an apology from Pakistan for the killing of three million Bangladeshis and rape of lakhs of women by the Pakistan army during the bloody nine-month war. However, Pakistan does not acknowledge the killings.

Jamaat-e-Islami, a crucial ally of opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and several other rightwing groups have been accused of helping the Pakistani military during the 'Liberation War'. The Islamist party's description of the event as a "civil war" has intensified public outrage in the country.

The Parliament in its third sitting earlier this year adopted a resolution for the trial of the war criminals in line with the election pledge of the Awami League.

Int meet calls for UN recognition of 1971 `genocide` in B`desh

 

[I-G]

B’desh retrieves document awarding 4 Indians for 1971 support

Updated on Tuesday, August 04, 2009, 22:32 IST

Dhaka: Bangladesh authorities said on Tuesday they retrieved a 34-year-old document containing an "unimplemented" order by founding father of the country Sheikh Mujibur Rahman awarding four Indian artistes for their inspiring role during 1971 Liberation War.


The state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sanstha (BSS) carried a report on the March 25, 1975 government order, which was in oblivion since the August 15, 1975 assassination of Rahman along with most of his family members. The order also awards 18 Bangladeshi artistes for their contribution.

The four Indian artistes were Bengali singer Debdulal Bandapadhyay, lyricists Gouri Prasanna Majumdar and Pranabesh Sen and singer Angshuman Roy. Only Bandapadhyay is still alive while the others died in subsequent years.

The 18 Bangladeshi artistes and workers of the then war time 'Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra' (free Bangla radio station) based in Kolkata, included Razu Ahmed, Altaf Mahmud, Sardar Alauddin, Belal Mohammad, Abul Kashem Swandhip, M R Akhtar Mukul, Apel Mahmud, Rathindra Nath Roy and Samar Das. Most of them also died in subsequent years.

"Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman has ordered the artistes, cultural activists and radio workers, who through their creations or performance contributed outstandingly to lead Bangladesh's Independence struggle to ultimate victory, be awarded with gold medals," read the March 25, 1975 government order.

All the selected artists, cultural activists and radio workers played a strong role for Bangladesh's Liberation Struggle in radio and their role directly and deeply inspired the countrymen, the handout said.

But the government decision went into oblivion in changed political scenario after the August 15 carnage.

Talking to BSS, one of the recipients of the award, Belal Mohammad suggested inclusion of Indian lyricist and writer Gobinda Haldar. "If there is any scope for amending the list, the name of Gobinda Haldar should be included in it as he authored several popular songs for Bangladesh Liberation War, but never got the recognition," he said.

Bangladesh won the independence after nine months of bloody war against Pakistani troops with crucial Indian support.

Indo-Bangla news-B?desh retrieves document awarding 4 Indians for 1971 support

 

[Daredevil]

Pakistan’s army: living in a state of strategic denial

August 5th, 2009 - 11:06 am ICT by IANS -


By C. Uday Bhaskar

A two-day international conference on genocide that concluded in Dhaka July 31 exhorted the UN to recognise the mass killings and rape that the Pakistan Army had unleashed in the torturous and tumultuous events that preceded the birth of Bangladesh in December 1971.

Legal experts from Germany, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Britain and Canada joined their Bangladeshi counterparts in issuing a declaration that noted: “The conference calls upon the media and the civil society at home and abroad to focus on the (1971) genocide in Bangladesh, and launch a campaign so that this is recognized in the UN as Genocide.”

Furthermore, the conference urged the Bangladesh government to begin the process of trying the perpetrators as war criminals and to seek international support in this regard.

But the sad truth is that as in the past 37 years, this earnest plea is unlikely to elicit any meaningful response from the powers that be at the global table.

The US, with Richard Nixon in the White House and his ace assistant Henry Kissinger actually calling the shots in 1971, was culpable by turning a blind eye to the genocide and mass rape that enveloped then East Pakistan. To their credit, the US mission in Dhaka tried to report the carnage to the DC Beltway and the US media, including some mainstream papers reported the events as accurately as possible. But in vain. And in keeping with the dictum that major powers shape the historical narrative in a selective manner by engaging in astute exclusion, this enormity has since been successfully relegated to the distant back-burner of the global record.

Four decades later, except for the victims and their traumatized families, recall of the genocide in Bangladesh outside of that country is hazy. The Pakistan Army, which was the principal institution engaged in attacking and butchering its own citizens - albeit of Bengali ethnicity, has since sought to play down the scale of the bloodshed and rape.

The official Pakistani version refers to 26,000 killed over a year but this is at considerable variance with other estimates which range from 300,000 to a staggering three million killed and between 200,000 to 400,000 women raped.

Two other estimates are illustrative of the disparity that exists about these gory figures. “Statistics of Democide: Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1900″ by R.J. Rummel places the deaths at 1.5 million and other literature on the subject avers that East Pakistan of 1971 ranks as having the highest concentration or density of genocide by way of the numbers killed, the time involved and the geographical area in question. Yet another book, “Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape” by Susan Brownmiller estimates that the total number of women raped by Pakistan Army personnel along with their local support base - the ‘razakars’ - varies from 200,000 to 400,000. The majority of them were Muslim girls and women ranging from age eight to 70 plus.

These are appalling statistics by any yardstick and in a normative context, even one death or rape of a civilian non-combatant by any uniformed person is cause for the gravest concern. Paradoxically, where death becomes macro, cerebral distortions occur easily. In keeping with the Einstein formulation that in a stellar domain mass can deform space, it may be averred that where a whole state machinery is committed to mass killing, normal morality and ethics are warped and elite responsibility evaded. Most objective genocide studies point to this pattern.

However, the purpose of this comment is not to cast aspersions on the veracity of one study or the other - more qualified voices will have to address that - but to relate the events of 1971 with the current turmoil in Pakistan.

Currently, the Pakistan Army - which in the Zia years became the defender of the Islamic faith - is caught in deep strategic denial about its murky and blood-splattered past. The empirical reality is that this institution since the first war for Kashmir in October 1947 to Kargil of May 1999 has been tasked in covert operations that have used terror stoked by religious radicalism and sectarian xenophobia against the ‘adversary’ - whether the much reviled Hindu Indian or the fellow Pakistani, be it the Bengali Pakistani of 1971 or the Baluchi of current times.

Like Oscar Wilde’s “Picture of Dorian Grey”, the institutional face of the Pakistan Army is best exemplified by the chutzpah of General Pervez Musharraf is a visage of supreme confidence - now further bolstered by the nuclear firewall. But the ugly reality is of a once proud army - its track record in World War II as part of the erstwhile British Indian Army is lustrous - that has lost its moral compass. The result has been the ignominy of killing fellow citizens on an unprecedented scale and where arch enemy India has been engaged - not being able to acknowledge the deaths of its regular troops in battle or even claim their bodies. A la Lady Macbeth, this is a stain that cannot be wiped away.

The inflexible mindset of the Pakistan Army has to be radically altered and there is no historical precedent that this will occur by consensus and deep introspection. The military acquires its legitimacy to use proportionate force for a larger national objective from adherence to the rule of law and a distilled code of professional conduct. But when the deviant becomes the norm, the correlation between principle and power is subverted.

The Pakistan Army is caught in an inflexible mode of strategic denial about its past, which is why it appears both unable and unwilling to deal with its present internal security challenges. This is the ‘truth’ that President Asif Ali Zardari has been trying to reveal - but with limited success. The reverberations of the Dhaka genocide conference must be picked up by Pakistan’s accomplished intellectuals - both in the media and academia - and a false narrative corrected. The army must finally confront its mea culpa moment through the bloody cross of East Pakistan.

(C. Uday Bhaskar is a well-known strategic analyst. He can be reached at [email protected])

 

[I-G]

Pak should try ‘war criminals’ during Bangladesh war: Expert

Updated on Friday, August 07, 2009, 11:45 IST

Dhaka: Pakistan should try those responsible for the genocide that took place during Bangladesh's freedom struggle in 1971, a Canadian lawyer has said while endorsing Dhaka's move to try those it considers "war criminals".


Trying those responsible for the killings of unarmed civilians was necessary "to stop recurrence of genocide and end culture of impunity", David Matas, who has dealt with Rwanda genocide and Nazi war criminals, told The Daily Star newspaper.

"Bangladesh can request Pakistan to send the accused to Bangladesh for trial but probably that will not happen. So, Pakistan itself should prosecute those involved in genocide," he said.

The estimates of civilians killed during the freedom movement in then East Pakistan varies between 300,000 and three million. Pakistan has itself admitted to 26,000 being killed during the nine months of the struggle.

Some of the killings were carried out by the Pakistani security forces, including the police and the paramilitary. But much of the killing was done by the Islamist militia, called Razakars, who formed different groups like Al Shams and Al Badr.

They targeted those sympathetic to the freedom movement and religious minorities and were accused of raping 200,000 women.

Matas was here to attend the Second International Conference on genocide, truth and justice July 30-31.

He welcomed Bangladesh's effort at trying its citizens accused of these "war crimes" and lauded amendments to the International Crimes Tribunals Act, 1973.

Matas said the principle of the law was "very good but the rules of the law must be more specific".

On the act's jurisdiction to try only the perpetrators within the territory of Bangladesh, he said Bangladesh could try the Pakistani perpetrators only if they showed up here.

"But, that is not likely. So, Pakistan should bring the war criminals living in its land to justice. It is Pakistan's responsibility," said Matas, representative of the International Commission of Jurists.

Dhaka has secured support of the UN, which has nominated a three member panel. It has also sought help from the US and Britain, which were closely involved in the diplomatic moves during 1971 and Germany that has past experience of trying World War II accused.

Dhaka hopes to begin the trial process next month, its Law Minister Shafique Ahmed has said.

The accused include many former members of the militia and top leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-islami, the country's largest Islamist party.

Pak should try ?war criminals? during Bangladesh war: Expert

 

[leonblack08]

Regrading the demand of neutral sources, how is this for neutral source:

1984 World Almanac: up to 1,000,000 civilians were killed.
Hartman: 1,000,000 Bengalis
B&J: 1,000,000 Bengalis
Kuper cites a study by Chaudhuri which counted 1,247,000 dead, and mentions the possibility that it may be as many as 3,000,000.
MEDIAN: 1,000,000-1,250,000
Porter: 1M-2M
Rummel: 1,500,000.
Eckhardt: 1,000,000 civ. + 500,000 mil. = 1,500,000 (Bangladesh)
Harff & Gurr: 1,250,000 to 3,000,000
The official estimate in Bangladesh is 3 million dead. [AP 30 Dec. 2000; Agence France Presse 3 Oct. 2000;
Rounaq Johan: 3,000,000 (in Century of Genocide: Eyewitness Accounts and Critical Views, Samuel Totten, ed., (1997))
Compton's Encyclopedia, "Genocide": 3,000,000
Encyclopedia Americana (2003), "Bangladesh": 3,000,000

There was a Genocide,but our official figure of 3 million is quite unbelieveable.Now there is a mixture of emotion and hatred in that number.

I am elaborating it:

1.After Sheikh Mujib was released from Pakistan,he initially said 1 million in London.But when he stepped in Bangladesh,he said its 3 million.

2.There are reports that Sheikh Mujib mixed up "1 lakh" with "1 million".And it is possible.

3.Killing 3 million in 9 months is quite difficult for an invading army,when Freedom Fighters were a constant trouble to them.

4.We did not find that many mass graves.But that might be because Pakistan army killed and then threw the bodies into river.The eyewitnesses speak of "water turning Red".

With all those estimates,my conclusion is actual number of death ranges between 300000 to 1000000.Now that's my conclusion.So I hope nobody will fume over it.

So Pakistan should give a formal apology to us,and then we can all go back again as brothers.Because that is the only way forward.

 

[leonblack08]

Pak should try ‘war criminals’ during Bangladesh war: Expert


Pak should try ?war criminals? during Bangladesh war: Expert

Now this is a very important issue.Now we must not forget War crime was committed by three type of people.

1.Pakistan army-slaughtered and raped hindu,muslims alike

2.Razakar-The Bengali collaborators of Pakistan army,infamous for killing our intellects in 1971.And also killing and raping civilians.

3.Freedom fighters-Killing Biharis and families of Razakar in revenge.

So far people from all the category have been sued,and arrested.Except for Pakistani army men,for which we need UN help.I hope it will be a fair trial for all.

 

[leonblack08]

Rape of Unbelievers

Some horrific stuff. I think it explains well the mentality of many of those who claim to deny these events but actually may secretly be just condoning them as they don't see anything wrong with the genocide. They would do it again if they could.

I remember reading a news article that a women was violated for more than 50 times in one night before she succumbed to death.

But it was an Indian woman who let us down.I am talking about Sharmila Bose.

 

[Flint]

^You would convict your own freedom fighters? That's nothing but shooting yourself in the foot. A very stupid move in my humble opinion

The victors are never punished. Ask the Allied forces after World War II if they tried their own soldiers for war crimes.

 

[leonblack08]

^You would convict your own freedom fighters? That's nothing but shooting yourself in the foot. A very stupid move in my humble opinion

The victors are never punished. Ask the Allied forces after World War II if they tried their own soldiers for war crimes.

Already a FF regional commander has been sued in Bangladesh and also arrested.
Come on we know Victors are never punished but let us be exceptional.

 

[Flint]

Good luck with that. I wonder what message you are sending to your own people.

You won the war because of your freedom fighters, and now you're prosecuting them for killing the enemy (which is basically what happens during warfare).

Makes no sense to me at all.

Already a FF regional commander has been sued in Bangladesh and also arrested.
Come on we know Victors are never punished but let us be exceptional.

 

[natarajan]

pakistan kicked east pakistan but after renaming into bangladesh ,this ppl again joined with pakistan so india wasted her resources for fighting for east pak freedom but they never had any thing good towards india

 

[leonblack08]

There is also a question of people accepting the verdict.Now it has to be free and fair,otherwise it would look like a political witch hunt,with most of Jamaat e Islami leaders behind the bars.
And war crime definition falls on murder of unarmed civilians and raping,if some "opportunist" FFs committed them,they should be tried.

There were few "Opportunists" among FFs who actually saw their chance to grab power after independence.There are some of these people as politicians and are corrupt as hell.

 

[leonblack08]

Good luck with that. I wonder what message you are sending to your own people.

You won the war because of your freedom fighters, and now you're prosecuting them for killing the enemy (which is basically what happens during warfare).

Makes no sense to me at all.

Flint,its not my version.But the demand of people to try war criminals,be it anyone.

Secondly,I mentioned about opportunists among FFs.

 

[leonblack08]

pakistan kicked east pakistan but after renaming into bangladesh ,this ppl again joined with pakistan so india wasted her resources for fighting for east pak freedom but they never had any thing good towards india

before you make it India vs Bangladesh,I am telling you,I will open a different thread on why the attitude between India and Bangladesh turned upside down after independence.

now please stay on topic.

 

[Flint]

I agree : Please avoid discussing post-1971 Indo-Bangladesh relations on this thread.

 

[leonblack08]

This is today's news.And a timely one.

15 'Rajakars' sued in Bagerhat​

​

UNB, Bagerhat
A case was filed against 15 suspected Rajakars (collaborators) here on Wednesday on charge of killing a cloth trader at Morelganj Upazila during the War of Liberation in 1971.

Aleya Begum, wife of slain Monohar Talukder, filed the case with the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate of Abdus Salam Khan accusing 10 Rajakars along with another five unidentified people.

The accused are Maulana Moslem Uddin, 80, Mohammad Ali, 55, Abdus Salam Jallad 60, Abdus Salam Sharif, 62, Amir Ali Talukder, 55, Aziz Talukder, 60, Alim Khan, 55, Rafiqul Islam, 60, Mannan Sharif, 65, Shah Alam Talukder, 55, and 5 other unnamed people.

The court ordered the officer-in-charge of Morelganj Police Station to record the case as ‘ejahar’ and to take necessary action after investigation.

According to the case statement, the accused stormed into the house of the plaintiff at Gabtala in August 1971 and took Monohar to a nearby place and later beat him mercilessly.

They then shot him dead in front of Morelganj Police Station and later threw the body into a river.

The Daily Star - Details News