WAR 1971

[ajtr]

This woman suckered us', said Nixon of Indira Gandhi

"She suckered us. Suckered us.....this woman suckered us." So said an enraged US president Richard Nixon of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after learning that war had broken out on the subcontinent on Dec 3, 1971, and Indian forces had made a decisive push towards then East Pakistan that it recognised as Bangladesh three days later.
Nixon, who had met Gandhi just a month earlier in Washington, had sought assurances from her that India would not take any precipitate military action pending efforts by the US to find a political solution that would not "shatter the cohension of West Pakistan" and end up "overthrowing President Yahya (Khan)" who was pivotal to America's China initiative afer 22 years of diplomatic freeze.
Nixon had then made it clear to Mrs Gandhi that "nothing could be served by the disintegration of Pakistan" and even warned darkly that "it would be impossible to calculate with precision the steps which other great powers might take if India were to initiate hostilities".
Nixon's presentations were heard with "aloof indifference" by Mrs Gandhi, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was quoted as telling author Kalyani Shankar in her just published book Nixon, Indira and India - Politics and Beyond (Macmillan/Rs. 445).
Nixon's frustration at not being able to make Mrs Gandhi back off from war reflected in his telephone conversation with Kissinger on Dec 6. Almost fumbling for words without breaking into expletives at the turn of the situation in the subcontinent at a time when Yahya Khan's propping up was imperative for American foreign policy interests, Nixon wondered if he was "too easy on that goddamn woman when she was here".
Even as Kissinger tried to pacify a fuming president by saying he was only following advice to be "gracious" to a visiting dignitary, Nixon agreed at one point with Kissinger that he should have probably "brutalised" her and followed up by threatening: "But let me tell you she is going to pay. She is going to pay."
Nixon even asked Kissinger whether the Chinese would make threatening moves towards India. But the Chinese, much to the chagrin of the Americans did not agree to "intimidate the Indians", as the author points out, because the Chinese thought that "independence for East Pakistan was a foregone conclusion.
"It (China) was prepared to endorse UN proposal for a standstill ceasefire and forgo a demand for mutual troop withdrawal," the book states.
When even the Soviets refused to put presssure on New Delh for a ceasefire, Nixon ordered the Seventh Fleet into the Indian Ocean in a threatening gesture. The Fleet, consisting of an aircraft carrier and four destroyers, was to move towards Karachi with the publicly stated aim that they would stand by for "possible evacuation" of Americans although the intention was to browbeat India in case the government in New Delh did not agree to an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal.
India did finally agree to a ceasefire, but that was only on Dec 17 after Indian forces marched into Dhaka (then Dacca). There was a ceasefire also in the west with India assuring that it had no desire to seize the territory of West Pakistan, an assurance it delivered to Wasington via Moscow.
The book provides a fascinating insight for foreign policy researchers into the Nixon era and his famous tilt towards Pakistan based on now declassified 'top-secret' documents and top-level telephone transcripts pertaining to Nixon's visit to India in 1969 and Mrs Gandhi's visit to Washington in 1971 that were obtained from the United States National Archives and the National Security Archives.

 

[Soham]

^^^

I'm going to grab this book as soon as I can.

 

[ajtr]

Some great deeds of hero Gen Tikka khan

 

[ajtr]

PAKISTAN: The Battle of Kushtia

Fierce fighting raged last week in East Pakistan as Bengali townspeople and peasants resisted the "occupation army" of 80,000 West Pakistani soldiers. Reports have indicated that as many as 200,000 civilians have been killed by the heavily armed West Pakistani troopers. But soldiers have also suffered severe casualties at the hands of irate peasants. The army controlled the capital of Dacca, the vital ports of Chittagong and Khulna, and several other towns. But a ragtag resistance movement called the Bangla Desh Mukti Fauj (Bengal State Liberation Forces) was reportedly already in control of at least one-third of East Pakistan, including many cities and towns. West Pakistani authorities have almost completely succeeded in obscuring the actual details of the fighting from the outside world by expelling all foreign newsmen from East Pakistan. But last week TIME Correspondent Dan Coggins managed to cross the border from India into East Pakistan, where he visited the embattled town of Kushtia (pop. 35,000). After extensive interviews with townspeople and captured West Pakistani troopers, Coggins was able to reconstruct an account of brutality and bravery that took place in Kushtia during the first fortnight of the civil war. His report:
Kushtia, a quiet town in the rice-growing district near the broad Ganges, fell into a restless sleep on the night of March 25. Without warning, 13 Jeeps and trucks came to a halt outside Kushtia's police station. It was 10:30 on the night the war broke out. Delta Company of the 27th Baluch Regiment had arrived from its base at Jessore cantonment 60 miles to the south. The 147 men of the company quickly disarmed some 500 Bengali policemen without meeting any resistance and then occupied four additional key points: the district police headquarters, the government office building, the VHP radio transmitter and the Zilla school for boys. Most of the sleeping townspeople did not realize what had happened until 5:30 a.m., when Jeeploads of soldiers with bullhorns drove through the empty streets announcing that a total curfew was to begin 30 minutes later.
Kushtia remained calm for 48 hours while the curfew was in effect, although seven persons—mostly peasants who arrived in town unaware of what had happened—were shot to death for being found in the streets. The curfew was lifted on the morning of March 28, and the townspeople began to organize a resistance immediately.
That night 53 East Pakistani policemen easily overpowered a handful of soldiers at the police station. Then, fanning out to nearby villages with all the .303 Enfield rifles and ammunition they could carry, the policemen joined forces with 100 college students who were already working for Bangla Desh. The students were teaching the rudiments of guerrilla warfare to local peasants, who were armed only with hatchets, farm tools and bamboo staves. Within two days, the police and students had organized several thousand volunteers and militiamen of the East Pakistan Rifles and laid plans for simultaneous attacks on the five army positions in Kushtia.
At 4:30 a.m. on March 31, a force of some 5,000 peasants and policemen launched a campaign to liberate Kushtia. Thousands of townspeople thronged the streets shouting "Joi Bangla [Victory to Bengal]!" The soldiers apparently panicked at the thought of being engulfed by so many thousands of furious Bengalis. "We were very surprised," lamented Naik Subhedar (Senior Sergeant) Mohammed Ayub later, following his capture. "We thought the Bengali forces were about the size of one company like ourselves. We didn't know everybody was against us."
Instant Death. The Bengali fighters made no suicidal, human-wave assaults at Kushtia as they have in some places. But the steady drumfire of hundreds of rifles had a relentless effect on the soldiers of Delta Company. By noon, the government building and district headquarters all fell. Shortly before dawn the next day, about 75 soldiers made a dash for their Jeeps and trucks and roared away in a blaze of gunfire. Two Jeeps were halted almost immediately by surging mobs. The East Pakistanis pulled out the dozen soldiers and butchered them on the spot.
The other vehicles were blocked outside town by fallen-tree barricades and 4-ft. ditches dug across the blacktop road. The soldiers managed to shoot down about 50 Bengalis before they were overpowered and hacked to death by peasants. A few soldiers escaped but were later captured and killed.
Before dawn the next day, the last 13 soldiers in Kushtia stole out of the radio building and covered 14 miles on foot before two Bengali militiamen took them prisoner and brought them back to the Kushtia district jail. The 13 were the only known survivors of Delta Company's 147 men. Among the West Pakistani dead was Nassim Waquer, a 29-year-old Punjabi who last January had been appointed assistant deputy commissioner at Kushtia. When an angry mob found his body, they dragged it through the streets of the town for half a mile.
Little Headway. Next day the Pakistan army dispatched another infantry company from Jessore to stage a counterattack on Kushtia. At Bishakali village, halfway to Kushtia, the new company fell into a booby trap set by Bangla Desh forces. Two Jeeps in the nine-vehicle army convoy plunged into a deep pit covered with bamboo and vines. Seventy-three soldiers were killed on the spot, and dozens of others were chased down and slain.
All last week, the green, red and gold flags of Bangla Desh fluttered from rooftops, trucks and even rickshas in Kushtia. Bengali administrators were running the region under the local party leader, Dr. Ashabul Haq, 50, a forceful physician who packs a Welby & Scott revolver and a Spanish Guernica automatic. At week's end, two army battalions established an outpost a few miles from Kushtia. They were reported, however, to be making little headway against furious resistance. Even if the soldiers managed to reach Kushtia, the townspeople were more than ready to fight again.

 

[ajtr]

SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 2010

Air Support at Sea – 1971 War

At the outbreak of the war, PAF’s maritime support capability of any consequence was limited to night bombing of a couple of Indian Navy’s coastal installations on the Saurashtra Coast and, daytime strafing and rocketing of not-too-distant surface vessels. Measures to locate these vessels were largely of passive nature and, rested on Pak Navy’s shore and sea-based signals intelligence gathering network. Unhappily, at the outbreak of hostilities, much of the communications and radar transmissions had gone discrete and, signals intelligence had all but dried up. Active measures included surface surveillance by a SUPARCO[1]-loaned radar located at Manora, which had been picking contacts as far as 100-nm on occasions, when the somewhat irregular phenomenon of ‘anomalous propagation’[2] was experienced. Ships at sea were good only for more localised flotilla surveillance and, at great risk of giving away their position while their radars transmitted.

Airborne maritime reconnaissance was the optimum and most reliable method, but with Pak Navy lacking any organic air capability, employing the services of PAF’s small transport fleet of six C-130s remained the next best alternative. However, with the planned commitment of the C-130s for unconventional bombing missions, these could not be spared, reportedly. Instead, the C-in-C directed the Managing Director PIA, Air Vice Marshal Zafar Chaudhry to make some assets available to Pak Navy. One Fokker F-27 along with its volunteer civilian crew was put at the disposal of the Navy before the war started. The weather radar of the F-27 aircraft could also provide rudimentary search capability over a calm sea and could, therefore, be utilised at night as well. The Indian Navy, of course, understood that in practical terms Pak Navy’s search capability was of little consequence and, it was surmised that the window of the night offered the maximum chances of sneaking in, unobserved.

According to Indian Navy’s appreciation, if it could take the battle to Pakistani waters at the outset, it would force Pak Navy to abort any offensive plans and, bottle up her surface fleet inside the harbour for the remaining period of war. The planners were also confident that such a move could wipe off Indian Navy’s craven image going back to the 1965 War, when the puny Pak Navy had carried out a daring and morale-shattering raid on Dwarka naval establishment, without being challenged.

Borrowing a leaf from the Dwarka annals – but planning more cerebrally – the Indian Navy decided to hit Pak Navy warships patrolling the outer and inner cordons of Karachi harbour. With the newly-acquired Soviet Osa missile boats, there was no need to get close and exchange broadsides in the old manner. By hugging the Saurashtra-Kutch coast at high speed, the task force would be able to avoid the Pakistani submarines prowling not too far. Arrival at nightfall was a clever safeguard against visual spotting from the air, as the flotilla broke off westwards to take up battle station south of Karachi. A night visual attack on the ships by PAF aircraft was, thus, also out of question.

By 2 December, the main body of the Indian Western Fleet, comprising 13 ships, had already set sail for an area 200-nm south of Karachi and beyond to interdict merchant shipping, but with a more immediate purpose of diverting attention from Operation ‘Trident’ that was to unfold shortly.

The Cordon is Pierced

On the night of 4 December, at 2010 hrs (all times PST), the duty officer at Manora radar picked up a surface contact at a distance of 75-nm on a bearing of 165° from Karachi. The contact was immediately reported to Maritime Headquarters (MHQ). Half an hour later, another contact was picked up at a distance of 100-nm south of Karachi and, duly reported. After an inexplicably long delay, a signal was issued by MHQ at 2200 hrs, warning ships at sea of two surface groups[3] heading towards Karachi. PNS Khaibar, a destroyer which was patrolling the outer cordon, was ordered to investigate. Apparently not responding due to radio silence measures on board, it headed south, as per orders.[4]

At 2245 hrs, watches on board Khaibar reported what appeared like a bright light heading towards them at high speed; everyone took it to be an attacking aircraft in afterburners. The Commanding Officer, Cdr M N Malik, who had rushed to the bridge, ordered the ship’s anti-aircraft guns to open fire. Just then, a deafening explosion was heard as the glowing object slammed into the aft galley, below deck, and blew up the boiler room. Flames leapt upwards as sailors rushed helter-skelter, some trying to jettison the torpedoes, others trying to put out the fires. A hasty message was transmitted to MHQ, informing that, “enemy aircraft attacked…, boiler hit, ship stopped.” A few minutes later, another eerie glow was observed heading towards the stricken ship and, in no time, it tore into the second boiler room with an intense explosion. Uncontrollable fires enveloped the ship and ammunition started to explode. As it started to list, some men jumped overboard from the sinking ship. PNS Khaibar finally went down, taking with her 222 ill-fated hands.

PNS Muhafiz, a minesweeper, sailed out to relieve the survey vessel PNS Zulfiqar, which was patrolling Karachi harbour’s inner cordon. Arriving on station at 2245 hrs, she was just in time to witness the fireworks in the outer patrol area. Altering her course and heading south to investigate the fiery glow on the horizon, Lt Cdr M S Usmani, the Commanding Officer of Muhafiz feared the worst. Suddenly, a speeding light was seen to be headed towards his own ship. Moments later, a swishing object smashed into the minesweeper and exploded with such force that it disintegrated the wooden vessel into pieces. Some of those who had been thrown overboard on impact managed to swim away, but 33 others went down in this second deadly attack, barely twenty minutes after the first one.

The Indian Navy task force had included two frigates for submarine screening and three missile boats for the actual attack. INS Nirghat was the first to engage and it fired two Styx missiles that hit PNS Khaibar. The next to fire two missiles was INS Nipat but its victim remained a mystery for some time till the sunken wreck of SS Venus Challenger, a Liberian merchant ship, was found by navy divers 26-nm south of Karachi, some days after the war ended. Nipat also fired a third missile at the harbour a little later, which hit some oil storage tanks at Keamari terminal. Last to fire was INS Veer whose single missile hit PNS Muhafiz.

Having resoundingly achieved its objective, the task force sped back under cover of darkness to rendezvous with a waiting tanker for refuelling. By dawn of next day, the task force had cleared the estimated strike range of PAF fighters and, was homeward bound. An IAF fighter patrol had been arranged to cover the task force just in case, but no PAF fighters were encountered.

Shocked and demoralised by the surprise attack, a hapless Pak Navy struggled to cope with the crisis that had literally exploded at her doorstep. The PAF, none too happy about its own plight in the south, could only sympathise with its sister service in this sombre situation.

In the aftermath of the attack, an urgent Air Priority Board meeting was asked for (on 5 December) and, Pak Navy was able to muster a motley fleet of aircraft[5] including some more from PIA and different government departments, for the purpose of enhancing maritime reconnaissance measures. Most of them were light aircraft and might have been suitable for daytime ‘coast guard’ duties, at best. Nonetheless, with the warships bottled up in the harbour or hidden away around Cape Monze and Gadani, additional aircraft for patrolling were considered a welcome help for the overworked PIA F-27. It was to be seen if the desperate measure meant anything.

Hitting Back

In the wake of the missile attack, Pak Navy felt – almost as an after-thought – that the home base of the missile boats at Okha needed to be taken out. In all likelihood, the tit-for-tat raid serving as a retribution of sorts would have been uppermost in the minds of the Naval Staff. In any case, the necessity of tackling the threat of missile boats also sank in at PAF’s COC and it was agreed to attack Okha harbour. Of course, it was not expected that the missile boats would still be berthed at the quay-side in Okha. As a matter of fact, these had already been dispersed to smaller locations along the Saurashtra Coast, even before the war had started. Nonetheless, it was the considered opinion of Pak Navy that a hit on the infrastructure could hamper missile boat operations to some extent.

On the evening of 5 December, Flt Lt Shabbir A Khan was standing out on the B-57 tarmac watching preparations for the night missions, when he was informed about being detailed for a strike on Okha harbour. He, along with his navigator, Sqn Ldr Ansar Ahmad, rushed off to the operations room to start planning the mission. Two hours after moonrise seemed like a good selection of the TOT, as the glimmering sea would clearly outline the edges of the darkened harbour.

Taking off at 2210 hrs, the B-57 got a fiery send-off as the AAA opened up in the nearby Karachi harbour, signalling an air raid. Continuing the take-off, Shabbir and Ansar settled down to watch – with unnerving anticipation – the moonbeams dazzling the creeks and estuaries of the Kutch Coast to their port side. Finally, turning to the attack heading, they picked up a sizeable flotilla on their radar, about 20-nm to their starboard. There was a temptation to go for the ships, but discipline prevailed and they continued for the designated target. Reaching the pull-up point, Shabbir pushed the throttles to 100% power, while Ansar started to guide him into the attack. Just when Shabbir pressed the bomb release button and there was no release, Ansar realised that he had forgotten to arm the release switch. In a fraction of a second he flipped the switch on and Shabbir pipped the button again, pulling out of the dive narrowly. After some 10-odd seconds, there was a tremendous flash of light and the aircraft shook up with the blast. A direct hit had been achieved as nine 500-lb bombs slammed into fuel tanks and other stores at the harbour. In the meantime AAA had started to fire and the sky seemed ablaze. Shabbir and Ansar saw the shells continuously exploding along the aircraft’s flight path but luckily, the bomber escaped unscathed.

The attack had been a tremendous success and, news that the home base of the missile boats was in flames turned out to be thoroughly cathartic for all and sundry in the Pak Navy and PAF. A pair of F-104s which visited Okha for another attack four days later, reported that the harbour was still smouldering and the smoke could be seen from as far as 60-nm. The Indian Official History of 1971 Indo-Pak War notes that, “two air attacks were also carried out on Okha and some fuel tanks were set ablaze, thereby denying the missile boats any further use of this port as a forward base.”[6]

Harbour in Flames

Seeing the success of Operation ‘Trident’ which had resulted in huddling up of Pak Navy ships in the harbour, Indian Navy decided that the main force of the Western Fleet would carry out a similar attack from the unexpected south-westerly direction, the very next night. However, breakdown of two vessels forced the withdrawal of a group of five,[7] which sailed back home and consequently, the attack had to be postponed. Subsequent snags, and then bad weather, delayed the operation further.

On the night of 8/9 December, at around 2245 hrs, lookouts at Manora suddenly picked up the infamous glow hurtling towards them, then crossing overhead and slamming into the nearby oil tank farms at Keamari.[8] A tremendous fire engulfed the terminal and the whole harbour lit up, visible from miles. Distressingly, fires lit by an earlier air attack on the morning of 4 December had been laboriously put out just a day earlier.

A few minutes after the first attack, another missile hit the anchored British-owned merchant ship Harmatton, causing it to sink in no time. This was immediately followed by a third missile which hit the SS Gulf Star, also anchored, flying the Panamanian flag. It survived the attack with serious damage.[9]

A fourth missile hit PNS Dacca, the Navy’s supply ship which was idling in the harbour for maintenance, having been out at sea for 25 days at a stretch. A portion of the ship caught fire but, due to the courage and presence of mind of its Officer Commanding, Cdr S Q Raza, the steam smothering system was operated and a major explosion averted; the fires were put out by midnight. By next evening, power had been restored and the ship was moved further inshore, where she remained till the end of the war.

The attacking force had consisted of three frigates escorting the missile boat INS Vinash. All four missiles were fired by this boat from a distance of 12 miles from the harbour. After the attack, the group was able to make a getaway without any hitch and, rendezvoused with the Western Fleet flagship INS Mysore for a return to Bombay.

The operation had again been thoroughly successful and rendered Pak Navy’s surface fleet incapable of any operation during the war. However, it must be noted that foreign merchant shipping was callously targeted by the Indian Navy and, even lip service was not paid to propriety and international conventions on declaring and enforcing a blockade.

Whither PAF?

With ‘do-it-yourself’ maritime reconnaissance in the hands of PIA and Pak Navy, PAF was expected to only carry out anti-surface vessel attacks (strafing and rocketing) during daytime. It is alleged that PAF was called out many times but the usual refrain was that ‘effort was not available’. What is known is that PAF flew 22 day missions (F-86E and F-104) and 9 night missions (B-57 and T-33) searching for enemy missile boats and other ships, none of which were successful. Regrettably, the reports of sighting of enemy ships were either bogus or, the ships were incorrectly located. On one occasion, for instance, PNS Zulfiqar was strafed west of Cape Monze by a pair of F-86s, after the target was repeatedly confirmed by a frantic MHQ as being hostile.

It is evident that the fundamental problem of maritime support lay in the inadequacy of airborne maritime reconnaissance, as the platforms were under-equipped and crew untrained. With Pak Navy officers on-board Fokker aircraft having no prior experience in this role and their PIA pilots literally finding themselves at sea, the outcome could not have been any better. Sadly, but not surprisingly, the PIA Fokker F-27 (AP-ALX) crashed on the night of 12/13 December off the Makran Coast while on a recce mission, killing its crew of four.[10] In all probability, the fatigued pilots were disoriented in a pitch dark night, as the aircraft descended uncontrollably into the coastal Ras Malan Hills. The wreckage of the F-27 was found after the war.

On at least three occasions at night, Indian Navy task groups were reportedly located by the recce aircraft,[11] but these reports could not be followed up with actual strikes as PAF aircraft were not equipped with any aids for sighting and attacking ships at night. In all three cases, the ships had taken evasive measures and had broken off from the area by daybreak and, were not traceable. It is open to question if the attacking aircraft would have been able to successfully penetrate the formidable AAA screen of the task groups for a close-in dive attack at daytime. Not the least, lacking any practical training in the anti-shipping role whatsoever, PAF pilots were not expected to blast away bridges and boiler rooms during their first lessons at sea.

It may also be opportune to clarify that of the 155 maritime support sorties that were ‘made available’, as the Story of the Pakistan Air Force – Saga of Courage and Honour states, 123 reconnaissance sorties were actually flown by PIA and other civilian aircraft, along with their own crew.[12] Even though the effort did not yield any concrete results, the dedication of the volunteer pilots is, indeed, commendable.

On one occasion on 10 December, a F-104 flown by Wg Cdr Arif Iqbal, while on a strike mission to Jamnagar, chanced upon an Indian Navy Alizé maritime patrol aircraft and promptly shot it down in a gun attack off Jakhau on the Saurashtran Coast.[13] The patrolling Alizé was part of a massive hunt for Pak Navy submarine PNS Hangor in the eastern Arabian Sea, after she had sunk an Indian Navy destroyer INS Khukri the previous morning and escaped successfully.

The sum total of all the help that PAF could provide to Pak Navy was only one successful strike against the enemy missile boat facility at Okha harbour. Planners at both services headquarters must have rued their vacillation in striking a couple of harbours on Saurashtra Coast as an opening gambit of the war. An audacious and imaginative plan might have included a staged-through attack on Bombay harbour too, à la Agra strike.[14] Arguably, the Styx missile attacks of 4/5 December may have been preventable after all, if the later raid on Okha was anything to go by.

 

[ajtr]

President Yahya Khan On East Pakistan

 

[Vinod2070]

Bangladesh sets up 1971 war crimes tribunal


By Mark Dummett
BBC News, Dhaka

Many civilians were killed during the war

The Bangladeshi government has set up a tribunal to prosecute those accused of committing war crimes during the country's war of independence in 1971.
The government says it will put on trial those Bangladeshis who at the time collaborated with Pakistan.
Forces from Pakistan are accused of killing many civilians.
In its doomed bid to suppress independence 39 years ago, Pakistan's army unleashed terror against those suspected of supporting secession.
Many were killed and millions fled the country.
But the army was not acting alone.
It was helped by many locals, including members of the religious Jamaat-e-Islami party.
They formed militia which allegedly helped identify victims and also took part in the killings.
Their leaders were absolved after the war and are now prominent opposition figures.
The government wants to put them on trial, but they claim they are innocent and that this is a political move.

 

[ajtr]

world1traveler — June 28, 2009 — Very good documentary on 1971 Muktijuddho by ATN Bangla. Presented by Rumi Noman and Rahul Raha.

1971 Muktijuddher Itihash by ATN (Part 01/12)


1971 Muktijuddher Itihash by ATN (Part 02/12)


1971 Muktijuddher Itihash by ATN (Part 03/12)

 

[ajtr]

continued....

1971 Muktijuddher Itihash by ATN (Part 04/12)


1971 Muktijuddher Itihash by ATN (Part 05/12)


1971 Muktijuddher Itihash by ATN (Part 06/12)

 

[ajtr]

1971 Muktijuddher Itihash by ATN (Part 07/12)


1971 Muktijuddher Itihash by ATN (Part 08/12)


1971 Muktijuddher Itihash by ATN (Part 09/12)

 

[ajtr]

continued

1971 Muktijuddher Itihash by ATN (Part 10/12)


1971 Muktijuddher Itihash by ATN (Part 11/12)


1971 Muktijuddher Itihash by ATN (Part 12/12)

 

[ajtr]

BBC Urdu: Hyderabad students remember 1971

beebsneak — March 07, 2007 — Students from three cities of Pakistan were asked what they knew of the events of 1971, when Bangladesh came into being. Most of the answers were surprisingly incisive and well-informed. This video was first published on www.bbcurdu.com

 

[ajtr]

BBC Urdu: Lahore students remember 1971

beebsneak — February 21, 2007 — Students from three cities of Pakistan were asked what they knew of the events of 1971, when Bangladesh came into being. Most of the answers were surprisingly incisive and well-informed. This video was first published on www.bbcurdu.com

 

[ajtr]

BBC URDU: Multan students remember 1971

beebsneak — February 21, 2007 — Students from three cities of Pakistan were asked what they knew of the events of 1971, when Bangladesh came into being. Most of the answers were surprisingly incisive and well-informed. This video was first published on www.bbcurdu.com

 

[M.Riaz]

The 1971 war facts revealed

Monjurul Hassan in Dhaka and Christina Palmer in New Delhi



After about 4 decades of the tragic separation of East Pakistan and the West Pakistan, Bangladesh government has now decided to honour the Indian Army for its key role in the splitting of Islamic Republic of Pakistan into tow pieces through a conspiracy in 1971. to do the honour, Bangladeshi Parime Minister Hasina Wajid, who is incidentally the daughter of Shaikh Mujibur Rehman, who played puppet in the hands of the Indians and led the conspiracy of breaking up his own country, has ordered inscribing the names of Indian soldiers killed in the 1971 military operation at a special memorial in the heart of the capital, reveal the findings of The Daily Mail.
The Daily Mail's findings reveal further that Bangladesh government has already sought a list of killed I soldiers of the Indian Army in the 1971 riots in former East Pakistan, now called Bangladesh, in a bid to honour them by inscribing their names at a memorial at Suhrawardy Udyan park, Tajul Islam, the State Minister of Liberation War Affairs formally announced.
"We are yet to know how many Indian soldiers lost their lives in our Liberation War. We will soon seek a list through the Foreign Ministry," Islam told reporters. He said the names of the martyred Indian soldiers would be inscribed at the memorial. "Bangladesh will never forget India's role in 1971 war," he underlined. The announcement to honour the Indian soldiers came as a visiting military delegation led by the upcoming Chief of the Indian Army Lt-Gen Vijay Kumar Singh, called on Islam at his office.
The Daily Mail's investigations reveal that during her recent visit to India, Bangladeshi premier was given unprecedented welcome. Delhi signed five landmark agreements with Hasina government and also showered a rain of rewards for the Awami League chief. These findings reveal that during the January visit to India, the Bangladeshi Premier was briefed by top RAW officials about political threats to her government in Bangladesh in the light of the intelligence reports of RAW. In the backdrop of these report, Hasina was advised by RAW that in order ensure a political survival and the stability of her government at Dhaka, she needed to revamp the anti-Pakistan emotions across her country and must ensure a rebirth of 1971 like scenario by reorganizing the Mukti Bahni syndrome. The RAW officials also advised Hasina that her Awami League must ensure the resurfacing of Mukti Bahni activists and they should be asked to operate on the pattern of the notorious anti-Pakistan organization of RAW the Shiv Sena. According to highly credible sources at the Indian army Headquarters, Hasina was also offered that a training module for the new Mukti bahni activists by the Shiv Sena as well as the Indian army. The Daily mail's findings reveal that during this visit, to organize this anti-Pakistan movement across Bangladesh, Hasin's government was given an aid of $1 billion by New Delhi. Though the Indian government termed this aid as a credit for the infrastructure development, yet the exact purposes remained unspecified.
The Daily Mail's investigations indicate that there was a crystal clear shift in the policies of Dhaka towards New Delhi, soon after the visit of BD Premier to India was over. The tone and attitude of Dhaka towards Islamabad also turned to lukewarm while the Bangladeshi Premier started praising India and Indian army like never before in the 40 odd years' long history of the country. These investigations indicate that an Indian newspaper the Deccan Chronicle wrote in one of its reports," With Bangladesh Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina back in the saddle in Dhaka, Delhi's one true friend in the neighbourhood is expected to give the expected boost to Indo-Bangla relations. The billion dollar red carpet treatment must ensure however that ties with Bangladesh endure post-Hasina."
The daily further wrote "The other Pakistan? Not long ago, many in India were persuaded Bangladesh was headed that way. There appeared no bright spots in bilateral relations for a decade, and the security situation was deteriorating in India's immediate neighbourhood. Judged by any yardstick, Bangladesh Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina Wajed's visit when she was awarded the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize appears to have a huge transformational potential. Could Bangladesh metamorphosise into India's only real friend in the region?
As external affairs minister S.M. Krishna says, India is committed towards strengthening ties with Bangladesh by strengthening India's relationship with Shaikh Hasina. "With Shaikh Hasina, there is a meeting of minds. We feel, she is the best bet for India," Mr Krishna said.
Indeed, if everything goes right, and Bangladesh emerges as a major ally, much else in the subcontinent could fall into place". The newspaper further wrote, "The links of the Islamists with Pakistan's Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and ISI are not new. For many years Bangladesh has been a well-known transit and staging point for terrorist infiltration into India. In August 2006, Bangladeshi jehadists set off simultaneous blasts in 64 of 65 districts in the country. After the October 2001 election, won by the BNP and its right-wing allies, there were massive attacks against League supporters, notably among the Hindu minorities." The report added
This report of the Indian newspaper clarifies that what happened during Hasina's visit to India. The excerpts of this report of the Deccan Chronicle gave a very clear picture that how the Indians motivated Hasina Wajid to start an anti-Pakistan campaign under the false reports about ISI links with certain political or religious groups in Bangladesh and the fears of emergence of Jihadi elements in the country that is also known as former East Pakistan.
The Daily Mail's investigations reveal that the Lady leader of Bangladesh was given a nerve shaking faulty briefing by RAW's psy ops specialized officials and she straight away succumbed to the RAW trap and landed in a state of panic.
Soon after returning home, she started revamping her policies and just within a couple of weeks of her visit to India, she started a camping of adoring and praising Indian and Indian Army for helping her fellow countrymen in getting " liberation" from Pakistan or in other words for breaking her former motherland into 2 pieces. RAW briefing's impact on Hasina's mind started to reflect very strongly has she started even digging up the long buried hatchets and started recalling the fall of Dhaka and separation of East Pakistan from the West Pakistan as a national theme. In one of such incidents, Hasina, in a completely out of the blue act went out in a public admission that she was thankful to Indian army and Indian government who helped her father to materialize his conspiracy to break Pakistan and for training the Mukti Bahni fighters etc. in a public address at Dhaka just a few days back, Hasina was reported by the international and local media as saying that her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman formed a detailed conspiracy to break Pakistan into 2 pieces with the help of the Indian government during his stay in London in 1969 while the conspiracy was materialized in 1971.
Hasina was addressing a discussion in Dhaka to mark the 'March 7,1971' speech of mutiny, in which Sheikh Mujib called on the people of East Pakistan to prepare for the secession from the rest of Pakistan.
She said that her father made seperation plans just months after his release from Kurmitola where he had been detained in the Agartala Conspiracy Case, in which the Pakistan government had brought sedition charges against him and 34 others. "He went to London on October 22 1969, following his release in the Agartala case on April 22 that year. I reached London the next day from Italy, where I was living with my husband," she recalled.
"It was there that my father at a meeting made plans for separating West Pakistan from East Pakistan, including when the war would start, where our fighters would be trained and where refugees would take shelter."
"All preparations were taken there (London). I was serving tea and entered the room several times where the meeting between my father and some Indian officials was being held. I heard their discussions," the Prime Minister said. Referring to the recent debate over who first proclaimed Bangladesh's independence, she urged all to go through the reports of intelligent agencies and foreign ministries of different countries.
She also said the Aug 15 1975 assassination of her father and family members, and the Jail Killings of four national leaders on Nov 3 the same year, were planned by those defeated in the war to take revenge for their defeat.
"Those who rewarded the killers had never expected Bangladesh's independence. They wanted to impose the principles of the defeated forces on the people," she added.
The Daily Mail's findings indicate that this episode where Hasina spoke out about totally uncalled-for matter was a clear reflection of her panicked state of mind in the backdrop of RAW briefing.
The Daily Mail's findings further that this sudden LOVE of Hasina for India and her constantly increasing thanksgivings for India has alarmed the regional states and the development has raised the eyebrows of many across the world. The diplomatic and security experts are wondering that what India is up to this time, is a further breakup of the former East Pakistan in the offing?

 

[M.Riaz]

India helped in our liberation war for India's interest




By Mohammad Zainal Abedin

What language, Pinak Ranjan Chokrabartee, the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh, who has already been branded by some analysts as Indian Governor in Bangladesh, for his naked and direct dictation to Bangladesh, should use condemning Indian plunder in Bangladesh in 1971? He said Bangladesh could not get its independence so early lest India militarily involved itself in our war of liberation. Through its participation in our war of liberation India, in the truest sense of the term, as if, restarted the Maratha cavalry attacks of 18th century Bengal. India now repeats the same in Bangladesh. It only changed the version and technique of plundering Bangladesh. Maratha cavalry attacked Bengal in broad daylight and looted, but modern Indian bandits loot Bangladesh under the cover of friendship.

Pinak claimed that without Indian military involvement Bangladesh liberation war could be prolonged. I fully agreed with his comment. But Indian policies and activities over the last 37 years uncovered the truth that India militarily involved in our war of liberation not for our sake, but entirely for the sake of India?s hegemonic and economic interest. The events and incidents that occurred since 1972 prove that it could be better for Bangladesh if we could liberate our country ourselves. India did not allow us to be liberated without Indian assistance.

Indians do not have any legal and moral rights to claim that it liberated Bangladesh. When we were on the verge of victory and liberated about 99 per cent portion of Bangladesh, except some pockets of urban areas, India declared war against Pakistan. When we, the freedom fighters, made the defeat of the Pakistan forces inevitable, India, for a number of ulterior reasons, directly involved in this war under the disguise of so-called allied forces. India earlier fought twice with Pakistan, but suffered shameful defeat.

In 1971 India though claimed its victory over Pakistan in Bangladesh, its forces could not capture even a district in West Pakistan, rather hundreds of thousands of Indian soldiers were captured by Pakistani troops and many Indian soldiers surrendered to Pakistan. So the so-called victory of Indian army in Bangladesh against Pakistan was possible due to the Bangladeshis in general and the freedom fighters in particular. Pinak directly admitted that the freedom fighter could liberate the country, however, later on. Yes, we the freedom fighters desired so. We never wanted India's direct military involvement in our war of liberation.

Our leaders failed to foresee the ultimate outcome of Indian friendship would be so sour, bitter and suicidal. If they could anticipate in
what treacherous way India, in the name of friendship, would behave with us they would prefer to die, rather agreeing to take India's military assistance. It is now known to all that India compelled the then revolutionary government of Bangladesh, exiled in India, to sign in an uneven agreement that paved the way for India to invade Bangladesh under the cover of allied forces. Our fake friends now through their overt and covert designs and hegemonic policies dream to make us their slaves. We are going to lose our independence to India.

During Pakistan period we could raise slogans against Pakistani exploitation and we could demand to stop such exploitation. Now India not only exploits us more nakedly, but also ruins our country applying many-fold designs. Our leaders could not imagine that after the dismemberment of Pakistan, India would pose to become our master under the cover of friendship and conspire to annex our country to India.

If we were allowed to liberate our country ourselves, India would not get the chance to loot our country after 16th December that included machineries and accessories of jute mills, textile mills, sugar mills, steel mills and their raw materials stored in the godowns, food, banks, markets, schools, colleges, universities, even residential houses and offices, even toilet materials of worth Tk. 90,000 crores. On the other hand, India misappropriated cash money and relief materials like food, baby food, clothes, blankets, medicines, etc., that were donated by several international agencies and groups for the Bangladeshi refugees sheltered in India in 1971. India took away all the arms and ammunitions, equipment and military-related materials to India which, were later distributed among the three branches of Indian armed forces. Poor India boomed within years with the money that the Indian army looted after 16th December. India arrested all the 93,000 soldiers of Pakistan to India and used them as tool to release the Indian soldiers arrested in Pakistan in 1971.

Besides, India compelled Pakistan to sign uneven treaty in exchange of releasing Pakistani troops from Indian jails. It is difficult to calculate how many billions of dollars India looted from Bangladesh through monopoly business since 1972. Through the independence war of Bangladesh India was immensely benefited economically, militarily, strategically, and internationally. So India involved in our war of liberation was for Indian interest, not for us.

India now keeps Bangladesh economically poor and shaky and politically disunited and disturbed. India undertook many criminal policies in order to make Bangladesh initially a subservient country and finally a part of India. It is never possible to present statistics and the extent of property worth of how many billions dollars were damaged by India's overt and covert subversive activities in Bangladesh. None has the actual records how many billions of dollars Bangladesh lost in its agriculture, fishery, communication, industry, health and housing sectors due to India?s blockade of water during the dry season and flooding it during the rainy season. It is equally difficult to enumerate how much amount of money Bangladesh lost over the years due to Indian sabotage and subversive activities. All these might not be possible, if we did not take Indian help in 1971. Pinak Ranjan or

Jacob or all other Indians should remain grateful to us as it was our liberation war that paved way for India to emerge economically solvent, militarily strong and regionally and strategically powerful.


http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=220162

 

[gogbot]

You want to talk about facts do you ?




And here is a Bangladesh Documentary


Fact remains, India may have acted mostly due to her own self interest , but she was under no obligation to take in over 10,000,000 Bengali refugees during the war , all of which fleeing Pakistan's operation search light.
Nor did she have anything to gain by bringing in the soviets to help either.

 

[ajtr]

world had obligation to save jews from nazi genocide and india had the obligation to save bengalis from pakistani army genocide.

 

[Vinod2070]

Threads merged with similar threads.

 

[bhramos]

Battle of Longewala 1971 India Pakistan war

Pakistani tank attack defeated by air power alone in a unique feat unparalleled until 1990 in the first Gulf war.