- Mujib went into the 1971 election planning to secede
This is the last and final part of the series of articles. In the first part, factors leading to the Fall of Dhaka were examined. The previous week it was proved that the claims by Awami League regarding the number of Bengalis massacred in genocide and the women raped by Pakistan Army are highly exaggerated.
Before we conclude, it is essential to examine the prevailing fable that Sheikh Mujib, despite securing maximum seats in the 1970 elections, was denied power by conniving West Pakistani politicians. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto et al were ambitious but the truth can be gauged from the news report of APP correspondents interviewing Sheikh Mujib in Dhaka after the elections, congratulating him on his victory. They inquired of the Sheikh’s future plans after he would assume the mantle of Premiership of Pakistan. His response was that he would rather be the “Father of a Nation (Bangladesh)” than just a Prime Minister of Pakistan. The die had already been cast. So much for the theory that if power had been handed over to Sheikh Mujib, he would have behaved responsibly as the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Let us also delve deeper into the myth of Awami league’s majority in the 1970 elections and its overwhelming representation of the Bengalis. Election Commission of Pakistan documents reveal that the voter turnout in East Pakistan was 56 per cent while the uninterested electorate in East Pakistan comprised 44 per cent. Of the overall votes cast in East Pakistan, Awami League actually received only 42 per cent of the votes. The question therefore arises how could only a 42 per cent mandate achieve independence without external (Indian) support? If this was not true and a sizable population of the Bengalis did not support the idea of secession, and continued to regard the Pakistan regime as the legitimate government, why would Sheikh Hasina Wajid’s government now be putting its own citizens on trial for “treason” and sending them to the gallows? What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If the rebels were fighting for a ‘noble’ cause for freedom, then in the same vein, the cause of those Bengalis supporting the regime was equally ‘noble’ as it was to sustain the unity and integrity of Pakistan, they had sworn allegiance to.
If anyone needs to be tried, it is India, which had been planning the dismemberment of East Pakistan for ages. Indian secret agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), was created with the main task of destabilising Pakistan. The deliberate intervention of India in fomenting political trouble in Pakistan was in direct contravention to Article 4 of the UN Charter. Then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had triumphantly claimed to have taken revenge for 700 years of Muslim rule over Hindus and at the fall of Dhaka, had declared “today we have sunk the Two-Nation Theory of Pakistan in the Bay of Bengal”. More evidence was provided by the confessional statement of the Indian role in the mutilation of Pakistan by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Bangladesh in June 2015, which is self-indicting under international law. India had planned to exploit the discord between two wings; hence, the drama of the Ganga hijacking on 30 January 1971 was orchestrated to ban Pakistan’s overflights and deny logistic support to the East from the West.
SAARC was the brainchild of former Bangladesh President General Ziaur Rahman but has not been allowed to progress because of neighbourly hostilities. Lessons need to be drawn from other regional alliances like ASEAN, ECO, EU and so on, which have brought prosperity to their members. Surely South Asia too needs the space to rise to the full potential of its respective states and thrive in peace and harmony
Indian intervention has been admitted by Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw in his memoirs. Manekshaw discloses his meeting with Mrs Gandhi in April 1971, when she divulged her intent of dismembering East Pakistan and asked Manekshaw for the impending invasion of East Pakistan. Field Marshal Manekshaw requested seven to nine months’ preparation time which was granted by Mrs Gandhi.
Just when the Pakistan Army was on the verge of controlling the armed insurgency by the Bengali Mukti Bahini, being supported by India, the Indian armed forces-initiated war in East Pakistan on 21 November 1971 on the pretext of Bengali refugees crossing into India. If this principle is to be applied today by other states as well; should Pakistan invade Afghanistan or Europe overrun Syria?
Now let us look at some ground realities regarding Pak-Bangladesh relations. Pakistan and Bangladesh can either be friends or stay indifferent to each other. One thousand miles of hostile Indian territory still separates Pakistan and Bangladesh and it is not physically possible for Pakistan to interfere in Bangladeshi affairs or vice versa. Bangladesh is enveloped by India, which foments troubles like water issues, border skirmishes, smuggling, drug trafficking and numerous other problems. It would be prudent for Bangladesh to resolve its problems with India rather than act as a proxy for India and hurl insults and accusations at Pakistan, which tends to gain nothing from the instability of Bangladesh.
True, Pakistan bears some blame for pre-1971 atrocities and omissions but the grievances of economic poverty disparities, low representation of Bengalis in administration, industry, armed forces and so on were related to inter-province disparities and were not peculiar to East Pakistan and persist even today.
Currently Pakistan has approximately two million illegal Bangladeshis on its soil but has never made them a scapegoat for the turmoil in Karachi or its war against terror— nor are they living in squalor in specific camps— while Bangladesh is busy profiling Pakistani visitors and workers and harassing them with a vengeance.
If the genocide claim by Bangladesh is to be taken as correct, then from 25 March to 16 December 1971 (257 days), the casualty rate on the average comes to 11,000 per day, which is highly questionable as no neutral source ever reported or confirmed atrocities on this mass scale. Apparently, Sheikh Hasina Wajid has banned any discussion or questioning the Awami League version of the alleged genocide just as the Jews have barred any debate on the Jewish Holocaust claims.
If Hasina ponders even for a moment, she should pragmatically take cognisance of the fact that no distinction can be made between the liberation fighters and innocent Bengalis, and how many were killed by the Indians, Mukti Bahini or Pakistanis. By persistently blackballing Pakistan, the atrocities will not go away as they were not one sided.
The time has come for both Pakistan and Bangladesh to do some soul searching and move forward, and that would be the best closure rather than continuing to scratch old wounds.
Having undertaken visits to Bangladesh and hosted Bengali friends in Islamabad, this scribe has reached the conclusion that sane elements reside on both sides, who are willing to move forward. Bangladesh has done well economically, and Pakistan is a well-wisher. We should not let history remain a source of rancour and rather than nurture bitterness, we should be able to let go of the hate and animosity. The people of Bangladesh and Pakistan deserve to be closely associated in better relations. There is no need for forming alliances against any other neighbour but instead the coalition should be to combat poverty, terrorism and illiteracy. After all SAARC was the brainchild of former Bangladesh President General Ziaur Rahman but has not been allowed to progress because of neighbourly hostilities. Lessons need to be drawn from other regional alliances like ASEAN, ECO, EU and so on, which have brought prosperity to their members. Surely South Asia too needs the space to rise to the full potential of its respective states and thrive in peace and harmony.
