The post- Liberation War generation of Bangladesh know stories from 1971 all too well. Our families are framed and bound by the history of this war. What Bangladeshi family has not been touched by the passion, famine, murders and blood that gave birth to a new nation as it seceded from Pakistan? Bangladesh was one of the only successful nationalist movements post-Partition. Growing up, stories of the Mukti Bahini, (Bengali for “Freedom Fighter”), were the stories that raised us.
My mother told me in 1971, you would send out the men in your family to look in large public parks for the bodies of loved ones who had “disappeared,” picked up by Pakistani soldiers. Despite the endless killings and torture, she still says, “There was a feeling in the air that you could do anything. Everyone knew Independence was only a matter of time.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwwPbkyZVJo]But the one thing we did not hear about as much as we heard about the passionate fighting that defeated the Pakistani Army, were the rapes that took place in 1971. Many academics state that the first time rape was consciously applied as a weapon of war was during the Bangladesh War of Independence.
Yet growing up, those are the stories that were missing from the narrative the post-war generation were told. While the role of women as fighters and supporters of the war are highlighted, the stories of rape camps and war babies are largely ignored.
But we all know that as hard as you try, history cannot be rewritten. The truth exists, and ultimately comes out. In recent years, the shame is slowly lifting from this part of Bangladesh’s Liberation War as more scholars ask questions, and more feminists demand the truth.
Each time I go home to Bangladesh, a relative, usually male, takes me aside and whispers stories to me about the “piles, and piles of bodies of rape victims” you would find under bridges in mass graves. “How many women were raped and killed in the hands of Pakistani soldiers,” my uncle tells me as his voice whimpers. “You cannot imagine, Ma.”
But a Bangladeshi scholar wants us to do just that. In fact, as a country we all owe a great deal to Bina D’Costa who went and tracked down the Australian doctor, Geoffrey Davis, brought to Dhaka by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the United Nations. Davis was tasked with performing late-term abortions, and facilitating large scale international adoption of the war babies born to Bangladeshi women.
D’Costa’s conversation with Dr. Davis was recently published in a Bangladeshi publication, and is worth reading in its entirety. The stories of women being tied to trees and gang raped, breasts hacked off, dumped in mass graves, being held in Pakistani rape camps are all detailed.
When asked if the usual figures of the number of women raped by the Pakistani Army, 200-400,000, are accurate, Dr. Davis states that they are underestimated:
…Probably the numbers are very conservative compared with what they did. The descriptions of how they captured towns were very interesting. They’d keep the infantry back and put artillery ahead and they would shell the hospitals and schools. And that caused absolute chaos in the town. And then the infantry would go in and begin to segregate the women. Apart from little children, all those were sexually matured would be segregated..And then the women would be put in the compound under guard and made available to the troops…Some of the stories they told were appalling. Being raped again and again and again. A lot of them died in those [rape] camps. There was an air of disbelief about the whole thing. Nobody could credit that it really happened! But the evidence clearly showed that it did happen.
Dr. Davis talks about how Sheikh Mujibur Rahman labeled the rape survivors as “war heroines” to help them reintegrate into their communities, but the gesture largely did not work. After being assaulted and impregnated by Pakistani soldiers, the Bangladeshi women were completely ostracized by society. Many were killed by their husbands, committed suicide, or murdered their half-Pakistani babies themselves.
Some women were so scared to go back home after being held captive in Pakistani rape camps, they begged their Pakistani captors to take them back to Pakistan with them.
As I was reading through the article, I found myself simultaneously looking up sources online. This video of a NBC reporter who found a shelter where many women impregnated by Pakistani soldiers stayed until they delivered makes you remember that when we talk about the large-scale violence against women that took place in 1971, often we are talking about young girls, sometimes just 13 years old.
As I struggled through my emotions to keep reading, I stopped and sat back in my chair. “What am I doing this for?” I asked myself. “What is the point of digging up all this horror?”
That is when I realized that the pain is exactly the point. The shame that the women of Bangladeshi who survived the war carry should be shared with all of us. Why should they suffer in silence? They probably bore the greatest burden of the war, and out of respect we must recognize them. We must find honor in their experience.
Yes, we are a “conservative” country. Yes, we are a Muslim country. Yes, we can use a lot of excuses as to why we want to close our eyes to this painful and horrifying part of 1971. But by doing that, we are denying a huge part of our history to exist. As D’Costa says, we are intentionally suffering from “historical amnesia.”
After Bosnia, the Rome Statute officially recognized rape as a weapon of war. While these survivors are still alive, Bangladesh must honor their testimonies and have these crimes prosecuted in the War Crimes Tribunal, finally set up in Bangladesh forty years after Independence.
The question that keeps haunting me though is where can the vibrant women’s movement in Bangladesh go if we have a such a massive historical wound to heal from? We must look to the past and bring justice to these women, to all the survivors of the sexual violence of the 1971 war, if we really want to move forward.
*This post of mine was also published on Forbes Woman & the Huffington Post.
This is a great piece, first of all 🙂
We all hear how proudly all those freedom fighters fought till their deaths to give Bangladesh independence. But the fact that while those men were fighting, countless women were being raped & murdered off has been shrouded by history in the guise of ‘shame’. The term ‘war heroine’ got no real acknowledgement.
“I am certain that troops have thrown babies into the air and caught them on their bayonets”
“I am certain that troops have raped girls repeatedly, then killed them by pushing their bayonets up between their legs.”
—John Hastings, A Methodist missionary who worked in Bangladesh
“Gen Tikka in turn briefed his Army Senior Commanders and picked up a staff who would understand why a Muslim Massacre by a Muslim Army, Hindu slaughter, why all intellectuals were to be killed in cold blood, why all young Bengali Muslim girls were to be raped, not to satisfy lust but as a religious duty to produce a new generation of blue-blooded true Muslims.” (muktadhara.net)
Taslima Nasreen, an eminent Bengali writer, later on wrote how one of her aunts were taken to one of those Pakistani camps to be gang-raped. After the war, her aunt returned; bringing home ‘shame’ to her family. Unable to bear all the whispers & suffocation, the woman hanged herself a year after Bangladesh regained independence during the month of victory(Here is the exact translation I wrote of what Nasreen said: http://www.umnotablogger.com/misc/content/1311-thoughts-on-march-26-from-1971-to-2012.html )
There is no way that today’s generation would get to know what really went on in 1971 except for the stories passed on to us by our elders. However, the recounts of the Bangladeshi women are rare due to the ‘shame’ factor. Like you mentioned, the untold stories do not do justice and shed light on these war heroines at all. Their sacrifice, pain and suffering are going unnoticed and has for decades. Thank you for bringing this topic to the spotlight. There is no better piece to read for me than one that tells the history of my people and of our women! I adulate you for spreading the TRUTH through this brilliant piece.
As a reader & being a Bangladeshi, I understand & respect your point & reasons about this article but still like you in the middle, the same question haunts me…”What’s the point or how can we NOW reconcile those pains & horror that happened with our mothers & sisters back at the liberation war?”
The thing is massive destructions, merciless killings & RAPES are the common casualties of a war. I don’t take the bullshits of a country’s defense force or the army people are only made of patriotic soldiers. In every defense force or military group around the world there are hyenas in army uniform waiting to rape the defenseless women in a war or war like situation (and the system that they goes through to become an army personnel is mostly responsible for that). Therefore, rape is one of the undeniable & horrifying casualties that’s very natural or common thing to face on in an army invasion anywhere. I think if we go through the history & impact of wars around the world we’ll find plenty of examples where the the major or at least some part of attacking troops eventually get involved in this crime by themselves or as an order from their seniors. Moreover, a war creates such unthinkable scenarios where it gets the best as well as the worst of a man & made him think of “what to do” when there’s a captured, helpless young woman in front of him.
Now, let me make one thing clear that I’m not here for making any point to support this horrendous crimes or making any sense to what happened with thousands of Bangladeshi women back at the war.
Rape is one of those ghastly crimes that demands punishment & justice sooner than any other crimes…even a brutal murder, IMO. Cause as long the society or the system takes the time or fails to deliver the justice, the sufferings of the victim(s) grows more & more. Particularly, in a country like Bangladesh it actually somewhat impossible to come back to the society or to your known neighbouhood or sometimes even to your own family, in an acceptable scenario or place if you become a rape victim.
In the term, you said “hide”….demands some clarification, IMO. Cause, the people of after war generation I think just knows the fact that thousands of Bangladeshi women got raped in the war but what actually the state did hide from them were mostly the identities of those women & the detail stories of how they got raped and I think most of the post-war Bangladeshi civilians (born in late 70’s, 80’s, 90’s or 00’s) doesn’t intend or interested to know those information. Cause…what’s the point as we already failed to protect, shelter or support them after the liberation; as we already failed to deliver the justice to them at the right time when it actually mattered, demanded and they needed?
Do you think Bangladesh as a country is now in a position or after all these years its justice & judiciary system as well as social scenario & political structure is now capable to bring those war criminals down & punish them properly? The truth is a very late initiative or beginning of the judiciary process for a past crime after all these years in a country like Bangladesh can’t able to generate the expected or proper justice. The government & the system is already started to baffle with the process to punish the well known Rajakars like Golam Azam or SAKA CHOWDHURY.
I don’t know how many of those ‘War Heroines’ actually or whether or not got any recognition from any government so far. Yeah…they should have honored & demands from the country more than anyone else for the sacrifices they made. But feeling very helpless, shameful & sorry to say, according to our current social scenario & “values”, I’m not sure what good it’d bring to them now if we started to dig those horror of war now?
The thing is, in an extremely conservative culture like that of South Asia, rape-victims can hardly reintegrate themselves back into the society. If their secret leaks out, they are subjected to all those pointings & whispers. So the best way most of these victims can get back into the society is by keeping it a secret. This makes it easy for all those rapists to escape. And if the women does demand justice, it is all so easy to label her off as an adulteress & condemn her for everything. The lack of scientific evidence in rape cases is definitely a problem since villages aren’t equipped to attempt scientific investigations. There have been rape cases in the Middle-East, where due to the loopholes & lack of evidences, rape-victims were labeled off as adulteress and beheaded according to their laws and customs for adultery. Another interesting case is Morocco, where, weirdly, rape-victims are forced to marry their rapists in order to prevent their ‘honor’.
But war-rapes are a different issue altogether. In WW2 the Japanese Army shipped off thousands of poor Korean women and forced them to work in brothels in army camps. During the last US invasion of Iraq, Abeer al-Janabi, a 14-year old Iraqi was raped incessantly by 5 US soldiers in front of her family before the soldiers shot all of them and disposed off their bodies. Hers is one of the few stories that garnered attention because the insurgents in Iraq started slaying all those officers from the unit after that rape. But in Bangladesh, the honors of all those who were raped are a subject stigmatised and not talked about by the elders;even those who actually knew many women who were victims of this brutality shun away the subject. This is one of those curses of the war that the society will have to bear as long as history books exist.
Thank you so much for your support, and for reading my work. I could not tell when I found the interview if I should write about it or not, but at the end I decided that the truth must be exposed and the next generation of Bangladeshis must know everything about this war, our history. These women must get justice after 40 years. They deserve nothing less.
Thankyou so much for posting about this – all i see in dhaka these days are how people have turned this day into a big party noone ever bothers talking about these incidents , if you didn’t write about this I would have never EVER KNOWN.
Thank you so much Anushay!! A Person like you shows that even form this new generation we are showing real interest, and real concern. it shows and gives us hope, because when we see after 40 years of Independence, people started questioning our victory, people are slowly drifting from the root cause, forgetting the hardship. I was visiting Dhaka last summer, and in an occasion I was so emotional because of some comments that were passing around me that I had to leave that place. So, thank you so much, with your young eye, and mind you are seeing and looking into this very important part of our Mukti jJuddho which really been neglected I would say. I don’t know if you have visited The mukti juddho jadughor, the war museam, in Dhaka, they will have a great deal of info and support for people like you. All the best for you…..Shifa
Hi, I’m a young non-resident Bangladeshi learning about the history of our country. I’ve heard many conflicting sides to this debate and really don’t know what to think..No one really denies the atrocities committed by the Pakis, but I’ve heard others say that some of the Mukti Judhas were just as inhumane in their treatment of civilians whom they perceived as not supporting the war of independence. Many such civilians were not Razakar supporters, or even Pro-Paki, but rather, preferred a non-violent resolution to the conflict, as it was between two Muslim entities. I would love if anybody could shed some light on this topic??
Thank you for writing this piece, Ms. Anushay! Truth must be spoken and the victims of the war–our daughters, sisters, and mothers– must be recognized. it’s time to speak out, and heal. However, it should be exclusively for healing, not creating chaos–modeled after the Truth Commission set up in South Africa under Nelson Mandela. I salute Bina D’Costa and likes of her for their courage!
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This is Islam and now the Muslim Bengalis are doing the same in Bangladesh to their Hindu counterpart and even in Indian state of West Bengal.
mr. observer, you are totaly wrong. crime doesnt follow any relegion. you need to study lot about our history. why should be hindus treated as counterpart? bangladesh belongs to all…….
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still hindus are discriminated and deprived…..i dont know the way of solution in this regard.
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Independent researchers say around 300,000 (3 lacs) to 500,000 (5 lacs) died in 1971 Bangladesh war, then why common people in Bangladesh are misguided by their establishment and some from Inida that the numbers were around 3 millions? Independent researchers, R J Rummel for exammple, estimated that 150,000 non-Bengals were massacred by Awami League aligned militias, with a low estimate of 50,000 and a high estimate of 500,000. Why the common people in Bangladesh are being ignorant of this fact that Awami League aligned militia Mukti Bahini may have killed 500,000 (5 lacs) innocent non-Bengalis (Pakistanis) civilians? Indeed Pakistan army and some politicians of west Pakistan of that time made some serious mistakes and they should apologize to the people of Bangladesh for it but why common people in Bangladesh are not ashamed of the mass killings of innocent non Bangalis Pakistani civilians during the same war?
Get more information from the following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13417170
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/05/20115983958114219.html
How long you will keep lying. “150,000 non-Bengals were massacred by Awami League aligned militias” – This is one of the biggest lie ever. We should not have let 93000 pakistani army go when they surrendered.
it is not you to who they surrendered. you traitors got indian army to have pak army surrender to. You were traitors from day 1 of independence in 1947, at that time you kept quiet to let partition and independent state of Pakistan matter settle down, and then after the defeat of 1965 war, India was thirsty for revenge, and bengalish played right into indian intentions’ hands under the banner of indian army militarily trained ‘mukti bahni’. what mujeeb ur rehman was the whole world saw that too. eventually had to gotten rid of by your own army and intelligence agencies. In 1971, west pakistani government knew what mujeeb ur rehman was. Bengalish are traitors by blood. They are unloyal people. Any idiot can tell how sincere saw mujeeb-ur-rehman*Pakistan’ by looking at his six point agenda. You never wanted to be part of Pakistan. In Pakistan we believe that from the day of first partition, east Pakistan should have been a separate state. That was Iqbal’s dream, to have separate states in the east and west but not one state divided by thousands of miles of enemy territory. It was Nehru’s idea to make it one state west and east divided by india. (history proved bengalis always have had a bent towards india their loyalties have always lied towards india, now indians suck all your water at will and opens its spillways when it pleases just like they do with Pakistan hope that feels good! but this time you dont receive millions of rupees worth donation from west pakistan you had a problem with the government, what about the (west) pakistani people who had such warm feelings for their eastern brothers you forgot all the donation campaigns that used to go on in west pakistan for east pakistasn floods. everywhere what you would build there would go down in floods all over again. in so many ways pakistan is free of that burden ) Basically bengalis and indians used each other to get what they wanted. Loyalty is everything in a people. And to make it all worse, Bengalis have had a inferiority complex for generations too. In the western world too, you will see a Bengalis going about in the shadow of an Indian. Why? they make you feel safe huh? you are the butt of jokes that indians make. mujeeburrehman was so good why you killed him then? he ‘suddenly’ had autocratic designs after coming into power? The pakistan government knew what mujeeburrehman actually was and they dealt with him accordingly, or should they just have handed over the country to a man who desired to rule it as a dictatorship? bengladesh creation was always a matter of time. In Pakistan we say oh good we got rid of them, such people would only have damaged us later BECAUSE bengalis can NEVER be trusted. That is the problem. they are unloyal individuals. you live on the other side of india for God’s sake. you have to be extremely loyal people in order to stay a successful part of a another country. Good riddance, that our economy is now free of the burden of you!
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Thanks for writing on this topic. I have feeling the current situation in Bangladesh is a direct reaction of the on going war crimes trials.
Hi I am a Pakistani girl and I just came across your blog. This story has brought tears to my eyes and I am really speechless as this isnt exactly what they they teach you in school or write in history books. I am appalled at this cruelty and am ashamed of Pak army. I apologize to all Bangladeshi women and girls who were raped during the 1971 war on behalf of all Pakistani women. 🙁
Hold that though Mariam, dont believe everything you read here. These are exaggerations. they killed hundreds of thousands of Bengali MUslims, and Behari Muslims and raped their women to punish them for their loyalty to Pakistan. No so called ‘rapes’ and all this crap they say took place. My uncle was a soldier in this war. It is Mukti Bahni propaganda to tarnish the name of Pakistan. Pakistan has the largest contingent of forces in UN Peace keeping forces around the world, have you heard a Pakistani soldier raping someone in Bosnia, Cambodia, Sudan etc.? Pakistan army is known for its good character around the world, they have that reputation because they have volunteered to help in conflict zones around the world the most. Meaning the largest number of peace keeping forces in the UN stationed around the world is Pakistani soldiers, who volunteer to be there. How many soldiers have we lost ther? how many martyrs. Do you think what is described on this pages that is the character of our soldier? Do you think that is why they are called the second best army in the world after *israeli’ or jewish army(whatver you want to call it). Pakistani army can never stoop so low to touch women who are like their sisters. The army was sent to East Pakistan when the protests went out of hand(like when there are strikes and protests in karachi and MQM shoots some innocents the army or rangers are called in) , and what they faced when they reached east Pakistan they were facing the Indian army instead, as Mukti bahni (combined with indian army) and that had been trained by Indian army in the first place, was fighting with weapons against Pakistan forces. and then india declared a no fly zone over india, so that literally people/citizens could not be evacuated to safety from east pakistan. And even soldiers could not be sent supplies. It was our country, what was indian army doing there? they had conspired with mukti bahni to get revenge for the humiliating defeat of 1965 war. And bengalis had betrayed us. Many bengalis in Pakistan armed forces, are just a small example of how untrustworthy bengalese can be. What happened with Rashid Minhas we are all aware of that. His Bengali instructor wanted to take the Pakistan airforce plane to India. Is that how a Pakistani Bengali would behave? That traitor is also called a war hero in Bengladesh. And our own country men the east pakistanis betrayed us. They killed and raped every single person who would say anything in the support of Pakistan. So those who didnt want to take sides, or were vocally against supporting mukti bahni for betraying Pakistan were punished. MUkti bahni did public executions of such pakistan supporters that they called ‘pakistani spies’ even after Pak army had surrendered to the Indian army. Why we surrendered to Indian army, also because of Bengali unloyalty. From day 1 of the creation of Pakistan 1947, Bengalis preferred to keep their sense of identity separate from the identity of a Pakistani. They only waited for the right time to be independent. The only regret is, as Iqbal’s dream suggested East Pakistan should have been made into an independent separate state at the time of partition instead of Nehru’s idea of having one muslim country which has eastern and western wing. The hindu will think like that, we all now they were trying to keep as many ways as possible to keep creating a disturbance, and interfere in the newly created state of Pakistan in 1947. But Bengalis played right into the hands of Indians. That is the saddest part.
Sami, may be its high time to get your facts corrected. Why you do not asking your uncle whether he was a rapist or not? He was with pakistan army and the basic criteria to be in the pakistan army is that you need to be a rapist since they cant defeat any other army in the world.
YOu can find hundreds of links on the internet that will show the other side of the story. But do you see the word ‘rape’ here? You will find articles about rapes too. But thes pakistan army soldiers were not some other (we dont know them) species. They were our brothers, and fathers, do you think that is the character of our brothers and fathers to joing the armed forces to do rapes? And have women in their bunkers for God’s sake? it’s ridiculous to have such assertions.
http://www.khichuri.org/tui-razakar-picturing-revenge-and-reprisal-in-bangladesh/
One simple fact is all terrorist are Pakistani Muslims but not all Muslims are terrorist. This reply for sami khan post”
Young generation of Pakistanis do not know any of this. Pakistan must apologize to Bangladesh for their behave in 1971..
amazing! Best wishes
This is All Fake how Pakistan Army Raped such a large number Of Bengalies Girls? where as the total strength of Army was 90,000 at the time of surrender n they all Consists of Bengalies peoples in Dec 1971 & In fact at that time this was East Pakistan own Army consist of Bengalies so how Pakistan Army Raped Bengalies women ?? where as at that time west Pakistan Army is in West Pakistan for Protection of west borders Ur own bengalies Peoples Politicians ur own army ( known as East Pakistan Army) Raped ur own womens n Blame East Pakistan how disgusting… Ur politicians ur Media ur Text Books make ur new generation fools…. All the Propaganda was Done By Indian Army, West Bengalies ,Indian Media n ur Own Politicians …… U just fought for language but forget the main thing of 1947 Independence that we all are Muslims First than Bengalies, Punjaibies,Pashtuns,Balochies, Kahmeries,sindhies etc..This is how India Done their job n make a lot of misunderstanding by creating Internal issues between East & west Pakistan.
what a horrible lie by Bengalis & Indians. 200,000 women raped / 3 million killed?? Absolutely Bul S*h^t!! 100,000 to 200,000 women alone were raped during partition of india around 1947/1948. Also 1 million to 2 million people max were killed during that period accoarding to netural sources.
Bashar Assad has killed 195,000 innocent Syrian civilians over these past 3 years with all evidence available for everybody to see.
he has used jets,tanks, chemical weapons against whole cities. so what you Lungis dreaming on??
Sami khan is right the Bengalis are born traitors by blood.
in 1905 they divided their own province, in 1947 they broke off mother india in guise of being with Pakistan. finally in 1971 they stabbed their father and divided Pakistan itself.
the Bengalis are correct when they say that they were at the fore front of the Pakistan movement. many people in today’s Pakistan were not aware or cared about drawing new borders until the later stages.
But the Bengalis are experts at deceiving and cheerleading. They knew very well that Bengal was not mentioned to be a part of Pakistan originally. never the less they rode along with Pakistan movement in anticipation of betraying us down the line as they couldn’t stand Indians.
Bangladesh got away scot free in 1947 while we Pakistani Punjabis, Kashmiris, sindhis had to suffer the partition holocaust and its aftermath.
I’m glad we did not let go off Bangladesh without a fight. The mukti Bengalis think its a joke tearing of countries & borders but the pak army showed them the rigorous will to fight.
if there was any genocide in east Pakistan towards the bengolis, then it was against the mukti bahini. thousands of them were hung upside down & paid for their crimes towards the ordinary citizens of both east and west Pakistan.
My dear Bangladeshi friends, relax! No need to argue with the pakis as they will not understand any human emotions. They will call you traitors because you fought for the truth. These uneducated pakis can only understand the language of war and terror. Having getting kicked by the Indian forces in every war, these people cannot get their facts correct. This has lead them to become a failed nation and doonrr or letter their name will be changed as terroristan. They tried to take kashmir, failed miserably. Raped and killed our countrymen but for what?? They lost bangladesh as well.
Shocked to see the replies of Mr Sami, Tyab, Perhans and Others. There is no need of arguing without reliable neutral references yet few request to you:
a. Please read following books written by your origin Witness to Surrender by Siddik Salik, ‘a stranger in my own country’ by major general khadim raja and talk to Hamid Meer, one of the very few ethical Pakistani I have seen.
b. You referred Pak Army’s role in UN mission to claim them not rapist in 1971. Dear in UN environment you are surrounded by media’s, international organizations and international civil staffs. Thats why you have to hide your basic instinct. In 1971why Pakistani army expelled all foreign journalists from Bangladesh? ask your self? To hide those killings and raping. Ask Symon Dring UK Journalist who kept him hiding in Dhaka at 1971 also Mark Tally who covered Bangladesh in 71.
c. You all said Bengali were disloyal. Yes we had been and proud to be disloyal to the unethical and heinous and criminal design of Pak corrupt politician and miltary janta not to the spirit of 1947. Just think over these rationally:
(1) In Pakistan there was majority of Bengali speaking people as population in East was much higher than west. Then what was the rational of declaring Urdu as only state language. Ask yourself according to democratic culture should not the Bengali be state language. Yetl Begalis were happy that you speak urdu let us speak bengali but you were so evil that you wanted to impose urdu due to your wrongly perceived racial superiority.
(2) In election of 1969 Awami League won landslide victory. What was the problem to hand over power? The problem was your beast politicians and military who killed the spirit of 1947 and thought that killing and raping will suppress Bengalis courage.
(3) If you had been so concern about entire Pakistan then how famine and disaster could kill lacs of Bengali in the east in 70? Because you took all wealth and development in Pakistan.
(4) About Rashed Minhaj I salute him as he fought for the cause of his country. But how can you degrade Flt Lt Matiur he was also fighting for his motherland. both part was in war and as far as my ethics goes both are hero to their people and indeed they are. How fool a person can be when he says Flt Lt matiur was taking the plane to India, duffer can anyone bring a plane from Pakistan to Bangladesh without crossing India? Is it geographically possible. Think how your young generation is manipulated by perpetuated information and analysis. And why Matiur was so frantic about taking a plane because you did not keep a single plane in Bengali officers control like what you did in all sectors, all forums and in all gains. Take statistics of 47 to 52 and compare how much development took place in west and in east. In todays age of information it is not impossible.
d.You said Pakis were concerned about entire and united Pakistan but Begalis were thinking for separation fro day 1. It was not from day1. It Greedy and unethical steps of Pakistani corrupt and sadistic political and military nexus that forced simple Bengaliis to stand upright after above explained incidents of 52, 69, 70 and finally 71.
At the end, nature gives the best answer. If Julfiqure Ali Vutto was the mastermind of all these see the judgement of Allah and revenge of nature:
1/ He was hanged.
2/ His son got killed by Bomb Blast.
3/ His daughter is assisinated.
4/ His wife is a living dead.
” What is wrong is always wrong if everyone is doing it, what is right is always right if no one is doing it”—-Confusious
however, It was a brazen injustice . could you please define what was the role of bhutto in that barbarism
Its been a few years since this article was published. Perhaps its time for a reprint in a Bangladeshi paper. Thank you for a well written piece. Its sad that between 1972 and 1974 an attempt was made by the government to list the living victims in an effort to provide stipends. Then the lists were abruptly destroyed.