16th December 1971: From East Pakistan to Bangladesh

[UKBengali]

I have decided not to take part in such argument anymore as there is no solution.
Just sometimes will ask few questions though.
However, just wondering if the aim of Pakistan Army was to killing Hindus, then I'm wondering still why there are some 17 million Hindus live in Bangladesh and also lots of Hindus live in sindh too?
Do you know the condition of Hindus in the province sindh?
If it's ethnic cleansing, then why they spared the Hindus of sindh?

You aware that 10 million BD'shis fled BD during 1971 into India? A huge number of these were Hindus(8 million), far disproportionate to their share of population. Only by fleeing BD did the Hindus manage to escape death at the hands of the PA.

 

[Centaur]

Anyway মানুষ ছাই উড়ায় রতন খুজার আশায় এইসব বিষ্ঠার পাহাড় ঘাটে না Shormila Bose এর মত গোবর সার পাওয়ার আশায়। দুই একটা বই পইড়া এত চেঞ্জ হয়ে গেছ!!

https://www.amarblog.com/udvraanto/posts/132369

Am I your real life friend? Perhaps you haven't learn a manner, that is, with unknown peoples you are required to use আপনি only, doesn't matter how much do you hate someone.
And also I never said that I have changed after reading the book dead reckoning. So stop your dirty game. I have read the book first in 2014. I was changed atleast 8/9 years ago ( 2009/10) I believe.
I just said I was searching for something that can effectively counter those filthy propaganda of chetona cult and Indian stooges and I found dead reckoning as a deadliest weapon against those vicious propaganda, that's all. And I also don't believe Any blame on bongobondhu Sheikh Mujib imposed by Mrs Bose.

I also can post some blog link as I posted for others as a counter, but it's no longer needed.
End of discussion with you about 71 stuff.

@The Ronin

You aware that 10 million BD'shis fled BD during 1971 into India? A huge number of these were Hindus(8 million), far disproportionate to their share of population. Only by fleeing BD did the Hindus manage to escape death at the hands of the PA.

Evidence Please other than the official claim of Bangladesh Government and Indian authority.
P.S.
Look, we both can focus about threads of BD proprietary threads. I know BD Wil not be prosperous if we discussed peacefuly in this forum from for thousands of years, yet BD will not be prosperous until BD peoples will be United and work for country together.
So is it necessary for us ( Bangladeshi everywhere) to fight on some issue?
Don't you think that others will just divide and rule us?
Our confession will not change what happened in 1971.
Why can't we let this topic go and start working together ( in real life not in papers only) for the sake of Bangladesh?
Now you can start another flame baiting argument with me or we both simply can let it go, and stay in peace and sometimes can talk about better future about Bangladesh.
There are bigger things to be worried about I believe.

Your "Islamic" leaders are not prophets nor are they gods.

Blame them for every crime they have done. Don't blame them for any of those crimes they were never involved.
I said some guys in Bangladesh trying to portray ( doesn't matter whoever portray it) 1971 as Islam vs secularism. I strongly oppose them.
It was just a civil war and both Side was Muslim majority. So 71 was never ever Islam vs pseudo secularism ( hindutva).
And also the post was just my statement. That's all.

Why should we forget 71?

Well stay in 71 then, I will move on.

 

[UKBengali]

Evidence Pease other than the official claim of Bangladesh Government and Indian authority.
P.S.
Look, we both can focus about threads of BD proprietary threads. I know BD Wil not be prosperous if we discussed peacefuly in this forum from for thousands of years, yet BD will not be prosperous until BD peoples will be United and work for country together.
So is it necessary for us ( Bangladeshi everywhere) to fight on some issue?
Don't you think that others will just divide and rule us?
Our confession will not change what happened in 1971.
Why can't we let this topic go and start working together ( in real life not in papers only) for the sake of Bangladesh?
Now you can challenge me as I asked for evidence or can start another flame baiting argument with me or we both simply can let it go, and stay in peace and sometimes can talk about better future about Bangladesh.
There are bugger things to be worried about I believe.

You sound no better than Pakistanis who deny what happened in 1971. Fact is that there were many atrocities committed by an illegitimate Pakistani government during the war- illegitimate as the BD'shis had won the election and so therefore had every right to rule to whole of Pakistan.
BD can move forward and still remember what happened in 1971. AL is taking it a bit too far with the Pakistan hate but no nation should ever forget the wrongs that were done to it.

PS - Even though Hasina is taking the Pakistan bashing a bit too far, BD is doing far far better economically than Pakistan ever can dream of. So this nonsense that BD needs to forget 1971 is just that, nonsense.

 

[PAKISTANFOREVER]

You sound no better than Pakistanis who deny what happened in 1971. Fact is that there were many atrocities committed by an illegitimate Pakistani government during the war- illegitimate as the BD'shis had won the election and so therefore had every right to rule to whole of Pakistan.
BD can move forward and still remember what happened in 1971. Hasina is taking it a bit too far with the Pakistan hate but no nation should ever forget the wrongs that were done to it.

PS - Even though Hasina is taking the Pakistan bashing a bit too far, BD is doing far far better economically than Pakistan ever can dream of. So this nonsense that BD needs to forget 1971 is just that, nonsense.

Can we please have irrefutable reliable evidence that the PA committed atrocities in bangladesh in 1971 If not then it's ALL lies like the 3 million bengladeshis allegedly killed in under a month. No more indian or bengali lies. Just the TRUTH. Nearly 50 years of deception and lies needs to end.

 

[UKBengali]

Can we please have irrefutable reliable evidence that the PA committed atrocities in bangladesh in 1971 If not then it's ALL lies like 3 million bengalis killed in under a month. No more indian or bengali lies. Just the TRUTH please.

Did I not explain this before?

Only thing in question is the amount of atrocities, not that they happened.

 

[Centaur]

You sound no better than Pakistanis who deny what happened in 1971.

My position is just moderate. I believe both Side commited some crimes as it is not unnatural during a civil war.
And here some Bangladeshi posters hold the same position of mine with slightly different point of view. I remember their opinions. And also it was basically India Pakistan war . India is responsible for this chaos. There were thousand other ways of mutual separation. Only chaos started because of Indian involvement.
Rajakars were Bangladeshi Bengalis who would never fight if India wouldn't involved from the beginning.
However majority commited crime beyond 1971 when east Pakistan lost the war against India, then Mukti force tortured biharis beyond imagination. That we always ignore. Only try to say that Bengalis are only victims.
That's why I sometimes reacted too much for the sake of humanity.
But it looks it's useless now. So I decided to move on.
I will not go for further explanation and it may provoke another heated debate. We ( Bengalis) are too much intolerant peoples beyond imagination of others. Thank you.
@UKBengali

 

[PAKISTANFOREVER]

Did I not explain this before?

Only thing in question is the amount of atrocities, not that they happened.

Very convenient that you can throw baseless accusations against the PA without ANY evidence by using a flimsy excuse. That too for nearly 50 years. This means that EVERYTHING the bengalis and indians say about the 1971 war is a complete and utter LIE & FABRICATION.

 

[24 Hours]

Blame them for every crime they have done. Don't blame them for any of those crimes they were never involved.
I said some guys in Bangladesh trying to portray ( doesn't matter whoever portray it) 1971 as Islam vs secularism. I strongly oppose them.
It was just a civil war and both Side was Muslim majority. So 71 was never ever Islam vs pseudo secularism ( hindutva).
And also the post was just my statement. That's all.


Well stay in 71 then, I will move on.

Since when did this occur? Pakistan was more secular at the time anyway. It was more of an ethnic/political conflict than anything else.

 

[UKBengali]

Very convenient that you can throw baseless accusations against the PA without ANY evidence by using a flimsy excuse. That too for nearly 50 years. This means that EVERYTHING the bengalis and indians say about the 1971 war is a complete and utter LIE & FABRICATION.

Dude, I have heard first-hand stories from my relations of innocent civilians being lined up and shot by PA in 1971.
What would someone like you know about the reality on the ground compared to me?
You do not need to deny the conduct of the PA during 1971 for some misplaced sense of nationalism. They did the acts and not you remember and so this is not against you.
I suggest you start off trying to actually understand how 1971 came about by google neural sources about how BD was subsidising the Pakistan army(95% W Pakistani) and the industrialisation and infrastructure of W Pakistan. Why do you think that the Pakistani economy was held to be star in the 1950s & 1960s but went into a downward spiral ever since?

 

[Centaur]

Since when did this occur? Pakistan was more secular at the time anyway. It was more of an ethnic/political conflict than anything else.

You are not the only person who is Bangladeshi. Sometimes try to.observe the pseudo intellectuals of Bangladesh. You will learn about their so called secularism whining.
In reality they are just creating flame in Bangladesh, provoking peoples. Since the shahbag time. Pay attention to Bangladesh deeply.
Bangladeshi population aren't nearly tolerant like westerns.
So such heinous acts they ( pseudo hindutva) are doing in order to create chaos in Bangladesh.
Observe their stance on current rohingya issue. They used to say it was the internal issue of miyanmer, now saying that stop helping rohingyas as they already have so much so.they are selling everything, doing crime bla bla bla...
The same peoples are trying to portray Islamic leader as war criminals.
However in order to counter them Mr pinaki bhattacharya wrote a book named মুক্তি যুদ্ধের বয়ানে ইসলাম. I read this book, although I don't agree with lots of points, yet It is a balance between both Side. ( chetona and pro Pakistani) .
@Ashes

 

[PAKISTANFOREVER]

Dude, I have heard first-hand stories from my relations of innocent civilians being lined up and shot by PA in 1971.
What would someone like you know about the reality on the ground compared to me?
You do not need to deny the conduct of the PA during 1971 for some misplaced sense of nationalism. They did the acts and not you remember and so this is not against you.
I suggest you start off trying to actually understand how 1971 came about by google neural sources about how BD was subsidising the Pakistan army(95% W Pakistani) and the industrialisation and infrastructure of W Pakistan. Why do you think that the Pakistani economy was held to be star in the 1950s & 1960s but went into a downward spiral ever since?

The above is meaningless conjecture. We need hard facts and evidence. Equally, I have heard stories how the PA largely remained in their barracks and only carried out limited operations to maintain law and order. bengladeshis were mainly killing other bangladeshis. We get the balme for that even though the facts insinuate otherwise. First it was 3 million killed, now 300,000, next it will be 30,000, 3000, 300, 30 then only 3 killed by the PA. indians and bengalis have been spreading lies about the the role of the PA in bangladesh in 1971 for nearly 50 years, so now that this lie has been exposed you have a very convenient excuse about data collection to explain it away.

 

[Arefin007]

War of words goin on...the blood aint on my hands, Kasabian here, proper Brit-rock

 

[Nilgiri]

The answer to your question is 'yes'. Since you have been to Bangladesh so many times, you will have noticed that the Bangladeshi Hindu is a cowed, subservient minority, even the intellectually advanced fraction of the remnants who stayed back as doctors, teachers, lawyers. And they were considered to be the evil geniuses of the Agartala Conspiracy Case, and were deliberately hunted down in very specific campaigns. There is no doubt about this among those who were involved in the hunting down, and it is all on record. Do not insult me or anybody else by asking for citations; when you can quote a publicity seeker from a family that numbers Sugato Bose as her elder sibling and Sumantra as her younger, I can make this glancing allusion with legitimacy, without anything more than a reminder of Anthony Mascarenhas. You want credibility? You will get credibility; ask her mother. She was there in the camps, she was there meeting the bedraggled remains that crawled out, and she knows who were whipped and beaten, and the difference between them and those others who were whipped and inflamed with the need for immediate revenge. The difference was as stark as has been said; the Hindu minority that came across, 90% or more from the villages, almost none surviving the pogroms in the towns or the cities, whether it was the Razakar or the sepoy at the other end, had no fight left in them. It was the Muslims who fought, who found their way out of those camps and into the waiting hands of the Mukti Bahini, and their laughable .303 rifles and home-made bombs.

Throughout the whole course of the war, what would you say was the composition of the refugees that fled to India by religion?

I personally do not subscribe to religion based motive for Pak army long term (anymore that is, I was pretty much sold on it earlier in life). They may have been easier local scapegoats (and who really knows how much that was aided by East Bengali majority since own motifs during and since partition too.... given there was no scale of pogroms of Hindus in West Pakistan during 71) .....at first like any real civil war starts with (and hence the large waves that arrived)...and the operation searchlight names bear testimony to that..... and also largely because they (E Bengal Hindus) had India to turn to near-immediately more so than the East Bengal Muslims (by all the essence and reality of that created in the partition maelstrom and nightmares of noakhali etc)....but when the real massive conflict started, given do or die nature perception on both sides....I think definitely casualty rate regardless of religion went up...otherwise Pakistan Army logistically will lose in no time flat. There is no final credible breakdown of final casualties (armed or un-armed)....everyone largely relies on their personal perception of it.

The large body of my ire directed in my previous post was due to that individual implying I should have a different stance to some group of another nation's people....by virtue of them being Hindu (in some definition of his) rather than just people period (and at other times they conveniently change tack on that). They used this same line with me over and over again when I clearly state I am totally against the LTTE, PLOTE and all the other terrorist groups that were formented in the churn of Lanka....just because in my long list of identities, there is Tamil and Hindu there. I am supposed to support/sympathise with Hindus or whatever no matter where they are and who they are and what the circumstances are (i know its tough subject as you know regarding partition and choices made by people leaving and staying on all sides and the continued lingering acrimony which must have been fresh back then).....just because they are Hindu....and woe befall on all of the "other" doing harm on them...because they are not Hindu....and theres no such thing as a bad/unlucky/ignorant/deluded/combination of whatever Hindu? Honestly if the Hindu Bengalis that remained in E. Pakistan after partition and many remain there still are so intellectually devoted and weak in every department, then they really should have known better esp from what was going on in Partition...I'm not totally blaming them for staying (its complicated given we have hindsight now but not as much then before it all went down) but neither are they fully blame free given the clear environment generated (well before partition even but accelerated drastically during it) and if they were so apt and smart and tied to this and that conspiracy already....and obv knew about it all....wouldn't they have left in much greater numbers than they did? Again all parts of the argument do not really hold for me in the extent to the numbers being spoken of....and people that ignore/delude themselves beyond evidence on the ground get more empathy for their circumstances from me than full on sympathy....and there is a key distinction for me between the two....and its muddied and hazy for large part given the time and space between me and them....and large overall unreliability of all those conveying the information from that time and space to my time and space (but I will take your word on the issue to whatever you feel you can commentate on to large degree because I find you credible given your history and personal experience...which is why I really tagged you in first place)....thats my basic dilemma when people make this a particular recurring topic on this subforum.

And yes no matter how Sarmila Bose may be compromised in her personal opinion, she is definitely far more credible on the issue than most BD posters here....she actually talked and gathered info from all sides...next to no BD people here have done so...even when they really should have when they throw numbers around without questioning where the numbers come from....but I do thank you for your perspective on her and her work...what would you say is good reading material that counters her account in specific terms?

BTW @Joe Shearer at any point its too much to talk about etc....I completely understand...this is pretty sad sobering stuff since you were there on the ground....and you saw things firsthand....internet is pretty lousy place to conduct this kind of topic tbh....which in itself tells me a lot about ppl keep bringing it up and tagging me to try make me feel in some way they want me to...on account of their perceived identity politics in some specific way

 

[SoulSpokesman]

@Joe Shearer

It is sad that Sarat Bose's grand-daughter should have made these claims, in the light of Sarat Bose and Kiron Shankar Roy

Actually, quite the reverse. Her karnameys can be well explained by either her being Sarat Bose's grand daughter; or Subhas babu's great niece.

Regards

 

[The Ronin]

Ok this isn't my writing though , i kept it as note. After seeing people raising question about the 3 million i am posting the translated version here.

It has been 42 years since the war of liberation. I heard that 30 lakh martyrs and two lakh mother sisters have been tortured. I have heard about the terrible massacre of the night on 25 March. I have never expressed doubts about these numbers because of my heartfelt love. Do not do it anymore. But in the TV talk show, now 30 lakhs 3 lakh martyrs or 2 lakh 9 20-25 thousand women have been oppressed. It hurts. Some people sit with the calculator again, say 9 months of war, and calculate the day when they die about 3 million in 266 days. 30 lakhs understand? To kill 3 million people, 11719 people will be killed in one day and 781 girls in the day will be raped, 94 thousand Pakistani women have killed so much and raped them. I can not answer them. So I started reading to answer. I read, I am sitting to write now. At the bottom of the estimation I will show that the number of 30 million martyrs could have been more and more in Anayasayet.



In 1981, the United Nations organized massacre in Bangladesh in 1971 as the biggest genocide in the world. According to their statistics, 6,000 to 12,000 thousand people were killed by the Pakistani army on the day. As if he had lowered Bangladesh and 6000 * 256 = 1536000 or 15 thousand and thirty-six thousand people died. How does anyone count on 3 lakh martyrs sitting in the talk box? If you do 12,000, then thousands of thousands of people have died. As many as 30 lakh martyrs say that we are ignoring the remaining seventy-two thousand martyrs.

Show some more estimates, the total population of Bangladesh in 1971 was seven and a half quarters. Then there was an average of 5 people per family in Bangladesh. As such, 150 lakh families in Bangladesh. As a result, at least one family in every family is 32.55%. There are families and almost all of them have died or one has to choose between two. In my family, three were dead (my grandfather's brother is a boy and my little puff). And this 32.55% of the family deaths are not small.

Now, according to the Pakistani and their collaborators, 94,000 Pakistani soldiers, 73 thousand al-Badr (according to Pakistani al-Badr expert Mansur Khaled), 50000 al-Shams and more than 20000 razakars, like Razakars If we add, then there will be a total of 237,000 people who fought for Pakistan. To kill 307,200 people, everybody should kill an average 13 people. It is understood from the general estimation that killing only 13 people in 265 days is not a difficult thing to do.

And the reckoning of the birangans is fairly similar. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who returned to Bangladesh on January 10, 1972, after being released from captivity in Pakistan, first said in the public that two to two and a half million women were victims of sexual assault in the war. Later this number started to be considered official statistics. But on December 16, 1972, a special number of genocide of Daily Bangla Bani was reported, that this statistic was based on assumptions. Australian physician Geoffrey Davis made statistics through a sample survey conducted across the country and in a few sample districts in the northern region, reports that 4 to 430,000 women were raped in the war of liberation. According to the study conducted by the Uppsala University of Sweden, there are two lakhs, three lakhs and four lakhs of such three figures. So if I have taken more estimates, I mean 4 lakhs of heroines, then every Pakistani and their collaborators have to torture 1.68 women. The number is not too irrational here.



Another statistics say that in Pakistan, the Pakistani army had killed only about 10 lakh people in Dhaka. We have not got the exact estimation of all the districts of the whole of Bangladesh. According to the same information, 15 lakhs in Khulna, 75 thousand in Jessore, 95 thousand in Comilla, and 1 lakh people in Chittagong who killed the **** aggressor and their collaborators. Only around 4 million people have been close to 27 lakhs. My personal sense was a lot more martyr.

If there were three million people on one side, perhaps on Facebook, it would be 720 kilometers, which is 80 times the height of Mount Everest! If 3 million people stand by hand with their hands, then it will be 1100 kilometers, from Teknaf More than the distance between the Tentulia! The amount of blood in the body of 30 million people is 1.5 crores, which is per se in the river Padma. If you have to kill 3 million people in 266 days, then you have to kill more than 7 people every minute.

The numbers above are the spirit of our liberation war, our hardships, the power to move forward in front of us. Our responsibility is to take this trouble into force and take vengeance on their self-sacrifice. We are very aware now. But there is a lot of unconsciousness in us. We are blind for politics, nobody is blind for religion. Sadly, the angle for the country is not blind. Just be aware. Some countries would not have been bad. The remaining two percent of the blind could answer and answer.

Information sources:

১। <atitle="http://mukto-mona.net/new_site/mukto-mona/Articles/kasem/mathematics_genocide.htm"href="http://mukto-mona.net/new_site/mukto-mona/Articles/kasem/mathematics_genocide.htm">http://mukto-mona.net/new_site/mukto-mona/Articles/kasem/mathematics_genocide.htm

২।আলবদর ১৯৭১,মুনতাসির মামুন



৩।http://www.gendercide.org/case_bangladesh.html

Case Study:
Genocide in Bangladesh, 1971

Summary

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.

The background

East and West Pakistan were forged in the cauldron of independence for the Indian sub-continent, ruled for two hundred years by the British. Despite the attempts of Mahatma Gandhi and others to prevent division along religious and ethnic lines, the departing British and various Indian politicians pressed for the creation of two states, one Hindu-dominated (India), the other Muslim-dominated (Pakistan). The partition of India in 1947 was one of the great tragedies of the century. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in sectarian violence and military clashes, as Hindus fled to India and Muslims to Pakistan -- though large minorities remained in each country.

The arrangement proved highly unstable, leading to three major wars between India and Pakistan, and very nearly a fourth fullscale conflict in 1998-99. (Kashmir, divided by a ceasefire line after the first war in 1947, became one of the world's most intractable trouble-spots.) Not the least of the difficulties was the fact that the new state of Pakistan consisted of two "wings," divided by hundreds of miles of Indian territory and a gulf of ethnic identification. Over the decades, particularly after Pakistani democracy was stifled by a military dictatorship (1958), the relationship between East and West became progressively more corrupt and neo-colonial in character, and opposition to West Pakistani domination grew among the Bengali population.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

Catastrophic floods struck Bangladesh in August 1970, and the regime was widely seen as having botched (or ignored) its relief duties. The disaster gave further impetus to the Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The League demanded regional autonomy for East Pakistan, and an end to military rule. In national elections held in December, the 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 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.)

On April 10, the surviving leadership of the Awami League declared Bangladesh independent. The Mukhta Bahini (liberation forces) were mobilized to confront the West Pakistani army. They did so with increasing skill and effectiveness, utilizing their knowledge of the terrain and ability to blend with the civilian population in classic guerrilla fashion. By the end of the war, the tide had turned, and vast areas of Bangladesh had been liberated by the popular resistance.

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.

Bengali man and boys massacred
by the West Pakistani regime.

​

Younger men and adolescent boys, of whatever social class, were equally targets. According to Rounaq Jahan, "All through the liberation war, able-bodied young men were suspected of being actual or potential freedom fighters. Thousands were arrested, tortured, and killed. Eventually cities and towns became bereft of young males who either took refuge in India or joined the liberation war." Especially "during the first phase" of the genocide, he writes, "young able-bodied males were the victims of indiscriminate killings." ("Genocide in Bangladesh," in Totten et al., Century of Genocide, p. 298.) R.J. Rummel likewise writes that "the Pakistan army [sought] out those especially likely to join the resistance -- young boys. Sweeps were conducted of young men who were never seen again. Bodies of youths would be found in fields, floating down rivers, or near army camps. As can be imagined, this terrorized all young men and their families within reach of the army. Most between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five began to flee from one village to another and toward India. Many of those reluctant to leave their homes were forced to flee by mothers and sisters concerned for their safety." (Death By Government, p. 329.) Rummel describes (p. 323) a chilling gendercidal ritual, reminiscent of Nazi procedure towardsJewish males: "In what became province-wide acts of genocide, Hindus were sought out and killed on the spot. As a matter of course, soldiers would check males for the obligated circumcision among Moslems. If circumcised, they might live; if not, sure death."

Robert Payne describes scenes of systematic mass slaughter around Dacca that, while not explicitly "gendered" in his account, bear every hallmark of classic gender-selective roundups and gendercidal slaughters of non-combatant men:

​

In the dead region surrounding Dacca, the military authorities conducted experiments in mass extermination in places unlikely to be seen by journalists. At Hariharpara, a once thriving village on the banks of the Buriganga River near Dacca, they found the three elements necessary for killing people in large numbers: a prison in which to hold the victims, a place for executing the prisoners, and a method for disposing of the bodies. The prison was a large riverside warehouse, or godown, belonging to the Pakistan National Oil Company, the place of execution was the river edge, or the shallows near the shore, and the bodies were disposed of by the simple means of permitting them to float downstream. The killing took place night after night. Usually the prisoners were roped together and made to wade out into the river. They were in batches of six or eight, and in the light of a powerful electric arc lamp, they were easy targets, black against the silvery water. The executioners stood on the pier, shooting down at the compact bunches of prisoners wading in the water. There were screams in the hot night air, and then silence. The prisoners fell on their sides and their bodies lapped against the shore. Then a new bunch of prisoners was brought out, and the process was repeated. In the morning the village boatmen hauled the bodies into midstream and the ropes binding the bodies were cut so that each body drifted separately downstream. (Payne, Massacre [Macmillan, 1973], p. 55.)
Strikingly similar and equally hellish scenes are described in the case-studies of genocide in Armenia and the Nanjing Massacre of 1937.

Atrocities against Bengali women

As was also the case in Armenia and Nanjing, Bengali women were targeted for gender-selective atrocities and abuses, notably gang sexual assault and rape/murder, from the earliest days of the Pakistani genocide. Indeed, despite (and in part because of) the overwhelming targeting of males for mass murder, it is for the systematic brutalization of women that the "Rape of Bangladesh" is best known to western observers.

In her ground-breaking book, Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, Susan Brownmiller likened the 1971 events in Bangladesh to the Japanese rapes in Nanjing and German rapes in Russia during World War II. "... 200,000, 300,000 or possibly 400,000 women (three sets of statistics have been variously quoted) were raped. Eighty percent of the raped women were Moslems, reflecting the population of Bangladesh, but Hindu and Christian women were not exempt. ... Hit-and-run rape of large numbers of Bengali women was brutally simple in terms of logistics as the Pakistani regulars swept through and occupied the tiny, populous land ..." (p. 81).

Typical was the description offered by reporter Aubrey Menen of one such assault, which targeted a recently-married woman:

Two [Pakistani soldiers] went into the room that had been built for the bridal couple. The others stayed behind with the family, one of them covering them with his gun. They heard a barked order, and the bridegroom's voice protesting. Then there was silence until the bride screamed. Then there was silence again, except for some muffled cries that soon subsided. In a few minutes one of the soldiers came out, his uniform in disarray. He grinned to his companions. Another soldier took his place in the extra room. And so on, until all the six had raped the belle of the village. Then all six left, hurriedly. The father found his daughter lying on the string cot unconscious and bleeding. Her husband was crouched on the floor, kneeling over his vomit. (Quoted in Brownmiller, Against Our Will, p. 82.)
"Rape in Bangladesh had hardly been restricted to beauty," Brownmiller writes. "Girls of eight and grandmothers of seventy-five had been sexually assaulted ... Pakistani soldiers had not only violated Bengali women on the spot; they abducted tens of hundreds and held them by force in their military barracks for nightly use." Some women may have been raped as many as eighty times in a night (Brownmiller, p. 83). How many died from this atrocious treatment, and how many more women were murdered as part of the generalized campaign of destruction and slaughter, can only be guessed at (see below).

Despite government efforts at amelioration, the torment and persecution of the survivors continued long after Bangladesh had won its independence:

Rape, abduction and forcible prostitution during the nine-month war proved to be only the first round of humiliation for the Bengali women. Prime Minister Mujibur Rahman's declaration that victims of rape were national heroines was the opening shot of an ill-starred campaign to reintegrate them into society -- by smoothing the way for a return to their husbands or by finding bridegrooms for the unmarried [or widowed] ones from among his Mukti Bahini freedom fighters. Imaginative in concept for a country in which female chastity and purdah isolation are cardinal principles, the "marry them off" campaign never got off the ground. Few prospective bridegrooms stepped forward, and those who did made it plain that they expected the government, as father figure, to present them with handsome dowries. (Brownmiller, Against Our Will, p. 84.)
How many died?

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). As R.J. Rummel writes,

The human death toll over only 267 days was incredible. Just to give for five out of the eighteen districts some incomplete statistics published in Bangladesh newspapers or by an Inquiry Committee, the Pakistani army killed 100,000 Bengalis in Dacca, 150,000 in Khulna, 75,000 in Jessore, 95,000 in Comilla, and 100,000 in Chittagong. For eighteen districts the total is 1,247,000 killed. This was an incomplete toll, and to this day no one really knows the final toll. Some estimates of the democide [Rummel's "death by government"] are much lower -- one is of 300,000 dead -- but most range from 1 million to 3 million. ... The Pakistani army and allied paramilitary groups killed about one out of every sixty-one people in Pakistan overall; one out of every twenty-five Bengalis, Hindus, and others in East Pakistan. If the rate of killing for all of Pakistan is annualized over the years the Yahya martial law regime was in power (March 1969 to December 1971), then this one regime was more lethal than that of the Soviet Union, China under the communists, or Japan under the military (even through World War II). (Rummel, Death By Government, p. 331.)
The proportion of men versus women murdered is impossible to ascertain, but a speculation might be attempted. If we take the highest estimates for both women raped and Bengalis killed (400,000 and 3 million, respectively); if we accept that half as many women were killed as were raped; and if we double that number for murdered children of both sexes (total: 600,000), we are still left with a death-toll that is 80 percent adult male (2.4 million out of 3 million). Any such disproportion, which is almost certainly on the low side, would qualify Bangladesh as one of the worst gendercides against men in the last half-millennium.

Who was responsible?

"For month after month in all the regions of East Pakistan the massacres went on," writes Robert Payne. "They were not the small casual killings of young officers who wanted to demonstrate their efficiency, but organized massacres conducted by sophisticated staff officers, who knew exactly what they were doing. Muslim soldiers, sent out to kill Muslim peasants, went about their work mechanically and efficiently, until killing defenseless people became a habit like smoking cigarettes or drinking wine. ... Not since Hitler invaded Russia had there been so vast a massacre." (Payne, Massacre, p. 29.)

There is no doubt that the mass killing in Bangladesh was among the most carefully and centrally planned of modern genocides. A cabal of five Pakistani generals orchestrated the events: President Yahya Khan, General Tikka Khan, chief of staff General Pirzada, security chief General Umar Khan, and intelligence chief General Akbar Khan. The U.S. government, long supportive of military rule in Pakistan, supplied some \\$3.8 million in military equipment to the dictatorship after the onset of the genocide, "and after a government spokesman told Congress that all shipments to Yahya Khan's regime had ceased." (Payne, Massacre, p. 102.)

The genocide and gendercidal atrocities were also perpetrated by lower-ranking officers and ordinary soldiers. These "willing executioners" were fuelled by an abiding anti-Bengali racism, especially against the Hindu minority. "Bengalis were often compared with monkeys and chickens. Said Pakistan General Niazi, 'It was a low lying land of low lying people.' The Hindus among the Bengalis were as Jews to the Nazis: scum and vermin that [should] best be exterminated. As to the Moslem Bengalis, they were to live only on the sufferance of the soldiers: any infraction, any suspicion cast on them, any need for reprisal, could mean their death. And the soldiers were free to kill at will. The journalist Dan Coggin quoted one Punjabi captain as telling him, 'We can kill anyone for anything. We are accountable to no one.' This is the arrogance of Power." (Rummel, Death By Government, p. 335.)

The aftermath

On December 3, India under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, seeking to return the millions of Bengali refugees and seize an opportunity to weaken its perennial military rival, finally launched a fullscale intervention to crush West Pakistani forces and secure Bangladeshi independence. The Pakistani army, demoralized by long months of guerrilla warfare, quickly collapsed. On December 16, after a final genocidal outburst, the Pakistani regime agreed to an unconditional surrender. Awami leader Sheikh Mujib was released from detention and returned to a hero's welcome in Dacca on January 10, 1972, establishing Bangladesh's first independent parliament.

In a brutal bloodletting following the expulsion of the Pakistani army, perhaps 150,000 people were murdered by the vengeful victors. (Rummel, Death By Government, p. 334.) The trend is far too common in such post-genocidal circumstances (see the case-studies of Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, and the Soviet POWs). Such largescale reprisal killings also tend to have a gendercidal character, which may have been the case in Bangladesh: Jahan writes that during the reprisal stage, "another group of Bengali men in the rural areas -- those who were coerced or bribed to collaborate with the Pakistanis -- fell victims to the attacks of Bengali freedom fighters." ("Genocide in Bangladesh," p. 298; emphasis added.)

None of the generals involved in the genocide has ever been brought to trial, and all remain at large in Pakistan and other countries. Several movements have arisen to try to bring them before an international tribunal (see Bangladesh links for further information).

Political and military upheaval did not end with Bangladeshi independence. Rummel notes that "the massive bloodletting by all parties in Bangladesh affected its politics for the following decades. The country has experienced military coup after military coup, some of them bloody." (Death By Government, p. 334.)