Battles of 1971

[TaimiKhan]

You are contradicting yourself. You are saying west pakistani civilian getting killed in erstwhile East Pakistan was a bigger event by the measure of the volumes killed than the Bengali victims. but then you are concluding by condoling us that to secede, a nation has to pay higher price! so which one is true!?! I never imagined I'd have to hear that from a sane human being during my life time. This is like saying Pakistan army lets say was comprised of Bengali personnels alone(just the opposite of 71) and they invaded West Pakistan and fought a war for nine months against a non-militarized West pakistani public and then when they were defeated by India we have higher casualty rate for Bengali civilian than west pakistani civilian in west Pakistan where the Bengali civilian were less than 1% of the west pakistani population. I know that I am never going to claim such absurdity because that defies every single logic out there. I just don't understand why would any "Bangladesh commission"(i dont know where u got that name from) claim 2000 people came forward when the Pakistani Hamoudur Rahman commission after 1971 reported 26000 Bengali civilian dead (which is of course the edited Pakistani version to save some honour of the Pak army) and mass rape occurrence by the Pakistani army, and in one incident a top brass raping women when his troops were bombarded by the Indian and Bengali troops at the closing stage of the war! therefore, you are not only contradicting your logic of argument but you are coming up with vehemently false facts to justify your distorted views.

3 million Bengalis were killed. That's fact and figure. Your saying two thousand people came forward is the ugliest lie I have ever heard. 3 millions were killed and the information collected by us is authentic whether or not you believe it sitting back in Pakistan The mass graves were not the only place where Pakistani army dumped the deads. Mass graves were mainly for the intellectuals, the students and hindus killed by the Pakistani army in 26th of March and 14-16 December. They often shot individuals dead near the rivers, which are plenty in Bangladesh. I can imagine that being from Pakistan it is not easy for you to imagine such geographical features.

Mukti bahini soldiers and officers were some of the highest trained military personnel of your army and some of them won the highest gallantry awards during 65 war against India. So you are saying you guys render highest awards to personnel who have objectionable morals?! This mukti bahini fighters along with Bengali civilian fighters were from the simplest of the homes of Bengal and most of them were not even involved in the politics. They went to the war against all odds, sometimes even not telling their mothers in case they stop them from going to the war for the fear of their sons' lives. These people had no dream but to liberate Bangladesh and her people. Why would they kill the same people who supported them?!!! Did you even take one second to contemplate the grave remarks you are making against mukti bahini here? The intellectuals were killed during 26th of March and 14 December mainly in Dhaka or major cities. All these times the cities, specially Dhaka were fully under Pakistan Army's control. Mukti bahini was not even formed in 26th of March and Bengali military and police personnel were busy saving their own lives without any weapon(as they were taken away by Pakistan Army before 26th March) against the brutal attack of Pakistan Army on the barracks containing sleeping Bengali soldiers. On December 14, Dhaka was under Pakistani occupation and Mukti bahini was with Indian army outside Dhaka preparing to enter Dhaka. So the atrocities were committed by Pakistan Army. Let the truth prevail.

Comparing Nazi with Pakistan Army is an insult to the greatest fighting machine of the 2nd world war. Russians, Americans raped more women in 2nd world war than the Nazis. German Wehrmacht was one of the better behaved army in the 2nd world war and their treatment of POW was the fairest. During 1st world war, famous Belgian women spying for the Entente told the world the honour with which they were treated in the German prison. Germans were the highest trained, the best man to man fighting force of the both world wars and I do not see the point of your comparing Pakistan army with them. Nazis did not even kill 6 million jews. that's a Zionist propaganda. That does not underestimate the number of civilians killed during 2nd world war though because jews were not the only victims of the world war. The total civilian dead during 5 years were 49 milion in world war two, not 6 million. so 7.35 million civilian died in every 9 months during 2nd world war. out of which 6 million/nine month were allied civilian casualty. so you see, in 1971 Pakistan army was much less brutal, if that relieves you a bit, by only killing 3 million Bengalis, at less than half the rate of the Axis army in 2nd world war

Yes we have proofs of the ones who were killed. The bodies were in Bangladesh, at the place of their death, sometimes taken a further few kilometers from the place of the death by the Pakistani Army to bury them all in mass graves. According to Muslim rule, the dead must be buried as soon as possible. Sometimes they were thrown at the river where the fish had eaten the rotten flesh and sometimes dogs and foxes had eaten away the deads on the land. Pakistani army atrocities brought back the once extinct vulture species Gyps indicus in Bangladesh to feed on the dead Bengali civilians lying on everywhere. There is not a single relative of mine who did not witness a dead body killed by Pakistani army during 71. Did you expect us to preserve the bones and dead bodies till now so that a sonicboom from Pakistan questions the validity of the truth 40 years after the incident and we ought to show him the bones? Well, I am sorry, we weren't that big of a visionary

Bengalis never betrayed anyone, let alone betraying themselves. It was always invaders, let it be, the wondering Arab opportunists, or the British colonialists or the Hindu landlord class. Mir Jafar was an arab who betrayed the nawab of Bengal. Pakistanis were the betrayers during 47-71 by pretending to be muslim brothers but doing the worst form of zulum , dishonesty and terror. There was nothing Islamic in the way West Pakistani treated Bengalis. Talking about BDR incident, BDR was not part of the army. SO Bangladesh Army were not betrayed by its own soldiers. Not a single Bangladesh Army soldier rebelled in the incident. But then in what face do you even talk about such incidents happening in Bangladesh when unspeakable things are happening in Pakistan?! how come Muslims are scared of going to the masjid in Islamic Republic of Pakistan nowadays?! how come a Pakistani muslim blows himself up in a jumma prayer?! what have your security forces done to the public that there is probably one attack on their training camp each week?! man from outside Pakistan, as a non-pakistani it is hard to grasp who is betraying whom in Pakistan! Actually you are right, we Bengalis were lucky to have got away from you guys in 1971 with just 3 million deads. Because even if it had to take the whole 70 million Bengalis to liberate Bangladesh from West Pakistan, we would have done it. It is Allah's rahmat that we got away with 3/70*100%=4.3% of our population earning the glory of being shaheed in the jihad against oppression. alhamdulillah

Don't take it as a disrespect nor i mean it to the bangali brothers or the ones who lost their live in 71, as atrocities did happen.

But your above post is just like what the Jews advocate about their 6 million dead on the hands of the Nazis without logical and conclusive evidences contradicted by researchers but unfortunately not much work can be done in this matter as contradicting the 6 million figure or the holocaust is a crime in those countries, & Nazis whom you just called one of the best fighting forces during 2nd WW, even if you think just that way about Wehrmacht, but fact is Nazi empire included all of them, even Wehrmacht hands are not clean in atrocities, similarly when many officers and soldiers of PA neglected the orders of their superiors in carrying out atrocities doesn't matter to you guys as whole PA & Pakistan is villain for its role, same case all Nazi empire is considered evil even there were good men in it who resisted the evil.

So if you guys feel happy with an impossible to believe figure of 3 million dead by around 90,000 troops in a hostile country, who had to do lot of more things then just killing people like manning the border, fighting the India supported bukhti bani, then you guys are most welcome.

But we may never know the exact figure in this world but hope so in the after life the real figures and the real culprits are unearthed who made this disaster to happen resulting in scores of innocents losing their lives.

Long Live Bangladesh

 

[gromell]

Nazis whom you just called one of the best fighting forces during 2nd WW, even if you think just that way about Wehrmacht, but fact is Nazi empire included all of them, even Wehrmacht hands are not clean in atrocities, similarly when many officers and soldiers of PA neglected the orders of their superiors in carrying out atrocities doesn't matter to you guys as whole PA & Pakistan is villain for its role, same case all Nazi empire is considered evil even there were good men in it who resisted the evil.

But we may never know the exact figure in this world but hope so in the after life the real figures and the real culprits are unearthed who made this disaster to happen resulting in scores of innocents losing their lives.

Long Live Bangladesh

No one is blaming all Pakistanis for what happened in 1971. Even Mujib did not do it. When Bhutto was uttering unspeakable language at rallies in Pakistan regarding Bengalis, Mujib always referred to Pakistanis with respectable terms. The point is you guys, at least most of you don't even hold your army responsible for what it had actually done. Of course no one will know how many were actually dead because there are families whose relatives' bodies were never discovered. so it is possible there were more than 3 million deads. You guys have no idea how common it was for Pakistani Army to gun down anyone they suspected without any proof or anything, just on the ground they were Bengali or they did not speak urdu, or they just had to make their superiors happy or simply just as a retaliation on civilian for some mukti bahini attack on their posts. There are chilling accounts from the wives of the Dhaka University professors whose husbands were rounded up at night by Pakistani army officers and their soldiers and they never returned. Only few of their bodies were correctly identified later. One famous hindu professor of Physics of Dhaka University told the Pakistani officer that everyone in his house is hindu and he is also hindu when the army came to take him away during 26th of March, so that considering them as minority the Pakistani officer won't hurt them. he was killed and dumped by the pakistan army. Those were not mukti bahini soldiers! Neither were they any Indian spies. They were Pakistani army with full loads of soldiers in trucks and jeeps at a time when Pakistan Army announced to the world they have full control of the city!

 

[TaimiKhan]

No one is blaming all Pakistanis for what happened in 1971. Even Mujib did not do it. When Bhutto was uttering unspeakable language at rallies in Pakistan regarding Bengalis, Mujib always referred to Pakistanis with respectable terms. The point is you guys, at least most of you don't even hold your army responsible for what it had actually done. Of course no one will know how many were actually dead because there are families whose relatives' bodies were never discovered. so it is possible there were more than 3 million deads. You guys have no idea how common it was for Pakistani Army to gun down anyone they suspected without any proof or anything, just on the ground they were Bengali or they did not speak urdu, or they just had to make their superiors happy or simply just as a retaliation on civilian for some mukti bahini attack on their posts. There are chilling accounts from the wives of the Dhaka University professors whose husbands were rounded up at night by Pakistani army officers and their soldiers and they never returned. Only few of their bodies were correctly identified later. One famous hindu professor of Physics of Dhaka University told the Pakistani officer that everyone in his house is hindu and he is also hindu when the army came to take him away during 26th of March, so that considering them as minority the Pakistani officer won't hurt them. he was killed and dumped by the pakistan army. Those were not mukti bahini soldiers! Neither were they any Indian spies. They were Pakistani army with full loads of soldiers in trucks and jeeps at a time when Pakistan Army announced to the world they have full control of the city!

I think you are taking the issue towards another direction, which i respectfully did not challenge. I did not challenged that atrocities did not happen they off course happened, i had challenged the assumption of the figure as i said its just like how jews prove their 6 million dead from their accounts, no body says jews did not die, but people challenge the figure quoted, same way i am not challenging or showing any doubt about what happened, i doubt the figure which you or other quote of 3 million.

 

[gromell]

But we may never know the exact figure in this world but hope so in the after life the real figures and the real culprits are unearthed who made this disaster to happen resulting in scores of innocents losing their lives.

Long Live Bangladesh

Thank you for those words. Surely the culprits will not go unpunished. Allah is the greatest of the judges.

 

[Bushy]

Found this interesting video by BBC, thought I'd share it here.

 

[gromell]

the first guy has good prospect

 

[gromell]

One of the most famous 1971 war photographers Naib Uddin Ahmed recently contributed with his work in the Bangladeshi newspaper the Daily Star. Here are some excerpts.


Undefeated Bangladesh
A photo feature by Naib Uddin Ahmed

With a Rolleiflex Camera, I wandered from one killing field to another taking photographs. So many dead bodies eaten by the vultures and foxes! I had wanted to photograph one particular sequence, but I could not. Along the bank of Brahmaputra River, the Pakistani forces would shoot Bangalis standing in queue. The water of the Brahmaputra would move with the roars of the rifles. The blood of the freedom fighters would mingle with the red colour reflected in the water from the setting sun. How many days have I seen this from a distance… I could not preserve this in my camera since I did not have a good tele lens. But those bloody sequences are preserved in the memory through the black and white lenses of my two eyes. The dead bodies would appear floating in the chars. Even now, when I look at the water of the Bahmaputra, I can see the shadow of those dead bodies.

Hiding the camera in the piles of grass of grass suppliers, I photographed the Pakistani forces patrolling. At times I waited hours after hours hiding in the depth of the common reeds (kashbon).

I cannot control myself even now when I remember the senseless, blood-spattered Shahana. The helpless shouting of Shahana in the hospital still echoes in my head. And the cry of her parents… I still can still see Shahana tearing her hair like mad and shouting "save me." As if she was not alive any more; as if she died. Tears well up in my eyes when I look at her. I wish I could cry loudly, but I cannot. My heart cries. Only a few days ago, she told me, "Naib Uncle, the chars of the Brahmaputra are now full of white reed flowers (kash phul). You'll take my picture there. If you do that, I'll sing a song for you: 'we've tied a bunch of kash'."

In 1971, I have seen much of the destruction, and torture and brutality of the Pakistani occupiers, their associates and the collaborators. I have seen the suffering of the terrified and suffering of the refugees. Moreover, we saw the compact and united language movement of 1952, the protests and movement for autonomy by the people of this country between 1959 and 1969, and the sparks of the mass uprising in 1969. We heard the historical speech of Bangabandhu on March 7, 1971, the speech that stood up to Pakistani tyranny. We heard the Joy Bangla slogan of the freedom loving people, the slogan that soared across the sky and air. We saw the mass resistance from people, fighting, and the tales of heroism of freedom fighters. This face of my Bengal, this Bengal is the undefeated Bengal.






This image is a different angle to the same image in my avatar! Taken by Naib Uddin Ahmed.

 

[gromell]

Story from the people who experienced it all

A child's victory
Inam Ahmed

December 15
The usual nightly sortie of the mysterious droning plane was there. Followed by the terrifying bombardments. Usually two or three bombs flew down from the mysterious plane. You could actually hear the bombs coming, or at least we would imagine them because it was so quiet everywhere. Then a blue flash would fill the rooms, something like camera flashes. And then the drone of the plane would face away. Every night it happened and we waited in muted anxiety and fear for the routine thing to be over.

That night, the December cold seemed even more suppressing as we could hear distant cannon fires. The booms were barely audible. You could only feel the change in the air pressure in the room and the windowpanes clattered. The windows were pasted with papers crossed in X so that the glass splinters did not hit anybody. Who told us to do it, I have no idea now. But probably it came from my father who had defence training.

I lay there awake, hearing the elders whispering about the 'imminent street fighting' and the Indian forces and the Mukti Bahini advancing onto Dhaka city with cannons booming. We did not know what to do. We could not escape because of the curfew in force. The scared baying of dogs, the swirling fogs and the occasional swishing of tyres of army jeeps deepened the winter cold. It was a winter like never before. Or could be. It was winter 1971.

December 16
There was something unusual about the morning. It was a dull morning with thin fog still spreading across the city. The unusual thing was the absence of the morning bombings by the Indian MIG-21s, the delta-winged silver fighting machines not screeching across the sky and then suddenly diving onto Dhaka Airport. The sudden burst of flame from around the wings. And then the zapping missiles shooting into targets. The strange, heart-piercing noise as if somebody was tearing a sheet of steel apart. And then the boom and smoke. There was no air raid siren going on at high pitch. From the second-storey Eskaton building, we could clearly see the airport. The huge white balloons roped around the airfield to obstruct the fighter planes from approaching flying lifelessly. Not that they mattered in the past two weeks. There was a strange silence in the city. We could feel something was happening. Otherwise why the Razakars in black garbs and army jeeps were not on the streets?

It was around 2 or three in the afternoon -- we hardly had a need for clocks in times of war -- that we saw the first jeep entering Dhaka. We looked in amazement at the huge green and red flag with the golden map inscribed inside on top of the open jeep. Behind it were more jeeps and trucks with Indian soldiers and Mukti Bahini men in jubilation. The vehicles rolled down the airport road towards Hotel Intercontinental. Then we knew the country has been liberated. That we are an independent nation. That we no longer have to listen with a trembling heart to the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendro at night on low volume in case the Razakars get to know that we listen to the station. We no longer have to worry about our father and brothers and sisters falling into the hands of the Pakistan army and the Razakars and the Al-Badars. About ourselves, too, the children. There were shots around. Sporadic. We did not know what was happening and did not dare to venture out in case the Pakistan army hits back. (They did actually in front of Intercontinental and a few were dead). Instead, we tuned in to BBC and All India Radio.

December 17
It seemed years since we last came outdoors. We were going in a Ford Cortina. The city looked so strange. It seemed ages since we heard Joi Bangla slogan on the streets. There were people in groups shouting the slogans as the Mukti Bahinis moved around with sten guns and rifles on Willis jeeps and trucks. Suddenly, a dead city was coming alive.

We saw Pakistan army trucks with Pakistan soldiers moving towards the cantonment. They looked wild and dejected as people booed and showed sandals and shoes at them. But they looked menacing with their machineguns that they had used for the last nine months to mull down the Bangalis. They were all heading to surrender. There was this truckload of soldiers taking the turn at Farmgate and with a sudden impulse one of my cousins took off his shoe and waved at the retreating army.

The next few seconds were terrifying. A Pakistan army soldier suddenly jerked his Chinese rifle off his shoulder and pointed it right into our car window. We could hear the bolt cocking. We ducked inside the car and our driver floored the pedal. The car took a U-turn and whizzed past the truck at lightening speed.

Our next stop was the airport. Huge holes created by bombs dropped from Indian fighter bombers looked like volcano craters or dents left by huge meteors and there were the debris of Indian jets shot down in Pakistan army's anti-aircraft gun fires. We picked up some pieces of the planes as souvenirs. Then there was that burned-up Pakistan Air Force jets on the ground and the rocket holes on the ATC tower and the little masjid by the runway. The whole place was a mess. No wonder that the PAF jets could not be seen in the air for the last few days to counter the Indian fighters.

Just then we saw a helicopter, a French built Alouette with bullet holes patched with aluminium disks. It was outfitted with missile pods on both sides and a pair of heavy machineguns pointed down and out on the side doors.

There was a pilot standing by the chopper and he told us that they had used it and another single-engined Otter, similarly equipped, to launch the first attack the morning of December 3 at Godnail oil depot.

We took pictures of the pilot with all of us standing there by the chopper. Later, we came to know his name was Sultan Mahmud. Bir Bikram, who was to become an Air Vice Marshall and head the Bangladesh Air Force. Much later, he was a minister in Ershad's cabinet.

From the airport we headed for the stadium where the Indian army had taken position on the ground floor circular verandah in front of the shops. The soldiers looked tired and battle-weary. They had marched all the way from the border. Dusts still clung to their steel helmets, their heels worn-out. They had their dust-covered machineguns open on the veranda and the bullet belts flowed like coiling snakes.

There was this soldier who had come all the way from Punjab, a Shikh with turbans. My mother who had just lost her eldest son in the war on December 1 suddenly got emotional and held the soldier tightly and broke down in tears.

The Shikh soldier patted my mother and in his heavy drawl called her Mummi (mother) and said something that translates as "Mother, you have lost one son, but we all are your sons. You have gained more."

It was late afternoon when we returned home to Indira Road that we left two weeks ago when the Indian planes started pounding Dhaka airport. The neighbourhood looked deserted. Grasses had grown tall in the Farmgate park. We opened the door and stepped into the sweet home that smelled musty but welcoming.

 

[gromell]

Journey to victory​

Major General AKM Shafiullah was the Second in Command of Second East Bengal Regiment that revolted on the night of March 25, 1971. He talks about the days of December 1971 just before Pakistan Army surrendered.

Sometime around end Sept-ember/early October, we began to feel that we were gaining ground in Bangladesh. The Freedom Fighters we sent inside Bangladesh were making their presence felt inside the country -- although they did not occupy any territory.

IThere was tremendous response from the people who came in thousands to participate in the War. They were so enthusiastic that they needed only 2-3 weeks training before induction in the operation zone.

We decided, in the context of the changed situation, to go for capture and occupation of territory, by launching classical offensive to enter Bangladesh and capture territory from early November. This commenced with the capture of territories along the border. My sector troops were deployed in an area extending from Sylhet/Karimganj, Akhaura, Brahmanbaria, Narshingdi, Raipura right upto Bhaluka. We had our links and informers based on whose information we used to infiltrate our troops inside Bangladesh through the gaps.

The Pakistan army had not begun to withdraw till then, but only after we had started hitting them in certain places. One of the major offensives in our sector was to capture Akhaura. On December 3, when we were fighting almost hand-to-hand with the enemy, Pakistan declared war on India. By then we had entered into collaboration with India. It was called Joint Command Force. I was then commanding a force called the 'S" Force, S' stood for the first letter of my name. Akhaura was captured on Dec 4. The Banglaees were rejoicing and came out on the streets in droves and welcomed us with relief. It is difficult to describe the feelings of the local people at that time.

After the capture of Akhaura our plan was to proceed to Dhaka. The route we decided to take was Bhairab-Ashuganj across the Meghna to Narshingdi and on to Dhaka. This was the easiest way to get to Dhaka. We started from Akhaura on December 6, all on foot since we had no transport.

When we started for Dhaka there were enemy troops in Sylhet and we did not know their exact dispositions. As I was moving along Sylhet, our rear was exposed and we risked being attacked by the enemy. In fact we were not attacked but encountered them as they were running away from Sylhet. While moving towards Brahmanbaria when I reached Paikpara, my leading battalion, under Major Nasim, had placed a blocking position on the road at our back to prevent any one approaching from our rear from Sylhet. On the 6th of December, India recognised Bangladesh. We were rejoicing the event.

On our way, we found the villages to be deserted, whoever were still there had terrified looks. I ma not sure if they had any idea that their country was going to be independent soon, but they seemed worried. That is because at the initial stage of the war when we are resisting the Pakistan Army, but had to fall back, these people were subjected to severe oppression by the Pak army. So, when we entered again they were not sure whether we would be successful this time. They were very guarded in their reaction.

As we were proceeding we found a vehicle approaching from our rear, which looked like one belonging to Nasim's battalion. We thought perhaps Teliapara axis was clear and the vehicle belonged to these elements. We waived at it to stop but found that it was full of Pak troops. They were fleeing Sylhet. We asked them to put their hands up. But they suddenly started firing and the person sitting on the front of the truck got out and grabbed me. We started jostling. Neither of us could bring out our weapon. My runner was holding my sten gun while his own rifle was slung on his shoulder. He was trying to get the Pak JCO with the sten gun. But due to the jostling at one time I came in front of my runner's sten gun and at another time the Pakistani.

At one time I hit the JCO on the groin and he loosened his grip. At this point I gave him a blow and knocked him over. I hit him once again with my runner's rifle. The JCO rolled over and ran behind my runner, used him as a shield and started firing with the sten at me. At this point I saw another truck approaching us. Thinking it to be belonging to the enemy I tried to fire with the rifle but it gave away. When I tried to use my pistol, I found that it was also damaged. What had happened was that two bullets from the sten that the Pak JCO had fired at me struck the pistol. As Providence would have it, only two of the bullets that he fired from the sten hit my pistol that was slung against my waist. It was a miraculous escape. When I found that I was left with no weapon, I jumped into a nearby ditch. There were Pak soldiers in that ruck, I saw them alighting and tried to shoot.

I saw from the ditch the Pak troops taking up positions. I was desperate. I got up from the ditch drenched in mud, and my dress being of olive green appeared to be khaki, the dress the Pakistanis were wearing. So I got up and proceeded in a manner as if I was a commander inspecting their deployment. I was carrying a small Holy Quran and praying to Allah for a weapon and beseeched Him that I should not be killed without a fight. I walked about 150 yards and entered the village nearby.

In the action of my troops 27 Pak soldiers were killed and 13 injured. I evacuated the wounded to a village nearby for treatment. Since I had no vehicle, I used the Pak vehicle which was still running to evacuate the wounded. Nasim was seriously wounded at that time.

We reached Ashuganj on the 8th. The Pakistani troops, who had withdrawn from Brahmanbaria, fell back on Ashuganj. The Indians and we launched an attack on the Pakistani forces on the 9th. The Pakistani destroyed the Bhairab Bridge on the Ashuganj side with explosives on 9th. On 11th morning they destroyed the Bhairab side of the span and withdrew to Bhairab. The Indians meanwhile sent a battalion to encircle the Pakistanis. We went down south to Lalpur, crossed the Meghna and reached Raipura on the 12th. On the 13th we reached Narshingdi, and crossed Demra on the evening of the 14th.

We did not know much of what was happening in Dhaka, but as we were approaching Dhaka we heard the call to the Pakistanis on the radio to surrender.

When we reached Demra we knew that it was all over. We faced no resistance along the way. We were just walking. As the area was familiar to me I crossed the river, went on the other side and started probe in to Demra from the north i.e. the west of the Sitalakhya and took surrender of one of the Pakistani battalions, whose Commanding Officer was Col Khilji.

I was ordered to be present at the airport to receive General Arora at the Race Course for the surrender ceremony. There could not have been a more exhilarating news for us. I planned to move but had no transport to go to Dhaka. As you can imagine, we were moving all this while on foot. I asked Col Khilji to reach me to the airport in his jeep. We had an Indian Brigadier Sabek Singh with us.

As I was moving towards Dhaka I had to move through the ranks of the Pakistani soldiers who had not surrendered till then and were fired upon even though we were traveling in a Pak jeep. We had to get Khilji to tell the Pakistanis not to fire. We reached the airport by 1530 and found Niazi and Rao Farman Ali. I knew Niazi when he was a Lt Colonel.

There was also Brig Baker Siddiqui, COS, Eastern Command. He was once commanding an East Bengal Regiment. And when I was doing my staff college he was my instructor. He said, "Hello Shafiullah, how are you? You fought well". And I replied, "It was all your teaching sir".

Niazi asked, "How are you Tiger?" I found him to be lacking a commander's charisma. He was heartbroken. We rushed to the Race Course from the airport. I was a member of Bangladesh delegation. But we were not sure what we were supposed to do. I was standing in front of the signing table. That's why I do not appear in any photographs. There was rejoicing all around. We put Niazi on a jeep and sent him away. That night I did not come across anyone.

 

[gromell]

The war we did not cover
Inam Ahmed

Abbas -- that is how he represents himself in his business card, just one name; no surname, no nickname -- has been covering wars for the last 34 years. Still he remembers with reverence his first assignment to cover a war -- the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971.

At 58 years of age, memories have dimmed a little, but he can still remember his few weeks in Bangladesh, going to the frontline with the Pakistan army. Abbas had a different time -- he looked at the war from a completely professional angle, trying to snap the best moments which now are of historical importance for Bangladesh. And the only way of covering the war from Dhaka was to get in touch with the Pakistan army.

"I was 24 and it was my first assignment to cover a war," Abbas says, his broken nose, bald head and beard gives him the veteran look of a war photographer who has travelled around the globe to snap strife. "The war in Pakistan got a wide coverage in the Western press and so I decided to come down here to cover it."

Abbas was a free lance photographer as he still is, but he was associated with SIPA, a photo distribution firm. From Paris, he flew to Karachi in mid-November and then took a flight to Colombo.

Getting a visa was no problem as Pakistan had already got a lot of bad press abroad and it wanted journalists to come and cover the war. On the way to Intercontinental Hotel (Now Sheraton Hotel) he found Dhaka a tense city.

His first task was to contact the army, because Abbas wanted to go to the frontier and cover the war. There were about 50 foreign journalists staying at the hotel which was also a Red Cross zone.

"The army started taking us out to different places to show us how they are engaging the Indian army. I went to places like Boda of Dinajpur and Syedpur. The names of other places I have forgotten," Abbas reminiscences. "From the 5th or 6th of December, the army virtually ditched the journalists and we were all stuck at Hotel Intercontinental. We watched the bombings by Indian planes and sometimes went out to shoot the places of bombardment. And then came back to wait."

Abbas stops, recollects his memories. There are so many of them.

"On the 16th morning, we found the freedom fighters entering Dhaka. The usual empty roads of the capital suddenly came to life with people embracing each other and shouting slogans "Joy Bangla." Freedom fighters were marching down with sten guns and rifles. This is the first time that I came across any freedom fighter. All these days, wherever I went with the Pakistan army, the fights were with the Indian forces, never had I the chance to see any encounter with the Mukti Bahinis. But now here they were, full of jubilation and pride. I was photographing the birth of Bangladesh."

"Then an Indian army four-wheeler came with a paratrooper commander. I still remember his name -- KS Pannu. A very brave man," Abbas says.

He walked into the hotel and held a short briefing on the surrender ceremony. As the commander walked out and got onto his jeep, Abbas quickly asked him: "Can I go with you?"

"Yes." Pannu said.

And so he hopped onto the jeep. As they were moving forward, suddenly guns started blazing all around.

"The Pakistan army was shooting from across the road. I was scared to death and so jumped off the jeep. They started shooting at my feet and I was rolling on the road."

But then he noticed that Pannu was standing on the jeep's seat with both hands raised in the sky. He was shouting at the Pakistan army to stop shooting, then he got down and started walking towards the wall behind which the Pakistan army was shooting from.

"I also got up and started walking with Pannu, my hands raised and the camera in my trembling grip," Abbas recollects that heart-stopping moment. "I kept clicking shutters as I walked. This was a dramatic thing going on and I did not want to miss it. There were small square holes in the wall and I could see gun muzzles thrust out of them."

As they walked close to the wall, a Pakistani army major peeked out of the wall and asked why they were here. The major's face was distorted with tension and apprehension.

"The war is over," said Pannu. "Why you are shooting? Stop it."

The major asked why the war is over, and the Indian commander told him that Niazi was going to surrender. The major looked uncertain. It was a tense moment. Would he believe it or start shooting again? He surely did not know what to do. Pannu stretched out his hand and said, "Can I shake your hand?." "The major heisted for a moment and then grabbed it and shook it. We walked back," Abbas relieves the moment.

Death stalks any war photographer and it was no exception for Abbas. He remembers one particular day in the frontline when he had a close brush with death. The Pakistan army was positioned at a bridge in Boda and firing flaks onto Indian position.

"It was a chilly morning and we could see the Indian forces through binoculars," Abbas said. "I was talking to a captain and suddenly a shell landed hardly 8 metres away from us. I was shielded by the captain and so he received grievous injuries. I got away with some small cuts."

While in Dhaka, the photographer also tried to get in touch with the Mukti Bahini.

"We knew Mukti Bahinis are in the capital, but our efforts to contact them failed as they did not risk to get exposed," he says.

Abbas also recalls how the spirit of the Pakistan armies slowly dimmed as it was evident that they were going to lose the war.

"In the beginning the soldiers and officers were boisterous," recalls Abbas. "They talked of overrunning the Indians. But as days wore on, they could see defeat in the face. I remember an officer telling me in Saidpur in his low mood that there is no point in fighting anymore. The war is lost, he said."

Abbas came back from the front as the Indian air strike began on December 2, he saw how the armies were scampering for withdrawal from the advancing Indian army and Mukti Bahini. And the army forgot the foreign journalists at Hotel Intercontinental.

The memory of the surrender ceremony of the Pakistan army has faded in some parts for Abbas. From a long 34-year tunnel he tries to grab at passing scenes and then is not sure whether they actually happened the way he remembers. But some scenes he recalls very clearly.

"After the surrender, Niazi took out his gun and then he cried. There was just one drop of tear," he says. And after 34 years, Abbas has again come back to Bangladesh, the country whose war he covered as a photojournalist.

"I came back after 34 years as I am reaching a age when you tend to look back at the past," he says. "I am not here as a photojournalist, I am like a writer, an artist, reflecting on the past, retracing my steps. I am here to see what has been happening to this country and connect it to my experience."

 

[deckingraj]

i happen to find this talk show on Geo TV...This may give some Pakistani perspective on 71 war...

 

[deckingraj]

 

[eastwatch]

I am fond of reading history and then try to find out the truth. But I find some people here are trying to write a 1971 history of their own that is not based on truth. There were killings, but the 3 million figure is just an absurd figure. In another thread a few months ago I have given my account, so I will not send an elaborate post here.

Sometime in 1972, when Mujib govt asked people to come forward to claim compensation for the deaths of their relatives, there were about 92,000 applications. But, these applications included also the Razakars who were killed by the freedom fighters. Relatives of the Razakars claimed that they were freedom fighters.There were also duplications, such as when a father claimed for his son, an uncle also claimed for his nephew.

In such a circumstance, when Mujib govt found that the mis-statement Mujib made in London that 3 million, and not 3 lakhs as he was supposed to state, people were killed could not be established, the govt just put the files aside. No compensation was ever paid to any body.

3 million means a 11,538 people for each of the 260 days that the war continued. Why some people have to argue for 3 million, I just do not understand. BD govt should have done the counting in 1972, but neither it was done then nor in the subsequent years. But, some people come with a figure that has neither been proved nor been accepted by even the population except some few die hard AL caders who would believe any words coming from the mouth of their leaders as Veda Bakya. There is still time to do the counting.

A British NGO survey recently found the figure somewhere near 269,000. This was published in the BBC news. Not that they were all killed by bullets. Most died of long journey, disease, malnutrition and starvation. However, they were certainly victims of an war imposed cruelly on us.

I have found here people come with good arguments that the Bangalis had no other recourse than to go for a country independent of Pakistan. But, when they insist on the 3 million figure, it becomes like adding one drop of urine in a bucket of milk. All their otherwise good arguments also then come under doubts. Neutral people then start doubting the entire 1971 cruel episode. People should avoid it.

I ask people not to come out with an absurd killing figure, because it is a distortion of history. We are not politicians here, so we should not talk like them.

 

[BanglaBhoot]

eastwatch,

Finally you write something that makes sense but I assume thats because you are trying to make the pro-Indian case stronger.

 

[eastwatch]

One of the most famous 1971 war photographers Naib Uddin Ahmed recently contributed with his work in the Bangladeshi newspaper the Daily Star. Here are some excerpts.


Undefeated Bangladesh
A photo feature by Naib Uddin Ahmed







This image is a different angle to the same image in my avatar! Taken by Naib Uddin Ahmed.

I must thank grommel for sending the reality photographs of 1971 war. Note the photoes where village people are holding very primitive hand-made weapons, we call Ballam in Faridpur, to fight against the machine guns, LMGs, sten guns, mortars and rifles of the well-trained Pakistan army. Was there a chance for them? No chance. Did they know they would be killed by enemy fires from a mile away? Yes, they did know.

But, this is what we are. Pathans have rifles, but we did not have. However, it did not deter us from fighting against a mighty army. Today, although not like the Pathans, but still we have a few lakhs of modern weapons in the hands of common people living in the villages. Another 1971 war replica in today's context will not take us more than 9 days to finish with an enemy. Note another picture where even 12 year old children are also taking training in weapons.

Pakistani posters should respect our resolve and should not make a lame excuse that it was India's doing. India gave us weapons, but we gave our lives to win the war and make the country independent. We fought against your cruelty, and India or Hindus had no role in that except Indian army participation in December 1971. West Pakistan had no chance to win over us, that is for sure.