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Creation of Bangladesh

Musharraf's book adequately covers most lucidly the reason why East Pakistan quit. Distance and separation was not quite the reason. It was basically looking down up the Bengalis and the fear that they would be ruling if they acted en masse.
 
Amm I think if we move towards collabaration and join hands we can become the balancer in SAARC.My point of view is we should empower ourselves ,beleive on our selves and we can become a wolrd power.but right direction is needed for that.

Pakistan keen to boost trade with Bangladesh

Imtiaz Ahmed Back from Pakistan

The News Today - July 27, 2007

Pakistan is keen to further improve the relationship with Bangladesh, and explore every possibility to increase bilateral trade between the two SARRC countries.

Pakistan Foreign Secretary Reaz Mohammad Khan said this while talking to a group of Bangladeshi journalists in Islamabad recently.

He said both Dhaka and Islamabad are enjoying friendly relations in different sectors and laid stress on economic cooperation between Dhaka and Islamabad and increasing the bilateral trade that is below existing potentials.

The people of Bangladesh and Pakistan enjoy a special and unique relationship based on shared history, culture and traditions, and Dhaka and Islamabad have prospects of expanding relationships in social, economic and cultural arenas to benefit the common man of both the countries, Reaz told the visiting delegation.

He also said members of the civil society and press of the two countries can play a key role in creating positive mindset among the people of the region.

He said Pakistan is interested to ink free trade agreement (FTA) with Bangladesh to reap the full potential of bilateral trade between the two countries.

The bilateral trade between Dhaka and Islamabad is above 300 million dollars that has the potential to increase up to one billion dollars initially provided FTA is signed between the two countries.

He also expressed the hope that in the changed global economic environment, both sides will hold dialogues on FTA as regional trade is gaining momentum worldwide.

He said that trade volume between Pakistan and Sri Lanka substantially increased after both the countries signed a bilateral free trade agreement.

The seventh session of Pakistan–Bangladesh joint economic commission was held in May, 1998 and the two sides held discussions on the possibility of entering joint ventures in textiles and small power plants.

He termed the present conflict in the NWFP as a threat to stability of the region and sought international aid to rehabilitate 4.5 million Afghan refugees in the area.

He said Afghan refugees entered Pakistan due to long war between Afghanistan and the then Soviet Union and that is also a matter of concern to Pakistan.

He acknowledged that a stable Afghanistan is a necessity to strengthen the economic, social and political cooperation in Central Asia.

He said the existing poverty and illiteracy is a major challenge in the regions and in a bid to improve the situation it is necessary to share the experience of each other.

Referring to the issue of 1971, he said it was the tragic part of the history and it is time to reconcile and strengthen the bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries.

He said the world is moving ahead and time has come to concentrate on economic issues in the changed circumstances.

He said the present government is reforming the ‘Madrasah’ education system in line with modern education system in rural parts of the country.

Reaz Mohammad said the economy of Pakistan has been growing at over seven per cent during the last four years because of a business-friendly policy of the present government.

He claimed that media in Pakistan now enjoys more freedom than it did seven or eight years back, and in recent years 40- 45 electronic media houses have emerged in the market.

Managing Director of Pakistan Television Yousaf Baris Mirza claimed that though PTV is a state–owned television channel, the government intervention is much less than it was eight or nine years ago.

He said that the PTV is trying to run the organization in a professional manner and emergence of private television channels has increased a competition in the market.

Rai Riaz Hussain, Managing Director of Associated Press of Pakistan, the state- owned news agency, criticised the western media to broadcast biased news against the Muslim world, and said press in Bangladesh and Pakistan should play a key role in this situation.

http://www.newstoday-bd.com/frontpage.asp?newsdate=#6968
 
The Indo Bangaldesh rail link has had their trial run.

It opens service in September.
 
Musharraf's book adequately covers most lucidly the reason why East Pakistan quit. Distance and separation was not quite the reason. It was basically looking down up the Bengalis and the fear that they would be ruling if they acted en masse.

Incorrect ole boy. It was the perception they were being looked down upon, I think you mean thought instead of fear?
 
The Indo Bangaldesh rail link has had their trial run.

It opens service in September.

While I don't like the idea the Indians are also now stalling on further meeting for approving the rail link.
 
Munshi!

ho keen is Bangladeshi government to have brotherly relations with Pakistan? and what they are doing for that? also the Banking sector of Pakistan is growing exceptionally well dont u think that "Grameen Bank" should also start their operations in Pakistan?
 
Incorrect ole boy. It was the perception they were being looked down upon, I think you mean thought instead of fear?

I wouldn't know. I did not write the book. Musharraf did. Ask him. Maybe he is not as wise as you are!
 
While I don't like the idea the Indians are also now stalling on further meeting for approving the rail link.

I really would not know the details, but I have seen hectic work being done to make the rail line serviceable up to the border.

I wonder if what you say is right. The Bangladesh Chief is to visit India and he wanted to meet all those of the Indian Army who fought for the Liberation of Bangladesh. And he specifically wanted to go to Connoor to meet Field Marshal Manekshaw.
 
Munshi! ho keen is Bangladeshi government to have brotherly relations with Pakistan? and what they are doing for that? also the Banking sector of Pakistan is growing exceptionally well dont u think that "Grameen Bank" should also start their operations in Pakistan?

The situation in Bangladesh is very uncertain like in Pakistan. There are a majority of Bangladeshis who would like to see a more wary approach to India and a very friendly one with Pakistan. However, the present crisis in Bangladesh could go either way and I cannot predict how things will turn out. I can only suggest both Pakistan and China to keep close watch on events in Bangladesh because it could have far reaching repercussions in all of South Asia and even further.

I really would not know the details, but I have seen hectic work being done to make the rail line serviceable up to the border.

I wonder if what you say is right. The Bangladesh Chief is to visit India and he wanted to meet all those of the Indian Army who fought for the Liberation of Bangladesh. And he specifically wanted to go to Connoor to meet Field Marshal Manekshaw.

It appears there has been a return journey of the train service from Dhaka to Kolkata but there appears to be some problem in resolving certain details which is stalling a regular commercial service.

In relation to the diplomatic relations between the two countries the situation as noted above is uncertain and it is impossible to confirm what is in the mind of the government or the military high command. I can only suggest to watch this space ……
 
When East Pakistan Became Bangladesh

BY SULTAN REZA

Mr Sultan Reza, is a Bangladeshi-American businessman turned freelance writer. He lives in Falls Church, Virginia, USA and speaks Urdu as fluently as Bengali and English.


The Fall of Dhaka was sudden and abrupt. As late as December 15th 1971, my pro-Pakistan friends kept saying that the Seventh Fleet of the US Navy was on its way and as soon as it reaches the Indian Ocean, India and it’s ally Russia would back down. Their claim about China’s intervention to provide air support to Pakistani troops, without which they had become sitting ducks, made more sense. China had already fought a war with India and was considered a more reliable friend of Pakistan. But neither the Americans nor the Chinese showed up. The Indians and the Russians did!

On the morning of December 16th, 1971 around 8 a.m, I heard a rumor that General Arora of the Indian Armed Forces was coming to Dhaka to accept the surrender of General Niazi. By 10 a. m this rumor became the news.

Millat, my bridge partner, who was a co-coordinator of the freedom fighter’s movement in Bangladesh, confirmed that a General of the Indian Army was at that very moment having a meeting with his Pakistani counter-part at Savar, just outside Dhaka, to discuss the terms and conditions of the ensuing surrender.

An hour later, I came to know that the draft agreement was approved by Pakistan and the formalities of the surrender would take place at Ramna Racecourse in late afternoon.

It actually took place at 5 p.m after General Arora arrived from Calcutta by helicopter. Pro-Bangladesh Bengalis started celebrating and the Pro-Pakistan Bengalis and non-Bengalis started panicking. By noon, one could see Pakistani soldiers heading towards the Ramna Race Course. Then I noticed some flags being hoisted on roof tops. It was a green flag with a red circle on it. Someone explained to me that the green background symbolized the greenery and the red disc represented the rising sun and the sacrifices we made to gain the independence.

I was on my way to Shantinagar from Tipu Sultan Road, when I saw near the Christian graveyard, three Bengalis with guns chasing four Bengalis and two non Bengalis. The crowd was running behind them. Mukti Bahinis, were chasing the Razakars, to kill them. The crowd was shouting “Joy Bangla, Joy Bangla” and gun shots or blank fire in the air could be seen and heard. I could not feel any joy or excitement. I was relieved, yes, because the liberation war was coming to an end without millions more having to pay the price for it. But I abhorred this revenge part. Why not arrest and hand the suspects over to the authorities and let the court decide? Many Bengalis like me had similar mixed feelings of relief and sorrow. But for those, whose loved ones could only return to their homeland after the departure of the Pakistani troops or those whose daughters, mothers and sisters were raped by the Pakistani Militia and Army, this was a day of rejoice and revenge. They could not touch the defeated Pakistani Army, who had surrendered to the victorious Indian Army and were therefore under their protection. So they went after the civilians and the paramilitary forces – those who had openly supported Pakistan and were called Razakars.

For the “Biharis” and “Razakars”, it was doomsday. Bihari was the term used for all non-Bengalis and Razakars were paramilitary forces who had volunteered their services to the Pakistan Army, who utilized them as “ Mujahideens to kill the Kafirs” by giving them Islamic names like Al-Badr and Al-Shams and misleading them into believing that East Pakistanis were no longer Muslims. Razakars could be a Bihari or even a Bengali. Many of them were hunted and killed by the people who recognized them, supported by the Mukti Bahinis with guns and pistols . Every Bengali became a Freedom Fighter and all the non-Bengalis became Razakars. Those Bengali civilians, even politicians who cooperated with the Pakistan government, were termed as traitors and treated as such.

There were many Bengalis, from other political parties like Muslim League and Jamaat-e- Islami, who did not agree with Awami League mandate of autonomy. Nor did they wish the break up of Pakistan. Some of them even cooperated with the Martial Law government to buy time and to convince the military rulers that what they were doing was not right. Maulvi Fariduddin was one of them. He was a God fearing Muslim and a genuine Bengali. He had been a Member of the National Assembly too. Fariduddin was mercilessly beaten to death. There were many others like him who did what they thought were right and it turned out to be a wrong decision that cost them their lives.

Even Mohammad Idris, who started shooting at the Mukti Bahinis because they had broken up Pakistan, was not a bad person. He was more patriotic than many in West Pakistan and simply could not stand the sight of its army’s surrender. He decided to go down fighting for the country he loved most. It is a pity that Pakistan does not appreciate this sense of patriotism and is still making excuses about bringing the “Biharis” back home. Almost all the non-Bengalis were treated badly after the fall of Dhaka with the exception of the members of Aga Khan community, who had behaved very sensibly by not acting like Maulvi Fariduddin or Mohammad Idris. From the beginning, they followed the command of their leader Aga Khan, to mingle with the local people, respect them and learn their language.

December 16, 1971 was a day of “ Saneha”, “Doorghotona” or "Tragedy" for the Muslims of the Indo-Pak subcontinent including a large percentage of Bengali Muslims in East Pakistan, who considered that Yahya Khan’s reluctance to convene the National Assembly was very unfair and his agreement with Bhutto to keep Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from becoming the Prime Minister of Pakistan was a conspiracy. But all of them were not Awami Leaguers and most of them believed that people charged in the Agartala conspiracy case, if found guilty, should be punished. They did not support the break up of Pakistan. They remembered well, the bad treatment their fathers and grand fathers had received from the Hindu Zamindars before the partition of India in 1947 and felt relieved to find Pakistan as their new homeland. Therefore at the beginning only Awami League and its staunch supporters wanted a separation while the majority wanted that the power should be handed over to the person who had won the election.

Sheikh Mujib controlled the majority seat in the National Assembly. Out of 300 National Assembly seats, Awami League had won 167 and Wali Khan had offered to join him with his 30 seats, yet Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto wanted to be the Prime Minister of Pakistan with his only 97 seats. Yahya Khan supported him because he was promised to be made the President. The parties failed to agree on anything or were failed to decided on a solution and Martial Law was declared. Failing to beat the Bengalis into submission, they resorted to committing the greatest genocide in recent history. This atrocious behavior of Pakistani politicians and army generals alienated all the Bengalis of East Pakistan and infuriated many, resulting in the War of Liberation on March 26 itself. At the behest of a Chittagong industrialist Mr. A. K. Khan and on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, General Zia declared the independence of Bangladesh from Chittagong radio station.

Slowly but steadily, more and more East Pakistanis realized that independence from the clutches of the rulers of West Pakistan was the only way left for them. Their children started going away to India to join the liberation war and they continued to suffer in the hands of what was now the “Occupation Army”. They sought India’s help, who was anxiously waiting to provide them. This was their chance to retaliate against Pakistan that was calling their part of the Kashmir as “ Occupied Territory” and fought two wars with them over this issue.

India declared that “Pakistan was occupying its Eastern Wing against the will of its people and forcing them to seek shelter across the border”. They intervened with the backing of Russia and the result was the creation of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh - even better than the autonomous East Pakistan that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had initially demanded. A look at Dhaka alone will testify that it turned out to be a great boon in disguise and the reward fully justified the demand for it.

A new generation of Bengali industrialists, entrepreneurs, bureaucrats and diplomats cropped up overnight and started building the city skyward. A look at the Dhaka high-rises puts Calcutta (Kolkata now) to shame.

In the villages too, thanks to NGOs like BRAC and Grameen, people are in sync with the progress that the country has made in the past 35 years. More educated, better skilled and less poor, they certainly look happier than they ever were in the colonial days of British and then with Pakistan. Yet I sometimes feel that we should have retained the name of Pakistan and Mr. Bhutto, if he so desired, could have walked away with his Sindh province and found a name for his new country. Just kidding!

But it is a fact that in 1970, there were more Bengalis in united Pakistan than there were Punjabis or Sindhis or Pathans combined. It was the Muslims of East Bengal who had wholeheartedly supported the Lahore Resolution of 1906 that the Sher-e-Bangla A. K. Fazlul Huq moved and Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah mooted - making the demand for the division of India on the basis of religion. Even though Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, as a Muslim leader and the President of the Indian Congress Party had appealed to the 120 million Indian Muslims to stay back, over 60 millions of them left their home and hearth to migrate to Pakistan. Mostly to West Pakistan and some to East Pakistan - from the neighboring states of Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and even Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. For them, it would have been Love’s Labor Lost.

My parents migrated from West Bengal to East Bengal, which became East Pakistan. But my grandmother did not. She remained in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and even advised her only son to stay behind. He did not listen to his mother and eventually had to pay a price. My parents admired Mr. Jinnah so much that when he declared that “Urdu and Urdu alone will be the state language of Pakistan", they admitted us to an Urdu medium school. But we continued learning and speaking Bengali because that was our mother tongue and she did not know any Urdu. Nor did any of our maternal aunts and uncle know Urdu. After the independence of Bangladesh, we quickly reverted back to Bangla Bhasha. Who wants to be a second class citizen? That is what the non-Bengalis had suddenly become.

After Bangladesh was created and after the 90,000 troops of the Pakistan Army and some civilians who surrendered to the Indian Army were taken to India and after President Yahya Khan resigned and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto became the Prime Minister of “what was left of Pakistan”, Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman was released from the Pakistani jail and sent to London. There he gave the statement (in English) that he was against the creation of Pakistan. Bhutto was vindicated. It restored his credibility having said that Mujib wanted independence. It seemed to me Bongo Bondhu (Sheikh Mujib) was out smarted or was it a condition of his release?

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman returned to Dhaka on January 10, 1972. A proclamation of Independence, adopted and formally announced by the Bangladesh Government in Exile on April 17, 1971 had declared that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the President of The People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Tajuddin Ahmed the Prime Minister and Nazrul Islam, the Vice President. Nazrul Islam had signed it as the Acting President in the absence of President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who was locked up in a Pakistani jail. Some say that it was only after he reached London that he was told that Pakistan had lost the war and Bangladesh had won the war of liberation. I do not buy this simply because I cannot believe that Mr Bhutto would unconditionally release the “ Big Fish” without laying any fresh bait. It sounds fishy.

I was there at the Tejgaon airport when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman returned to a hero’s welcome. M illions of his countrymen came from far flung areas and villages to catch a glimpse of their Bongo Bondhu. Advocate Kamal Hossain was with him. It was rumored that because of his affinity to Urdu, he had betrayed the champion of the Bengali Language Movement, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. First thing that Sheikh Shaheb did was to introduce Kamal Hossain as his friend in need who , he said “was a loyal friend indeed. He called him a proud citizen of Bangladesh just like him. I personally was impressed and liked the gesture and felt encouraged that with his arrival the riot among Bengalis and ‘Biharis” would stop and this racial problem of Bengalis seeking revenge against the “Biharis” would come to an end.

I also hoped that like Kamraj of the Indian Congress, he would resign from the office of the President and continue as the Party Chief of the Awami League allowing Mr Tajuddin to run the government under his guardianship, supervision if necessary. Something that Sonia Gandhi is doing now. I was disappointed on both counts. He did resign from the post of the President but only to become the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Mr. Tajuddin was sent a prepared resignation letter to sign on, which he did, and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became the Prime Minister of Bangladesh that very day. Justice Sayeed Chowdhury was sworn in as the figure head President which Mujib refused to be. He then introduced the one party system BAKSAL, which he called the 2nd. Revolution.

Mujib now made new enemies. He changed the constitution and once again became the President of Bangladesh on January 24, 1975. Sheikh Mujibur was the Father of the Nation and the most beloved and respected person in Bangladesh at the time of its independence. He could have been the King Maker for the rest of his life, but he decided to become the king himself and ended up losing his life.

With the deportation of the Pakistani Army and Militia and the disappearance of Razakars - the paramilitary voluntary force of the Pakistan Army, people in the streets once again started rejoicing. Army remained the main topic and all kinds of jokes and slogans surfaced about them. Some real and some made up. Some were even taken from Moin Akhtar shows. For instance, there was this story about an Army Major and his wife being stopped at the gates of Dhaka Inter-Continental Hotel by a Pathan Sentry. The guard asked the Major to show his Denty ( identity) card. He said that he was Major so and so and this was his wife and they were going inside the hotel to watch a cultural show. “Denty cards?" the sentry insisted. “ I have left it at home” the Major replied. He was getting annoyed and felt insulted by being questioned like this in front of his wife. Without blinking an eyelid and looking at the wife, the Pathan pondered aloud “ What is this? The thing that he should have left at home, he brought along and the thing that he should have brought with him, he left that at home ?”

Similarly there was this joke about two soldiers walking inside the Thetari Bazaar with an intention to bully the hawkers who were selling chickens. They asked the first one:

“ What do you feed your chicken? “ He said that I feed them “gaum” Which means wheat. With a kick at his butt, he was admonished with these words: "We send wheat from West Pakistan to feed the men and women and you feed it to hens and ###### ?”

When the next hawker was asked the same question, he said that he was feeding them Chawool” (Rice ) He too received a kick and was sternly told “There is no rice to feed the people and you are feeding it to the birds? ”

The 3rd.hawker was a Dhakayeah Kutti, a native of Dhaka, well known for their wit and humor. When asked, what he fed his chickens, he said : “ I do nothing of the sort. “ Early in the morning, every day, I give a “Shikki” ( a Quarter or 25 paisa ) to each of my birds and they buy and eat whatever they fancy” “You do the right thing.” The soldiers remarked and went away. These jokes may or may not have been made up by the people who had suffered from the indignity and humiliation of rude behavior of its own army that they once loved and respected.

But this is what I know to be a fact. One day I met a staff of my friend Somji who was my competitor in jute business but always helped me out when I got stuck with the pricing of hessien and sacking. He was a gem of a person. I noticed an expensive Omega watch in Aslam’s wrist and asked when did he get it. He said "yesterday while I was riding my bike in front of Gulistan cinema, one Swati Militia stopped me and asked for my citizen watch. I had to give it to him. He tied it on his wrist, next to three other watches that he was already wearing. I complained “Khan Saheb, you already have three other watches and you decided to take away my one and only watch? The man said “You do not have any other watch” I said “ No” So he took out the first watch that he had on his wrist and gave it to me. "This is it. Not a bad exchange” Aslam smiled.

I laughed, thinking about one day when a Militia was frantically looking for a building. He went around asking :“Sona Ka Bangla Kahan Hai ?” Perhaps someone had half understood the Rabindra Nath Tagore song “ Amar Shonar Bangla, Ami Tomai Bhalo Bashi” (This is our National Anthem now.) and told him that in Dhaka, they have Bungalows that are made of gold. Mercifully, those army Jawans and Militia kids, who were made to believe the infidelity story of the Bengalis and fairy tales of the Bangla Desh, were now sitting in Indian prison camps near Agra and the slogan in the streets of Dhaka was: "Merein tou Shaheed, Marain tou Ghazi aur Surrender Karey to Niazi”. Meaning that if you get killed, you are Shaheed, if you kill, you are Ghazi but if you surrender, you are Niazi”

This was a way of making fun of the Pakistan Army who had declared Bengalis as Kafirs and used Islamic terms like Al-Badr and Al-Shams to subdue them and yet had surrendered in such a large number to Indian army, whose Commander-in-Chief Field Marshall Manikshaw had simply outfoxed them. His larger army by-passed the entrenched forces of the Pakistan army at the various cantonments of East Pakistan and reached Dhaka without facing much resistance. Perhaps never before, in the history of Islam, more than 90, 000 Muslims had surrendered to a Hindu force, no matter how big. But again, never before a Muslim army had committed an act of genocide against its own Muslim countrymen.

Cheers and jeers apart, after downfall of Dhaka on December 16th 1971, I personally got very worried about my school friends, who were Urdu speaking and living in district towns of Khulna and Mymensingh. Most of them had already left for Karachi or London but one of my childhood friend Matiullah Khan was from Bihar and he was caught up in Khulna. He was working as an Assistant to my brother-in-law, who was the Chief Engineer at the Crescent Jute Mills, in Khalispur, Khulna. When army cracked down on the night of March 25, 1971, my brother-in-law had to run away to his home town in Noakhali and he resigned from his job. Matiullah was given the charge by the army to run the workshop and now the army had gone. I knew that he would be in trouble. So I started calling and could not trace him. The Security Officer of the Mill said that he was not there but he was last seen at the Sports Club of the Residential Quarters by the side of the river. I decided to go to Khalishpur with another friend Majeed who was more fluent in Bengali. Majeed was nearly killed by a Bengali Razakar but managed to save his life by speaking in Urdu to a Punjabi soldier. He was also a very good singer and often sang Rabindra Sangeet for us. So we flew to Jessore and went by bus to Khalishpur. There someone told us that all the Biharis were either killed or arrested. Those living were placed in a camp under the protection of the Indian Army from Bihar. We went and found Matiullah. He was still dazed by the killings he had witnessed, while sitting at the Officer’s Club. Killing of Bihari men, women and children took place with swords and knives across the river at the ghat of Star Jute Mill. Majid and I were ashamed to hear his sad story but at the same time we felt proud that we had risked our own lives to save Matiullah’s. We brought him back to Dhaka. He is now living in Karachi. I was also lucky to be able to safely see off another Bihari friend and his family and my wife’s Punjabi friend and her family at the Dhaka airport after the 30th of December. But I could not save the life of another good friend Riaz, who played cricket with us. An amiable and harmless person, who copied Khan Mohammad while bowling, was a manager of the United Bank in Mymensingh. I heard later that he was put in jail for ten days, then killed.

I had always wanted to drive to Calcutta and then drive up to Delhi through the Grand Trunk road that was originally built by Sher Shah Suri. I got the necessary permission from the Government of Bangladesh and convinced my wife to come along. I also invited my brother Naim and my nephew Yusuf to join us. Depending on who you are, you can call it an adventure or a stupid act. The treacherous road to Calcutta from Dhaka via Aricha, Kushtia and Jessore had land mines laid out by the Mukhti Bahini for the Pakistan Army and by the Pakistani Forces for the Indian invaders. We had to get off from the road at some places and drive through the Dhan-Khet or paddy field. It took us 18 hours to reach Calcutta. Here I found one of my “stay back” aunts sadly sitting in the dark without even lighting a candle. I asked her if the power was out. She said, “No, I just did not feel like switching on the light, thinking that Pakistan has moved away from us. We felt so comfortable and strong when Dhaka was a part of Pakistan”.

Next day, we were treated like film stars wherever we parked our car. Returning to our car after watching a Bengali movie, very often we would find garlands at the windshield of the car which had an East Pakistani number plate EBD 3. When told that we were planning to drive up to Delhi, we were advised even by strangers not to travel through Bihar at day time, as they were very mad at the Bengalis for killing the Bihari immigrants. We left in the evening. Before reaching Banaras, the clutch plate of our car got burnt and we had to leave the car in a garage until we could purchase and bring back a new clutch plate from Delhi.

Continuing our journey by train, I had to face one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. We were traveling Janata class and the compartment was full. A punditji with a big mustache, made place for all of us and then asked me if we were Muslims. After I said yes, very politely he narrated the story of how, once when he was traveling from Karachi to Lahore in First Class with a First Class ticket, a few Pathan passengers entered the compartment and asked him to sit on the floor because he was a Hindu. Then he said, again very politely “You meat eater Muslims have very little patience as compared to us vegetarian Hindus. See, how nicely we made place for all of you” Feeling embarrassed, all I could say was “We are Bengalis, not Pathans”. Other than that, we received a favorable treatment by the Indian Railway officials, who thought that we were Freedom Fighters from Bangladesh.

Our one page passport was mistaken to be a travel pass and more than one booking clerk told us that we did not require tickets because we were Mukti Bahinis. For fear of being apprehended as Bihari refugees from Bangladesh, we were careful not to speak in Urdu, even after reaching New Delhi. The clutch parts we were looking for were not available there and on the return trip, the boys had to get down in Banaras while we continued to Calcutta. They arranged to bring the car back to Calcutta on a truck and narrated this interesting story about the Banarsi mechanic who opened the hood of the Volkswagen and yelled, "This car has no engine” This is how unfamiliar the Indians were of foreign cars in 1971.

Under pressure from Maulana Bhashani and following his own election mandate, within three months of assuming power, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman nationalized major industries, trades and banks. The British Delegation that had come to convince him to not nationalize the jute trade at this critical juncture, was turned back without the Prime Minister taking the time to even see them and explain his point of view. When I was driving them back to the airport, we saw Mujib addressing a group of beggars with their list of demand. Bill Duncan, the leader of the Jute Delegation remarked that “ Perhaps he is not wasting his time. He must learn to beg because business, he does not understand.” Obviously, he felt insulted by Mujib’s refusal to meet the delegation that he was leading. But during those same days, I was surprised and rather annoyed to see a similar statement made by US Secretary of State, Dr. Henry Kissinger. He had described Bangladesh, as “a basket case.” Looking back, I now realize that by saying that, Kissinger had in fact done a favor to Bangladesh. Since its inception in 1971, Bangladesh has been receiving aids and grants to the tune of nearly one billion dollars annually. It still remains one of the poorest countries and many of its loans are routinely written off.

In 1970-71, the Republican Government of Richard Nixon had to take a pro-Pakistan stand against India and Russia as far as the separation of the Eastern Wing of Pakistan was concerned. But Nixon never considered sending the Seventh Fleet to Indian Ocean in aid of Pakistan. Something that the Pakistanis were so desperately hoping for during its 1971 war with India. In spite of all the NATO and SEATO pacts that the USA had signed with Pakistan, it did not feel obliged to defend Pakistan against India and Russia.

The genocide in East Pakistan was no secret to the American public or its government. Even though at times the Republican tried to look the other way and called this issue an internal affair of Pakistan, there were people like George Harrison of UK, who lent their ears and opened the eyes of the Americans by holding concerts for Bangladesh

The refugees had spilled over to India and India was smart enough to solicit the support of Russia and the United Nations to send back the Muslim Bengalis to Muslim Bangladesh. Nixon was no Bush. He fully understood the consequences of going to war with India and Russia away from home. He did not want to be responsible for losing American lives for the sake of Pakistan retaining its Eastern Wing. Yet, after the fall of East Pakistan, when it appeared that India would continue with the annihilation of Pakistan in the West, it was Nixon who warned India and forced Indira Gandhi to declare a cease-fire. Otherwise India was planning to overrun Lahore and perhaps even Islamabad. I therefore think that Pakistanis should be thankful to America for at least keeping a part of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s dream alive. Just as well. Today Pakistan is America’s biggest ally against Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. Could Nixon be so farsighted?

I left Bangladesh after the nationalization of its jute trade and migrated to the United States at the end of 1972. I had come to USA for a visit with my wife and child in July 1972 and leaving them here, I went back to Dhaka a month later with the hope that jute trade would not be nationalized and I would call them back. After they nationalized banks, most trades and industries, I tried to find a suitable job for myself in Bangladesh. But I was told by a director of the jute board that I had my turn and now it was their turn. So, instead of getting my family back to Dhaka from USA, I decided to join them in Chicago and then moved to Metropolitan Washington DC area.

After spending some time here, I realized that Sheikh Mujib’s demand for autonomous East Pakistan was not as outrageous as Pakistan made it out to be. Over here, each state has that sort of autonomy, with their own flag and even flower. As a matter of fact, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s idea of United States of India was even better. With no big budget for defense, United States of India would be such a viable country today.

Of course it needed more planning and a mutual understanding to treat the various provinces justly and fairly like the agreement that the original thirteen states of USA signed with each other. The Constitution that the Founding Fathers of USA drafted, could have served as a sample. But our Founding Fathers started fighting with each other even before the British left and we were not European immigrants like the Americans here are.

Bangladesh Minister for Jute, Mr. M. R. Siddiqui, became the Bangladesh Ambassador to USA. I knew him very well and often visited the Embassy near Connecticut Avenue. Because of my fluency of the Urdu language, a First Secretary at the Embassy once remarked that since I speak such good Urdu, I could not possibly be a Bengali. Narrow mindedness is a big handicap that we Bengalis suffer from. Mainly because we do not want to learn other languages. Urdu, Persian and English were the court languages of the British Government in India that broadened the minds of its intelligentsia.

In 1974, I read a story in the front page of the Washington Post that went like this; “Two young boys in their twenties were arrested and brought to a police station in Dhaka, Bangladesh on suspicion of a robbery and rape case. The Officer-in-Charge telephoned the Police Commissioner, described the boys and asked “ What should I do with them?” The Commissioner told him to hold the line and called the Home Minister, describing the situation and asking the same question. The Minister in turn called the Prime Minister and informed him that two boys of his sons’ age and description were arrested. What should be done with them?

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave a shout and asked Hasina’s mother: “Are Kamal and Jamal home?” After being told that they were resting in their rooms, PM told the Minister and the Minister told the Commissioner and the commissioner told the OC to lock the boys in the cell and file a charge against them.

The Washington Post reporter remarked that while this story may have been fabricated to illustrate a point, it is true that the situation in Bangladesh is very much like this. The sons of the Prime Minister are doing whatever they want and they are protected by their parents.

Within a year of reading this story, one morning in August, 1975 when I opened my front door and grabbed the Washington Post lying on my door mat, I was shocked to read the headline. It said something to the effect: “SHIEKH MUJIB –UR –RAHMAN AND HIS 14 FAMILY MEMBERS SLAIN IN THEIR DHANMONDI HOUSE.

I took the newspaper to my mother-in-law who was visiting us at that time. She started crying thinking of her husband who was a friend of Mujib. How could a man so popular, well loved and respected only three and a half years ago, be now hated so much that his entire family would be ruthlessly killed. It was the shortest span of time during which love turned into hatred.

Footnote:

My Phoopi used to mention about an old lady she once saw many years ago. Some time after Bangladesh came into existence, she went to Makkah for Umrah. There she saw this old lady, touching the cover of Kabbah and praying to Allah: “ O’ Allah, whoever has been responsible for the death of my family members, make them pay a price with their own death and the death of their family members.”

As I sat back and reflected upon the old lady's prayer, I recalled that both of Indira Gandhi's sons, Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi died violently. She herself met a violent death. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto got hanged - his eldest son Murtaza got murdered and his youngest son Shahnawaz died of poisoning. Sheikh Mujibur and all his family members except for Shaikh Hasina were eliminated by his own army.

Were these people or any one of them responsible for the death of the old lady's family? Had Allah punished them in response to her call? Or is it just co-incidence?

May Allah guide us and our political leaders to the right path and forgive us and our families for all of our sins. He is Most Gracious, Most Merciful and oft-forgiving.

But I have not seen anywhere in the Holy Quran saying that He is Always Forgiving!

http://www.despardes.com/articles/jan06/20...k-became-bd.asp
 
We need to clear some things.First of all Pakistanis never considered Bengalis as non-muslims,we cant think like that.Al-badar and Al-shams were formed to fight against the Indian Agents who were creating disturbance in East Pakistan not to fight with our own people.Actually the situation was so confusing that we had to fight against our
people.Who wants that?

Secondly the decision of Making 'Urdu' the National language by Quaid-e-Azam was due to the fact that urdu was the communication language for all the provinces.can a Punjabi communicate with a Bengali with out Urdu?

Yes there were problems in a new born Country where people were not educated and democratic system was not so strong thats why that tragedy happened.

Have u ever heard that Bengalis were kiled in Pakistan after 1971 incident.No because we never considered them as separate entity may be some government officers thought like that but they were very small in numbers.
There is a bengali colony beside my house in Karachi where Bangalis(I would not call them Bangladeshis they are Pakistanis and living here before 1971)live.they are living as equal citizen of Pakistan.

I have never seen my Uncle(chacha) who was a Major in Pakistan Army and was in East Pakistan.he never came,but i dont have any hatred in my heart against Bangladesh as no one in Pakistan.




Continuing our journey by train, I had to face one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. We weretraveling Janata class and the compartment was full. A punditji with a big mustache, made place for all of us and then asked me if we were Muslims. After I said yes, very politely he narrated the story of how, once when he was traveling from Karachi to Lahore in First Class with a First Class ticket, a few Pathan passengers entered the compartment and asked him to sit on the floor because he was a Hindu. Then he said, again very politely “You meat eater Muslims have very little patience as compared to us vegetarian Hindus. See, how nicely we made place for all of you” Feeling embarrassed, all I could say was “We are Bengalis, not Pathans”. Other than that, we received a favorable treatment by the Indian Railway officials, who thought that we were Freedom Fighters from Bangladesh.

I can only say that come and see here how we treat non-muslims.



My Phoopi used to mention about an old lady she once saw many years ago. Some time after Bangladesh came into existence, she went to Makkah for Umrah. There she saw this old lady, touching the cover of Kabbah and praying to Allah: “ O’ Allah, whoever has been responsible for the death of my family members, make them pay a price with their own death and the death of their family members.”

As I sat back and reflected upon the old lady's prayer, I recalled that both of Indira Gandhi's sons, Sanjay and Rajiv Gandhi died violently. She herself met a violent death. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto got hanged - his eldest son Murtaza got murdered and his youngest son Shahnawaz died of poisoning. Sheikh Mujibur and all his family members except for Shaikh Hasina were eliminated by his own army.

Were these people or any one of them responsible for the death of the old lady's family? Had Allah punished them in response to her call? Or is it just co-incidence?

May Allah guide us and our political leaders to the right path and forgive us and our families for all of our sins.

He is Most Gracious, Most Merciful and oft-forgiving.

But I have not seen anywhere in the Holy Quran saying that He is Always Forgiving!


this is what we all have to think! The above mentioned personalities commited a crime by disintegrating Pakistan.Now a wrapper is needed to hide that sad part of history
 
Prelude to Liberation War

Bily I Ahmed

The Liberation War that lasted roughly for nine months in 1971 culminated in Bangladesh's independence on 16 December 1971. The prelude to war includes many factors, which are mentioned below.

Economic exploitation

West Pakistan, consisting of four provinces: Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and North-West Frontier Province, dominated the divided country and received more money than the more populous East. See table.

Between 1948 and 1960, East Pakistan's export earnings had been 70 per cent while it only received 25 per cent of import earning.

East Pakistan had 11 textile mills while West had 9. In 1971, the number of textile mills in the West had grown to 150 while that in the East had only gone up to 26.

A transfer of 2.6 billion dollars (in 1971 exchange rates) worth resources was also done over time from East Pakistan to West Pakistan.

Language factor

In 1948, Mohammad Ali Jinnah declared in Dhaka that "Urdu, and only Urdu", a language that was only spoken in the West by Muhajirs and in the East by Biharis, would be the sole official language for all of Pakistan. Bangla was spoken by the majority of people.

East Pakistan revolted and several students and civilians lost their lives on February 21, 1952. The day is revered in Bangladesh and in West Bengal as the Language Martyrs' Day.

Bitter feelings among the East Pakistanis never ceased to grow, especially with repeated arrivals of military rulers. Later, in remembrance of the 1952 killings, UNESCO declared February 21 as the International Mother Language Day.

Hardships

The Bengalis faced economic, linguistic and political difference and this difference reached a climax when in 1970 the Awami League, the largest political party in East Pakistan, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won a landslide victory in the national elections winning 167 of the 169 seats allotted for East Pakistan and a majority of the 313 total seats in the National Assembly. This gave the Awami League the right to form a government.

However, the leader of Pakistan People's Party, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, refused to allow Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Instead, he proposed a notion of two Prime Ministers. Bhutto also refused to accept Mujibur Rahman's Six Points.

On 3 March 1971, the two leaders (of the two wings) along with the President General Yahya Khan met in Dhaka to decide the fate of the country. Talks failed. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman called for a nation-wide strike.

Military preparation for genocide

General Tikka Khan was flown in to Dhaka to become the Governor of East Bengal. East-Pakistani judges, including Justice Siddique, refused to swear him in.

MV Swat, a ship of the Pakistani Navy, carrying ammunition and soldiers, was harbored in Chittagong Port and the Bengali workers and sailors at the port refused to unload the ship. A unit of East Pakistan Rifles refused to obey commands to fire on Bengali demonstrators, beginning a mutiny of Bengali soldiers.

Between 10 and 13 March, Pakistan International Airlines cancelled all their international routes to urgently fly "Government Passengers" to Dhaka. These so-called "Government Passengers" were almost exclusively Pakistani soldiers in civil uniform.




Bangabandhu's speech of 7 March

On March 7 1971, Bangabandhu (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) gave a speech at the Racecourse Ground (now called the Suhrawardy Udyan). In this speech he mentioned a further four-point condition to consider the National Assembly Meeting on March 25:

-The immediate lifting of martial law.
-Immediate withdrawal of all military personnel to their barracks.
-An inquiry into the loss of life.
-Immediate transfer of power to the elected representative of the people before the assembly meeting on March 25.

He urged "his people" to turn every house into a fort of resistance. He closed his speech saying, "The struggle this time is for our freedom. The struggle this time is for our independence."

Operation Searchlight

On the night of 25 March, Pakistan Army began a violent effort to suppress the Bengali opposition. Before carrying out these acts, all foreign journalists were systematically deported from Bangladesh. Bengali members of military services were disarmed. The operation was called Operation Searchlight by Pakistani Army and was carefully devised by several top-ranked army generals to "crush" the Bengalis.

Although the genocide focused on the provincial capital, Dhaka, the process of ethnic cleansing (elimination) was also carried out all around Bangladesh. Residential halls of the University of Dhaka were particularly targeted.

The only Hindu residential hall the Jagannath Hall was destroyed by the Pakistani armed forces, and an estimated 600 to 700 of its residents were murdered.

Hindu areas all over Bangladesh suffered particularly heavy blows. By midnight, Dhaka was literally burning; especially the Hindu dominated eastern part of the city. Time magazine reported on August 2, 1971, "The Hindus, who account for three-fourths of the refugees and a majority of the dead, have borne the brunt of the Muslim military hatred."

Sheikh Mujib was arrested on the night of March 25-26, 1971 at about 1:30 a.m. (per Radio Pakistan's news on March 29, 1971), which means effectively on March 26, 1971.

Declaration of independence

On 26 March, the nation waged an armed struggle against the Pakistani occupation forces following the killings of the night of 25 March. The Pakistani forces arrested Sheikh Mujib, who, through a wireless message, had called upon the people to resist the occupation forces [source: The Daily Star, March 26 2005]. Mujib was arrested on the night of March 25-26, 1971 at about 1:30 a.m. (per Radio Pakistan's news on March 29, 1971), which means effectively on March 26, 1971. On 26 March 1971, M A Hannan, an Awami League leader from Chittagong is said to have made the first announcement of the declaration of independence over radio.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman signed an official declaration that read:

Bangladesh is a sovereign and independent country. On Thursday night West Pakistani armed forces suddenly attacked the police barracks at Rajarbagh and the EPR headquarters at Pilkhana in Dhaka.

Many innocent and unarmed people have been killed in Dhaka city and other places of Bangladesh. Violent clashes between EPR and Police on the one hand and the armed forces of Pakistan on the other are going on.

The Bengalis are fighting the enemy with great courage for an independent Bangladesh. May God aid us in our fight for freedom. Joy Bangla.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman 25 March 1971

(Source: "The History of the Liberation Movement in Bangladesh" by J. S. Gupta)

A telegram reached some students in Chittagong. They realised the message could be broadcast from Agrabad Station of Radio Pakistan. The message was translated to Bangla by Dr Manjula Anwar. They failed to secure permission from higher authorities to broadcast the message. Failing to secure the permission the students crossed Kalurghat Bridge into an area controlled by East Bengal Regiment under Major Ziaur Rahman. Bengali soldiers guarded the station as engineers prepared for transmission. At 19:45 on 26 March, 1971, Major Ziaur Rahman broadcast another announcement of the declaration of independence on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which is as follows.

This is Shadhin Bangla Betar Kendro. I, Major Ziaur Rahman, at the direction of Bangabandhu Mujibur Rahman, hereby declare that the independent People's Republic of Bangladesh has been established. At his direction, I have taken command as the temporary Head of the Republic. In the name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, I call upon all Bengalis to rise against the attack by the West Pakistani Army. We shall fight to the last to free our Motherland. By the grace of Allah, victory is ours. Joy Bangla.

Kalurghat Radio Station's transmission capability was limited. The message was picked up by a Japanese ship in Bay of Bengal and then re-transmitted by Radio Australia and later the British Broadcasting Corporation.

26 March 1971 is hence considered the official Independence Day and according to all Bangladeshi sources, the name Bangladesh was in effect henceforth.

Indeed, the Bengalis with the assistance of Mitra Bahini- the allied forces, freed their motherland from the Pakistani oppressors. By His grace the victory was ours - Joy Bangla.
http://www.thedailystar.net/suppliments/2006/independence_day/indp16.htm
 
was all that good? :disagree:

How sad the fact is that Muslims of Pakistan faught with each other.
 
We have Salim here how has actually fought in the 1971 war, retired as Indian Army Brigadier. He would be best to tell you about the atrocities commited by the Eastern PA, and the designs of the Indian Army
 

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