No apology as Pakistan did not commit any genocide. Those who accuse us are themselves accepting Pakistan Army did not do such a thing.
Terminal X: Indian research scholar at Oxford: Pakistan Army not involved in Bangladesh massacre
Forty years after the independence of Bangladesh, a new book on the conflict by an Indian author has sparked outrage among Bengalis around the world. Sarmila Bose, the US-born author of ”Dead Reckoning” claims, among other things, that the atrocities committed by Pakistani soldiers in Bangladesh were greatly exaggerated and that both sides committed crimes against humanity during the independence war.
The civil war – between what was the East Pakistan and West Pakistan – is believed to have caused up to 3-million deaths (a number Bose believes is wildly inflated). She writes that perspectives on the conflict “are still imprisoned by wartime partisan myths”.
She contends that “many Bengalis - supposed to be fighting for freedom and dignity - committed appalling atrocities. And many Pakistani army officers, carrying out a military action against a political rebellion, turned out to be fine men doing their best to fight an unconventional war within the conventions of warfare.”
Bose, of Bengali Hindu descent and a senior research fellow at Oxford University, claims the Pakistani army was “demonized” and blamed for “monstrous actions regardless of the evidence”, while Bengali people were portrayed as “victims”.
“This has led to a tendency to deny, minimize or justify violence and brutalities perpetrated by pro-liberation Bengalis,” she says, adding that Bangladesh is in a great state of denial over what really happened during the war.
Bangladeshi scholars are savagely criticizing Bose’s book and conclusions.
Naeem Mohaiemen, a New York-based writer, told the BBC that Bose is “pushing her conclusions to an extreme” by assuming that the Pakistan army used “only justified and temperate amounts of retaliatory force.”
Bose said she interviewed people throughout Bangladesh as well as former Pakistani officers and combed through official documents.
She alleges, among other things, that Bengali nationalists in Bangladesh attacked non-Bengalis in the country just prior to the war – including West Pakistanis and Biharis who had migrated eastward during partition in 1947.
Bose told BBC: “In the ethnic violence unleashed in the name of Bengali nationalism, non-Bengali men, women and children were slaughtered.
Non-Bengali victims of ethnic killings by Bengalis numbered hundreds or even thousands per incident... men, women and children were massacred on the basis of ethnicity and the killings were executed with shocking bestiality.”
In response, Mohaiemen told BBC: “She [Bose] also relies heavily on Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report, which was done by the post-1971 Pakistan government with the intention of white-washing the war.”
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Terminal X: When the India-sponsored Mukti Bahini slaughtered 1 million Biharis
When the India-sponsored Mukti Bahini slaughtered 1 million Biharis
Muhammad Abul Kalam [Bangladesh Patriot]
I am grateful to Sarmila Bose for bringing the hidden facts in light.Pakistani Forces fought bravely in East Pakistan in 1971 this has been acknowledged by the Indian army. Rape committed by Pakistan Army in East Pakistan was very rare. In every army there are evil doers. In Pakistan army there may be few.
Actually Mukti Bahini and Bengal Regiment personnel raped the Bihari and west Pakistani women killed about 800,000/ to 1,000,000/ innocent Biharis and West Pakistanis in East Pakistan in 1971. After the 16th of December 1971 Bangladeshis showed the dead bodies and graves of these innocent Biharis and Pakistanis as Bengali people killed by the Pakistan army. This is the fact.
How cruel our Bengali Brothers could be we have observed in the BDR mutiny recently. I belong to a Bihari family who migrated from India to East Pakistan in 1947 and settled in Panchabibi in the district of Bogra. My uncle Bashir and my elder brother was a school going boys at that time and were admitted in a Bangla school at Panchabi and they both Passed S.S.C examination from Panchabibi High School.
In 1971 my uncle was a Primary school teacher there .Although our mother language was Urdu we were educated in Bangla. Our friends were Bengalis but in April 1971 when Panchabi was under the control of Mukti Bahini the Biharis were called to attend a meeting in the Panchabibi Police Station where matter of their safety was to be discusses.The day was Friday. When the time of Juma Prayer came the 110 Biharis who came to attend the meeting asked permission to go to the nearby mosque and say there prayer but they were not permitted to go to the mosque.
They were asked to go Panchabibi High school which was adjacent to the Police Station to say their prayer. While they offering their prayer in the school room of the school the room was locked by th Mukti Bahini from out side and 3 days later on Monday all of the 110 innocent Biharis along with my uncle and my brother-in-law were killed by the Mukti Bahini and loaded on a truck and buried on the bank of Jamuna river in 3 combined graves in the west of Panchabibi Police Station. The Mukti Bahini killed the Biharis in every part of East Pakistan in Dinajpur, Corkai, Phoolbari, Santahar. Natore, Paksy, Issardi,Mymensing, Jessore Chittagong and each and every part of East Pakistan where the Biharis lived.
Indian Support of Mukti Bahini Guerrillas (Documents from the U.S. National Archives)