Pakistan still in denial about Bangladesh: Time to cut the cancer in both nations

[Meesna]

The events of the War of Independence (Bangladesh Liberation War) in Bangladesh in 1971 remain all too vivid for untold numbers of people from this nation. This is based on one of the worse crimes of the twentieth century and this says something given the Armenian/Assyrian/Greek Genocide of 1915; the Holocaust against the Jews and Gypsies (Slavs also died in vast numbers); Cambodia and the policies of the Khmer Rouge; and the man-made famine of Ukraine. Indeed, the barbaric events of 1971 not only shames the collective memories of elites in Pakistan who deny this reality – just like Turkey does about their genocide; but it also shames the world because so little is known about one of the most darkest periods of world history whereby the intelligentsia, Hindus, and others, were systematically butchered.

Another major distinguishing factor is that just like Pol Pot in Cambodia, it is abundantly clear that internal Islamist forces supported the massacre of their own people. In Cambodia the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot ushered in a chaotic policy based on “year zero.” This policy fused various ideological forces together and adapted them to society in Cambodia in order to “cleanse” all negative forces. However, the Khmer Rouge introduced “a new barbaric evil” based on devouring the masses under false pretexts. Therefore, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia began butchering the intelligentsia and all and sundry by installing a rule of fear where killing became the norm.

In Bangladesh (East Pakistan prior to liberation) the enemies from within fused militant Islamist ideology alongside plying the tyranny and intrigues of Pakistan. Hindus only had to look at the demise of their population in West Pakistan (modern-day Pakistan) to know that sinister forces awaited them. Despite this, the scale of barbarity ushered in by the armed forces of Pakistan and internal militant Islamists in Bangladesh were not foreseen on such a scale. However, within days of the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, it soon became apparent that all progressive forces in Bangladesh faced an internal militant Islamist virus that did the bidding of Pakistan. This fifth column was intent on killing Muslims and Hindus alike based on an “Islamist year zero mentality.”

Sadly, for the people of Bangladesh and Pakistan, the same Pakistan is still playing a very dangerous game despite the clear internal warning signs. This applies to unleashing the Taliban and other militant Sunni Islamist forces several decades ago, which were made and created in Pakistan based on the intrigues of this nation alongside Gulf and Western powers (America and United Kingdom only changed their policy towards the Taliban after September 11 when al-Qaeda in Afghanistan became a serious issue). Therefore, today the Taliban and other Sunni Islamist organizations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with links to the ISI in Pakistan, are involved in killing female schoolchildren, daily acts of terrorism, killing the Shia, persecuting the Ahmadiyya community, plundering the Hindu community, persecuting Christians, forcing women into the shadows – and other sinister realities.

...

The recent hanging of the war criminal Abdul Quader Mollah (Butcher of Mirpur) is a start of eradicating an old cancer that butchered and slaughtered innocents. Yet, Bangladesh, and other nations, needs to eradicate the prevailing cancer which continues to kill and sow the seeds of hatred.

...

The Butcher of Mirpur is no more but Jamaat’s continuing policy and the role of Pakistan are still daggers at the heart of Bangladesh.

Pakistan still in denial about Bangladesh: Time to cut the cancer in both nations | Modern Tokyo Times

 

[Slayer786]

Pakistan have apologized in the past. We have moved on. It is you in Bangladesh who are still crying. The history have been distorted and facts have changed and lies have been told. Many Bengalis who were born afterwards still believe the myths like Pakistan army raping Bengali women.
We agree that atrocities had been committed but it was from both sides. Many Mukti bahini also killed innocent Pakistani and bengali civilians while Pak army killed many innocent bengali men.
It was war and this happens. No justification.

Even bengalis have confirmed that it was all false propaganda by the Indians and the bengalis who took charge of the country.

The Myth of Genocide in East Pakistan in 1971

Ms. Sarmila Bose in her paper entitled “Losing the Victims: Problems of Using Women as Weapons in Recounting the Bangladesh War” paints a picture of the Pakistani military as a disciplined force that spared women and children. She writes:
During my field research on several incidents in East Pakistan during 1971, Bangladeshi participants and eyewitnesses described battles, raids, massacres and executions, but told me that women were not harmed by the army in these events except by chance such as in crossfire. The pattern that emerged from these incidents was that the Pakistan army targeted adult males while sparing women and children.
She also quotes the passage from the Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report that I cited above to support her assertion that so many rapes could not have occurred. 20,000-34,000 could not have raped 200,000 to 400,000 women in the space of nine months.
She states in the introduction:
That rape occurred in East Pakistan in 1971 has never been in any doubt. The question is what was the true extent of rape, who were the victims and who the perpetrators and was there any systematic policy of rape by any party, as opposed to opportunistic sexual crimes in times of war.
To try to bolster her argument that the Pakistani forces in Bangladesh could not have raped so many women, she claims:
The number of West Pakistani armed forces personnel in East Pakistan was about 20,000 at the beginning of the conflict, rising to 34,000 by December. Another 11,000 men — civil police and non-combat personnel — also held arms.
For an army of 34,000 to rape on this scale in eight or nine months (while fighting insurgency, guerrilla war and an invasion by India), each would-be perpetrator would have had to commit rape at an incredible rate.
There are numerous reports out there now which negates the well established beliefs. The declassified US reports, Indian military officers account, Pakistan military officers account, General Niazi’s memoirs, Sharmila Bose, Hamoodurahman commission report.
Many myths have been formed around the creation of Bangladesh. Among them is the fiction that the defeated Pakistan Army savagely killed three million people and raped three hundred thousand women during their less than nine months unsuccessful fight to preserve the integrity of a united Pakistan.
In May 1973, Abdul Gaffar Choudhury, a well known newspaper columnist and close associate of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, said: ‘We are now saying three million Bengali’s have been martyred. Without any survey we are telling three million Bengali’s have died.’ [1] After openly raising doubts about the alleged figure, Choudhury left Bangladesh for good for Britain.
It took another twenty years for the question to be raised again. Participating in a debate in the National Assembly of Bangladesh on 15 June 1993, Col. Akbar Hussain, a decorated ‘Mukti Juddha’ and a Cabinet Minister under both General Ziaur Rahman and Mrs Khaleda Zia, returned to the question. Making a pointed attack on the Awami League for its ‘propensity to falsify history’, he said that the Awami League had created the myth of ‘three million killed’, whereas in reality it was closer to a tenth of that figure. On the following day Shudhangshu Shekar Haldar, a Hindu member of Awami League, challenged Col. Hussain to substantiate his assertion with ‘recorded proof’. Responding to the challenge, the Minister told the National Assembly that after the creation of Bangladesh an announcement was made to pay Tk. 2,000 to every family that suffered loss of life where upon only three hundred thousand families had claimed such compensation. Had there been three million individuals dead, their families would have claimed for compensation.
Poignantly, Haldar could not, and did not, challenge the figure of those actually claimed compensation. Nor could he give any satisfactory explanation for the missing two million seven hundred thousand. Instead, he began inquiring as to what could have prompted the Minister to question’ a well-known fact’.

BEHIND THE MYTH OF THREE MILLION
By
Dr. M. Abdul Mu’min Chowdhury
The author, Dr. M. Abdul Mu'minChowdhury, a native of Sylhet, was educated at the universities of Dhaka,Exeter (England) and London. As a
teacher of Sociology, he taught in his early career at the universities of Agriculture(East Pakistan) and Dhaka during the period of 1967 to 1973.
Many myths have been formed around the creation of Bangladesh.Among them is the fiction that the defeated Pakistan Army savagely killed three million people and raped three hundred thousand women during their less than nine months unsuccessful fight to preserve the
integrity of a united Pakistan.
Recalling this 'heinous' Pakistani crime with suave moral indignation was made into a national ritual. Not only the beaten Pakistan Army but also the subverted Pakistan came to be portrayed as inherently evil and her dismemberment a triumph of civilized values over barbarism. No less a figure than the 'Father of the Nation' was made to consecrate the
lore. With his stamp of authority behind it, his grateful children were implicitly compelled into faithfully repeating it. Not to accept it as 'the whole truth, nothing but the truth' with unquestioning faith was to fall short of being a ‘Bengali patriot’. In those hallucinatory days of ‘liberated’
Bangladesh, the premium for such a terrible shortcoming
was not merely dear, but potentially fatal. The ‘permanent disappearance’ of Zahir Raihan, the celebrated writer and film director,who showed the audacity of forming and heading 'The BuddhijibiNidhanTayithanusandhan Committee' (The Fact Finding Committee onthe Killing of
Intellectuals), in January 1972 [1] was a calculated
warning to all doubting BangladeshisUnderstandably,the sceptics kept quiet and the scoundrels and the credulous joined the chorus masters in singing the saga of three million ‘martyrs’ and three hundred thousand‘heroines’.
Once the ‘Father of the Nation’ had fallen into disrepute and even came to be accused of treachery to the Bangladeshi nation’, some of the deified artefactsadorning the liberationist altar came to be seen as mendacious. But not this nor any other Pakistani crime; at least not
officially. The successive masters of Bangladesh have shown no interest in exonerating Pakistan from any charges, however undeserved they might have been. Instead, by keeping them alive they skilfully played politics by veering on the sides of the accused and the accuser all at once. Alongside the dubious opportunism of the occupants of country who wish to do away with their very existence as a Muslim nation.
http://spittoonwatch.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/the-myth-of-genocide-in-east-pakistan-in-1971/
Source: eBook Published by
www.storyofbangladesh.com

http://spittoonwatch.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/the-myth-of-genocide-in-east-pakistan-in-1971/
http://spittoonwatch.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/the-myth-of-genocide-in-east-pakistan-in-1971/

 

[Saiful Islam]

It was a propaganda war, end of. The mushreek can reinforce their hate into the minds of the Bengalis but it doesn't change nothing, the Agartala conspiracy, the exaggeration of deaths, rapes, all BS! However, that doesn't mean the Pak army didn't carry out atrocities, because they did.

The only people dwelling in the past is Hasina and her cronies and a few middle class sons and daughters who think every situation has to be linked with '71, cry babies.

Bangladesh Zindabad, Pakistan Zindabad.

 

[Cyberian]

Meesna, what do you want? Another apology? Compensation?

East Pakistanis were the majority of the Pakistani population - you got the people and you also got the land.

When is Bangladesh going to acknowledge the genocide of around 250,000 pro-Pakistan Muslims?

 

[phylumchordata]

It was a propaganda war, end of. The mushreek can reinforce their hate into the minds of the Bengalis but it doesn't change nothing, the Agartala conspiracy, the exaggeration of deaths, rapes, all BS! However, that doesn't mean the Pak army didn't carry out atrocities, because they did.

The only people dwelling in the past is Hasina and her cronies and a few middle class sons and daughters who think every situation has to be linked with '71, cry babies.

Bangladesh Zindabad, Pakistan Zindabad.

Bangladesh will always remain a colony of Pakistan who considers you guys inferior to fair skinned Punjabis and Sindhis.

 

[livingdead]

Bangladesh will always remain a colony of Pakistan who considers you guys inferior to fair skinned Punjabis and Sindhis.

most bangladeshis consider themselves inferior to pakistanis.

 

[phylumchordata]

most bangladeshis consider themselves inferior to pakistanis.

even when Pakistani butchered thousands of Bangladeshis they accepted it as a will of god by its angels in the form of fair skinned citizens of the land of pure.

 

[SarthakGanguly]

most bangladeshis consider themselves inferior to pakistanis.

I hope not!

Let's face it - no matter what the public says, Pakistan, deep down, will never accept Bangladesh. They did not when it was a part of the country. Now, after the violent secession, you can't expect Pak and BD to become friends. The civil society will come together - there will be joint cultural programs, Islamic conferences and the like - but the mutual distrust goes deeper than that.

 

[Black Widow]

Now it is a myth, a propaganda...

Mark my words, In next 50 years these Pakistani will blatantly deny the genocide. Denial is in Pakistani mentality..

 

[FaujHistorian]

most bangladeshis consider themselves inferior to pakistanis.

An elite member should avoid flame baiting.

Thank you.

 

[Biplab Bijay]

even when Pakistani butchered thousands of Bangladeshis they accepted it as a will of god by its angels in the form of fair skinned citizens of the land of pure.

After all these people have a habit of Praising Invaders of same ideology. Its natural.

 

[Slayer786]

Hmmm! Indians at their best. They want to sow the seeds of hatred and make sure that we keep hating each other. Not going to work. I have many Bengali friends and we respect each other and care. The hatred is gone. We are brothers. Let the Indians try, but we will always be friends with each other.

 

[Saiful Islam]

Are there any Bangladeshi officers or civilians who experienced the war in 71 to confirm these mass killings people are always on about. I want to hear it first hand.

 

[Flynn Swagmire]

In that war time, mass civilian killing was done by Pak army, and you cant deny that. Thats why almost every Bangladeshi wants official apology from Pakistan.

But, Bangladesh Military and Pakistan Military have better relation then civil and political.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

most bangladeshis consider themselves inferior to pakistanis.

You just have to reacall what the West pakistani Officials and Army-men thought of the East Bengalis at that time calling them pejoratively as "Bingos" or "SDREs" (Small Dark Rice Eating). A senior Maj.Gen. of that time was overlooked for elevation to the post of COAS of the PA; when the first person in the line of succession died suddenly in a Plane Crash. Why? Because he was from East Bengal. Ayub Khan moved up the ladder instead; the rest was history, for the "Bingos" after that leading upto Dec.1971. The blow-back was inevitable.