Well it is good that you have brought forward a different angle on
the 1971 war. As such we here at alochona never denied the atrocities
committed by the mukti Bahini's qader bahini faction which was
involved in the insane killings of biharis and other non-bengalis.
However, I must say that there seems to be a tinge of partiality in
this write up. Towards the end you seem to suggest that "ill-minded
political leadership was the primary cause of the attrocities of
1971". would you kindly explain what you mean to say by this. And as
for seccesionism and nationalism. I always held the view that
economic considerations are at the root of such feeling. Consider the
case of yugoslavia which began its own flirtation with seccesionism
with the start of ronald raegan's policies of "shock therapy"
economics. With the initiation of this aggresive economic policy
there was a deterioration in the yugoslav economy and the different
federal units started to call for greater autonomy. As far as the
case of bangladesh is concerned, the whole idea of seccion began with
this speech of dhiren dutta, "Sir, in moving this– the motion that
stands in my name– I can assure the House that I do so not in a
spirit of narrow Provincialism, but, Sir, in the spirit that this
motion receives the fullest consideration at the hands of the
members. I know, Sir, that Bangla is a provincial language, but so
far our state is concerned, it is the language of the majority of the
People of the state. So although it is a provincial language, but as
it is a language of the majority of the people of the state and it
stands on a different footing therefore. Out of six crores and ninety
lakhs of people inhabiting this State, 4 crores and 40 lakhs of
people speak the Bangla language. So, Sir, what should be the State
language of the State? The State language of the state should be the
language which is used by the majority of the people of the State,
and for that, Sir, I consider that Bangla language is a lingua franca
of our State. It may be contended with a certain amount of force that
even in our sister dominion the provincial language have not got the
status of a lingua franca because in her sister dominion of India the
proceedings of the constituent Assembly is conducted in Hindustani,
Hindi or Urdu or English. It is not conducted in the Bangla language
but so far as the Bangla is concerned out of 30 crores of people
inhabiting that sister dominion two and a half crores speak the
Bangla language. Hindustani, Hindi or Urdu has been given and honored
place in the sister dominion because the majority of the people of
the Indian Dominion speak that language. So we are to consider that
in our state it is found that the majority of the People of the state
do speak the Bangla language than Bangla should have an honoured
place even in the Central Government.
I know, Sir, I voice the sentiments of the vast millions of our
State. In the meantime I wand to let the House know the feelings of
the vastest millions of our State. Even, Sir, in the Eastern Pakistan
where the People numbering four crores and forty lakhs speak the
Bangla language the common man even if he goes to a Post Office and
wants to have a money order form finds that the money order is
printed in Urdu language and is not printed in Bangla language or it
is printed in English. A poor cultivator, who has got his son, Sir,
as a student in the Dhaka University and who wants to send money to
him, goes to a village Post Office and he asked for a money order
form, finds that the money order form is printed in Urdu language. He
can not send the money order but shall have to rush to a distant town
and have this money order form translated for him and then the money
order, Sir, that is necessary for his boy can be sent. The poor
cultivator, Sir, sells a certain plot of land or a poor cultivator
purchases a plot of land and goes to the Stamp vendor and pays him
money but cannot say whether he has received the value of the money
is Stamps. The value of the Stamp, Sir, is written not in Bangla but
is written in Urdu and English. But he cannot say, Sir, whether he
has got the real value of the Stamp. These are the difficulties
experienced by the Common man of our State. The language of the state
should be such which can be understood by the common man of the
State. The common man of the State numbering four crores and forty
millions find that the proceedings of this Assembly which is their
mother of parliaments is being conduct in a language, Sir, which is
unknown to them. Then, Sir, English has got an honoured place, Sir,
in Rule 29. I know, Sir, English has got an honoured place because of
the International Character.
But, Sir, if English can have an honoured place in Rule 29 that the
proceedings of the Assembly should be conducted in Urdu or English
why Bangla, which is spoken by four crores forty lakhs of people
should not have an honoured place, Sir, in Rule 29 of the procedure
Rules. So, Sir, I know I am voicing the sentiments of the vast
millions of our State and therefore Bangla should not be treated as a
Provincial Language. It should be treated as the language of the
State. And therefore, Sir, I suggest that after the word 'English',
the words 'Bangla' be inserted in Rule 29. I do not wish to detain
the House but I wish that the Members present here should give a
consideration to the sentiments of the vast millions of over State,
Sir, and should accept the amendment that has been moved by me."
Take note of how he makes the example of the difficulties of the poor
cultivator. This is how the idea of a bengali identity began and the
beginning of a Bangladesh. With economic predominance being held by
the west over the east the situation was aggravated and a simmering
discontent began among the bengali masses. It does not make sense why
only the bengalis revolt in 1971 and not any of the other provinces.
There must be something deeper than just bad politics. I would
request Mr.Sajjad to go through available data on the pakistani
economy to understand more about the regional inequalities which
cropped up. At the same time I would like to thank you for bringing
to light the equally heart rendering story of the bihari minorities
of bangladesh. It is about time people learn the difference between
justice and vengence.
--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, "Saj" <SAJJAD_PAK@...> wrote:
>
> Excerpts from "Blood and Tears"
> Book by Qutubuddin Aziz
>
>
>
> Typical of the open-air, human abattoirs operated by the Awami
League-led rebels in East Pakistan in 1971 is this photograph of
multiple-executions done by a Mukti-Bahini killer squad in Dacca Race
Course. The pro-Pakistan Bengali and non-Bengali victims were
tortured before being slain
> Looking at the tragic events of March 1971 in retrospect, I must
confess that even I, although my press service commanded a sizeable
network of district correspondents in the interior of East Pakistan,
was not fully aware of the scale, ferocity and dimension of the
province-wide massacre of the non-Banglis.
>
> I must stress, with all the force and sincerity at my command, that
this bock is not intended to be a racist indictment of the Bengalis
as a nation. In writing and publishing this book, I am not motivated
by any revanchist obsession or a wish to condemn my erstwhile Bengali
compatriots as a nation. Just as it is stupid to condemn the great
German people for the sins of the Nazis, it would be foolish to blame
the Bengali people as a whole for the dark deeds of the Awami League
militants and their accomplices.
>
> I have incorporated in this book the acts of heroism and courage of
those brave and patriotic Bengalis who sheltered and protected, at
great peril to themselves, their terror-stricken non-Bengali friends
and neighbours. On the basis of the heaps of eye-witness accounts,
which I have carefully read, sifted and analysed, I do make bold to
say that the vast majority of Bengalis disapproved of and was not a
party to the barbaric atrocities inflicted on the hapless non-
Bengalis by the Awami League's terror machine and the Frankensteins
and vampires it unloosed. This silent majority, it seemed, was awed,
immobilised and neutralised by the terrifying power, weapons and
ruthlessness of a misguided minority hell-bent on accomplishing the
secession of East Pakistan.
>
> The sheaves of eye-witness accounts, documented in this book, prove
beyond the shadow of a doubt that the massacre of West Pakistanis,
Biharis and other non-Bengalis in East Pakistan had begun long before
the Pakistan Army took punitive action against the rebels late in the
night of March 25, 1971. It is also crystal clear that the Awami
League's terror machine was the initiator and executor of the
genocide against the non-Bengalis which exterminated at least half a
million of them in less than two months of horror and trauma. Many
witnesses have opined that the federal Government acted a bit too
late against the insurgents. The initial success of the federal
military action is proved by the fact that in barely 30 days, the
Pakistan Army, with a combat strength of 38,717 officers and men in
East Pakistan, had squelched the Awami League's March-April, 1971,
rebellion all over the province.
>
> The hundreds of eye-witnesses from towns and cities of East
Pakistan, whose testimonies are documented in this book, are
unanimous in reporting that the slaughter of West Pakistanis,
Biharis, and other non-Bangalis and of some pro-Pakistan Bengalis had
begun in the early days of the murderous month of March 1971.
>
> Looking at the tragic events of March 1971 in retrospect, I must
confess that even I, although my press service commanded a sizeable
network of district correspondents in the interior of East Pakistan,
was not fully aware of the scale, ferocity and dimension of the
province-wide massacre of the non-Banglis.
>
>
>
> A scene of Mukti Bahini mass murder of Biharis in Dacca on December
18, 1971. A rebel soldier lifts his boot to strike a bleeding
bayoneted boy who showed signs of life. Dead bodies of other slain
non-Bengalis lie in the foreground.
> I must stress, with all the force and sincerity at my command, that
this bock is not intended to be a racist indictment of the Bengalis
as a nation. In writing and publishing this book, I am not motivated
by any revanchist obsession or a wish to condemn my erstwhile Bengali
compatriots as a nation. Just as it is stupid to condemn the great
German people for the sins of the Nazis, it would be foolish to blame
the Bengali people as a whole for the dark deeds of the Awami League
militants and their accomplices.
>
> I have incorporated in this book the acts of heroism and courage of
those brave and patriotic Bengalis who sheltered and protected, at
great peril to themselves, their terror-stricken non-Bengali friends
and neighbours. On the basis of the heaps of eye-witness accounts,
which I have carefully read, sifted and analysed, I do make bold to
say that the vast majority of Bengalis disapproved of and was not a
party to the barbaric atrocities inflicted on the hapless non-
Bengalis by the Awami League's terror machine and the Frankensteins
and vampires it unloosed. This silent majority, it seemed, was awed,
immobilised and neutralised by the terrifying power, weapons and
ruthlessness of a misguided minority hell-bent on accomplishing the
secession of East Pakistan.
>
> The 170 eye-witnesses, whose testimonies or interviews are
contained in this book in abridged form have been chosen from a
universe of more than 5,000 repatriated non-Bengali families. I had
identified, after some considerable research, 55 towns and cities in
East Pakistan where the abridgement of the non-Bengali population in
March and early April 1971 was conspicuously heavy. The collection
and compilation of these eye-witness accounts was started in January
1974 and completed in twelve weeks. A team of four reporters,
commissioned for interviewing the witnesses from all these 55 towns
and cities of East Pakistan, worked with intense devotion to secure
their testimony. Many of the interviews were prolonged because the
Witnesses broke down in a flurry of sobs and tears as they related
the agonising stories of their wrecked lives. I had issued in
February 1974 an appeal in the newspapers for such eye-witness
accounts, and I am grateful to the many hundreds of witnesses who
promptly responded to my call.
>
> "I am the lone survivor of a group of ten Pathans who were employed
as Security Guards by the Delta Construction Company in the Mohakhali
locality in Dacca; all the others were slaughtered by the Bengali
rebels in the night of March 25, 1971", said 40-year-old Bacha Khan.
>
> "I heard the screams of an Urdu-speaking girl who was being
ravished by her Bengali captors but I was so scared that I did not
have the courage to emerge from hiding" said a 24-year-old Zahid
Abdi, who was employed in a trading firm in Dacca. He escaped the
slaughter of the non-Bengalis in the crowded New Market locality of
Dacca on March 23, 1971 and was sheltered by a God-fearing Bengali in
his shop. The killers raped their non-Bengali teenage victim at the
back of the shop and later on slayed her.
>
>
>
> As the victim did not die in a single bayonet strike, another Mukti-
Bahini killer plunged his bayonet in to the writhing Bihari's chest.
Dead bodies of Bihari and Bengali victims lie strewn over the
execution ground as Mukti-Bahini killers and their accomplices watch
the butchery with sadist pleasure.
> "My only daughter has been insane since she was forced by her
savage tormentors to watch the brutal murder of her husband", said
Mukhtar Ahmed Khan, 43, while giving an account of his suffering
during the Ides of March 1971 in Dacca.."In the third week of March
1971, a gang of armed Bengali rebels raided house of my son-in-law
and overpowered him. He was a courageous Youngman and he resisted the
attackers. My daughter also resisted the attackers but they were far
too many and they were well armed. They tied up my son-in-law and my
daughter with ropes and they forced her to watch as they slit the
throat of her husband and ripped his stomach open in the style of
butchers. She fainted and lost consciousness. Since that dreadful day
she has been mentally ill."
>
> Shamim Akhtar, 28, whose husband was employed as a clerk in the
Railway office in Dacca, lived in a small house in the Mirpur
locality there.
>
> She described her tragedy in these words:
>
> "On December 17, 1971, the Mukti Bahini cut off the water supply to
our homes. We used to get water from a nearby pond; it was polluted
and had a bad odour. I was nine months pregnant. On December 23,
1971, I gave birth to a baby girl. No midwife was available and my
husband helped me at child birth. Late at night, a gang of armed
Bengalis raided our house, grabbed my husband and trucked him away. I
begged them in the name of God to spare him as I could not even walk
and my children were too small. The killers were heartless and I
learnt that they murdered my husband. After five days, they returned
and ordered me and my children to vacate the house as they claimed
that it was now their property."
>
>
>
> A Bihari victim grabbed by Mukti-Bahini killers, begging for mercy.
> Zaibunnissa Haq, 30, whose journalist husband, Izhar-ul-Haque,
worked as a columnist in the Daily Watan in Dacca, gave this account
of her travail in 1971: "..On December 21, a posse of Mukti Bahini
soldiers and some thugs rode into our locality with blazing guns and
ordered us to leave our house as, according to them, no Bihari could
own a house in Bangladesh. For two days, we lived on bare earth in an
open space and we had nothing to eat. Subsequently, we were taken to
a Relief Camp by the Red Cross."
>
> Nasima Khatoon, 25, lived in a rented house in the Pancho Boti
locality in Narayanganj. Her husband, Mohammad Qamrul Hasan, was
employed in a Vegetable Oil manufacturing factory. Repatriated to
Karachi in January 1974, along with her 4-year-old orphaned daughter,
from a Red Cross Camp in Dacca, Nasima gave this hair-raising account
of her travail in 1971:
>
> "At gun point, our captors made us leave our house and marched us
to an open square where more than 500 non -Bengali old men, women and
children were detained. Some 50 Bengali gunmen led us through swampy
ground towards a deserted school building. On the way, the 3-year-old
child of a hapless captive woman died in her arms. She asked her
captors to allow her to dig a small grave and bury the child. The
tough man in the lead snorted a sharp 'NO', snatched the body of the
dead child from her wailing mother and tossed it into the river"
>
> The Awami League's rebellion of March 1971 took the heaviest toll
of non-Bengali lives in the populous port city of Chittagong.
Although the Government of Pakistan's White Paper of August 1971 on
the East Pakistan crisis estimated the non-Bengali death toll in
Chittagong and its neighbouring townships during the Awami League's
insurrection to be a little under 15,000, the testimony of hundreds
of eye-witnesses interviewed for this book gives the impression that
more than 50,000 non-Bengalis perished in the March 1971 carnage.
Thousands of dead bodies were flung into the Karnaphuli river and the
Bay of Bengal.
>
> Savage killings also took place in the Halishahar, Kalurghat and
Pahartali localities where the Bengali rebel soldiers poured petrol
and kerosine oil around entire blocks, igniting them with flame-
throwers and petrol-soaked jute balls, then mowed down the non-
Bengali innocents trying to escape the cordons of fire. In the wanton
slaughter in the last week of March and early April, 1971, some
40,000 non-Bengalis perished in Chittagong and its neighbourhood. The
exact death toll, which could possibly be much more will never be
known because of the practice of burning dead bodies or dumping them
in the river and the sea.
>
>
>
>
>
> The uniformed killer puffing the cigarette to singe the eyes of the
terrified prey. Eye gouging and burning the skin of victims was a
favourite torture method of the rebels.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Personal Comments:
>
> The fact is that the ill-minded political leadership of 1971 are
the primary responsibles of all such attrocities. No matter, whether
a Bihari got killed or a Bangali assassinated. It is our
responsibility to save our generations from lies and propaganda.
Let's not allow the enemies to make their ways in our societies.
>
> ____________
>
> We all need to unite and stand as one against the common enemies
>
> Sajjad Ahmad
>
> Freelance Writer & Researcher
> Rawalpindi, Pakistan
>
> Email: sajjad_pak@...
>
> Author and Moderator
>
> PakistanFront
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PakistanFront
>
> AccountantsInPakistan
> http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/AccountantsInPakistan/
>
> TechnologyPakistan
> http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/TechnologyPakistan
>
------------------------------------
[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
To unsubscribe/subscribe, send request to alochona-owner@egroups.comYahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alochona/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alochona/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:alochona-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:alochona-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
alochona-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/