Thanks for acknowledging that RAW and CIA were involved in Pakistani politics. Would you also be willing to consider that there are complex reasons why a country breaks up and these cannot be summed up into one cause such as absence of democracy. If that was so, Saudi Arabia should be in pieces. And I pray that one day it will be :).
Pakistan was created for failure and it began breaking up right away. Remember Junagadh and Hyderabad, which were swallowed by India? And to this day Pakistan has not received its fair share of assets following Partition. So India has been a bit of a bully in the region, sort of like the U.S. in many parts of the world. If Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were to get together and break India into several more pieces we could seriously think about a South Asian Union, like the European Union. But I digress.
There were other reasons for the break up of Pakistan such as its refusal to recognize language rights until it was too late, its economic exploitation of East Pakistan, its refusal to share power and resources. The failure to honour the results of free and fair elections which gave AL a majority, plus the genocidal army action that followed were the immediate cause of the break-up. At the same time RAW/India also played a huge role in the break-up. In poor countries intelligence services are more effective because the people can be easily exploited and anger channeled to suit the powers that be.
Bangladesh nearly evolved into a military dictatorship too - so lets be cautious. And considering what is happening right now in BD, let's keep our fingers really tightly crossed that we don't go that route again. Pakistan did not "just" evolve into a military dictatorship, it started out as a secular democracy. You say the US doesn't care about democracy in Pakistan. You could be right, but it did play a role in ensuring that this civilian government, with all its corruption, complete its tenure. Also the US did seem to care a lot about democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan didn't it? :P Or does the US prefer to deal with dictators who do their bidding? We aren't that naive I'm sure.
Because human rights is a particular interest of mine, I'm curious as to the ways in which we rationalize away our own complicity in war crimes and genocide. Our group has already had a discussion of the definitions of these terms to show how we use creative definitions to avoid responsibility, so I won't re-hash it. You can google the UN definitions. In your case, the issue is not one of definition, but genocide denial, so let's discuss that.
Bangladesh claims 3 million were killed by the army, Pakistan claims it was 300,000. Pakistan also claims that 10 lakh Urdu speaking (which also included Biharis) were killed. Let's say these figures are inflated. Even if 1 lakh were killed, it was one too many. Surely you can't be suggesting that Bengali lives are more precious than Urdu speaking ones!
You seem to want to minimize this genocide by calling it "revenge killings". Does "revenge" somehow justify it? Revenge against whom? Should we be killing peaceful Urdu speaking folk who did not want to separate from Pakistan just because they were on the wrong side? I can understand revenge against the Pakistan army. Why should the Urdu speaking be killed simply because they were loyal to Pakistan? Either we move on from the madness and mayhem of 1971 and build our country or we hold everyone accountable for their actions in the name of justice. Going after some, on the basis of insufficient evidence after 42 years, while giving others a free pass for similar crimes in similar circumstances is not "justice".
Interestingly enough I was living in West Pakistan at the time. Not a single Bengali was killed there. We were treated with consideration by our neighbours and servants. We were sitting ducks, yet nothing happened even after news of Urdu speaking killings and refugees began to surface in Pakistan. I often wonder why we were spared. I have reached two conclusions: (1) the people of Pakistan had no animosity towards the people of Bangladesh (2) we were living in pre-madrasah times. The same people are not showing the same kindness towards Shias and Christians. Times have changed and with the spread of Wahabism Muslims are becoming more intolerant. We in Bangladesh had better watch out for those madrasahs too.
Perhaps you are not aware, or perhaps we have all gone into collective denial, but the first killings of Urdu speaking happened before March 25th. when 50 workers were killed in the Adamjee Jute Mill. What revenge was that killing about? And the killings continued after independence. I'm glad Pakistan did not take revenge on the Bengalis living in West Pakistan because I would not be writing this e-mail today.
So good on us for continuing our tradition of revenge even after 42 years, on our fellow Bengalis who participated in crimes against Bengalis. We don't have to worry about members of AL who participated in crimes against the Urdu speaking. Revenge is sweet for one side only. But you know what! Even Israel did not go after Jewish collaborators, they stuck to the Nazis because they didn't want Jews to be divided against Jews. If you really want to go after infamous characters with blood on their hands, look for them in Pakistan's army's 1971 leadership, go after Bengali collaborators and those who killed the Urdu speaking if you still have the evidence after 42 years. But wait, the Pakistani army might say they were just taking revenge for the Urdu speaking killings prior to March 25th. How will we argue with that if revenge is what makes the world go round.
Thank you too for hearing me out.
