1971 in 2000

Who Controls?

Kamal Azfar (1991) maintains: “All constitutional problems in Pakistan stem from the role of the army in the state. The growing strength of the army and the weakening political parties has made the army the prime political force in the country. It can be said of Pakistan as it was of Bismarck’s Prussia that it is a state within the army and no an army within the state. The struggle for power between the bureaucratic-military power elite and the feudal-political elite summarizes the history of the state. The outcome is that the feudal-political elite has agreed to a subservient role in the power-sharing arrangements” (in Shahid Javed Burki and Craig Baxter, 1991, “Pakistan Under the Military: Eleven Years of Zia ul-Haq” p. 73).

Subservient role? Is Azfar talking about only Zia’s period? Were the feudal-political elite subservient to the bureaucratic-military power elite in 1970-71 period? If yes, to what degree? Was Bhutto also subservient to the bureaucratic-military power elite? Did he come in power with the support of this power bloc? What answers are available in the existing literature on Pakistani politics?

Sincerely, Bilal Ahmad

This article has stirred a lot of emotions amongst all of us--not as Indians & Pakistanis, but as human beings who hear of a grave tragedy.

I dont want this to start a finger pointing, mudslinging match. The Kashmir tragedy is very similar to the Bengali tragedy. The only major difference is the tragedy is slow, prolonged & chronic.

To try & blame any specific country/army/militia is useless. As we have seen from from the Bangladesh tragedy, it goes round & around in circles. At some point in history, we (hopefully) will realise that we are all at fault.

IMHO, we should put the ``fault`` business on the shelf & concentrate on solving the problem. Otherwise, I`m afraid God & historians will hold us all culpable.

While the Saffron Brigade (as hamidm puts it) rightly deplores the atrocities committed in Bengal by all sides why do they need to bring Kargil into this. What are the parallels. In Kargil I only see the might of a great `superpower` stumped at a couple of hills.

What is the authenticity of this report being published and analysed by the Indian media? Why can`t they publish it in its entirety. What does the Pakistani Govt. has to say about this `leak`?

p.s. Atrocities were committed there. And I would also like to read the actual report. Not to point fingers but to understand an important part of our history. As for the ``olive-branches in their teeth`` chapees from the Gangetic valley, I think, they should take some time to reflect on the holocaust they are creating in the occupied Kashmir.

Re: Satyavadi

Indra Gandhi made those comments in front of a joint session of your Parliament. Shows the mentality of your leaders. Indian intervention was fueled by revenge and not for any other reason. The amusing/sad part is that they were taking revenge for something that occured hundereds of years back. They should have taken solace in the fact that among hundreds of defeats there was after all one victory. Chauhan Sahib did win against Ghauri at Tarian (sp ?).

Restive, Oil-Rich Region Is China`s Second Tibet



By John Pomfret

Washington Post Foreign Service

Tuesday, August 22, 2000; Page A12

URUMQI, China –– The Rebiya Building still bustles. The six-story, white-tiled marketplace hums with the sound of merchants blowing yesterday`s dust off their wares: fine silk from Hangzhou, cozy shawls from Pakistan, lace curtains from Shanghai.

But all is not right in this Central Asian bazaar. Rebiya Kadeer, chairwoman of the Xinjiang Akida Industry & Trade Co. and owner of the building, was sentenced to eight years in prison last March for ``illegally passing intelligence outside of China.``

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64830-2000Aug21.html

Furor over 1971 India-Pakistan war probe

By Ranjit Devraj

http://www.atimes.com/ind-pak/BH22Df01.html

Asia Times, Thailand

NEW DELHI - Events leading to the painful birth of Bangladesh have resurfaced three decades later in the Indian media, causing a furor in Pakistan.

Pakistan`s military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, is reported to have ordered a probe into the ``leak`` to a popular Indian news magazine of the classified findings of a probe into circumstances leading to the separation of the former East Pakistan in December 1971.

``It is really a sensitive matter and we must nab the culprits who provided classified information to India just to humiliate the Pakistani army on the eve of Independence Day,`` former Pakistani army chief Mirza Alam Beg was quoted as saying.

The report was published by India Today magazine and coincided with the August 14-15 celebrations of 53 years of the subcontinent`s independence from British colonial rule. The Indian government has declined to comment on the sensational report, except to say that it contained nothing that was not already well known. ``We must behave as a responsible nation,`` said one government official.

Leading Indian defense and strategic affairs analyst K Subrahmanyam said those indicted in the report should be tried and punished. ``When Pakistan has been claiming to speak up for Kashmiri Muslims, they forget what they did to Bengalis in East Pakistan. Were they not Muslim enough?`` asked the hawkish Subrahmanyam.

Long suppressed, the Hamoodur Rahman Commission report deals with the December 1971 surrender of the Pakistani army to the Indian army and the creation of Bangladesh from the former East Pakistan. As published in India Today, it severely indicts former Pakistani generals who conducted the war. Over a million Bengalis are estimated to have lost their lives in events leading to the birth of Bangladesh. Another 10 million fled to India as refugees.

The contents of the report were said to be so damaging that former Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who commissioned it, was forced to suppress it. Every single copy was said to have been burned. But, according to India Today, one copy did survive.

The publication has given rise to demands in Islamabad to declassify the report. Among those making these demands are people mentioned in the investigation. Political observers in Pakistan do not expect Musharraf to accept the demands. The report would be especially embarrassing for Islamabad at a time when Musharraf is already under pressure to order an investigation into last year`s military debacle in Kashmir, they point out.

India and Pakistan fought an undeclared war on the cold heights of Kargil, in Kashmir, last summer, when Pakistani irregulars intruded across the Line of Control that divides Kashmir. The conflict ended after US President Bill Clinton`s personal intervention pursuaded Islamabad to order the withdrawal of the intruders.

``The foundation of the [December 1971] defeat was laid way back in 1958 when the armed forces took over the country,`` M Sharif, a former naval officer who commanded the Pakistani Navy off the East Pakistan coast during that war, was quoted as telling the investigation. ``While learning the art of politics in this newly assigned role to themselves, they gradually abandoned their primary function of the art of soldiering; they also started amassing wealth and usurping status for themselves.``

The commission noted that senior Pakistani army officers, ``particularly those occupying the highest positions, had not only lost the will to fight but also the professional competence necessary for taking vital and critical decisions . . . for the successful prosecution of the war.``

Former Pakistani army chief Beg and others have criticized successive Pakistani governments for not publishing the report earlier. This has now given India an opportunity to embarrass Pakistan, they said. According to Iftikhar Ahmad Sarohi, former Pakistani naval chief and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee, publication of the report is necessary because its suggestions are relevant to Pakistan`s current situation.

Those clamoring loudest for its publication are former Pakistani army generals who were accused of genocide in what is now Bangladesh.

(Inter Press Service)

My post #31:

It should read: Sac #28:

Satyavadi

sac #28

I get it. I GET IT! (nudge, nudge, wink, wink..)

Where would you find the (made up) report of Indira claiming to have avenged for the 1000 years of Glorious MUSLIM Rule? Why, in THE HINDU, of course!

You guys are so damn predictable it`s not even funny anymore.

Can you say ``projection``? Pakistanis seem to excel at it.

Salman:

Thank you for the factual information as well as your unflinching conclusions.

Rajajanjua:

With regard to Indira Gandhis statement, if made, it was unfortunate. I would like to see an authoritative reference to the statement made in Parliament. Even if we she did make it, one swallow does not a summer make. The extent of bias in Indian leaders is high relative to a standard which assumes perfect lack of bias - it is much lower than leadership in Pakistan which cannot take on separate electorates, blasphemy prosecution by accusation, state religion, lack of ability to take on bigots in Madrassas, naming of missiles as Ghauri & Ghaznavi etc. etc. . As a result, please dont lecture on the ``mentality of your leaders``. Its not great but it operates in a framework which is light years ahead of Pakistani or Bangladeshi leadership, including Musharraf, who like a coward, hides behind jihad, itself a violation of Islam. Anyway, welcome back!

Rajanjua #37:

``Indra Gandhi made those comments in front of a joint session of your Parliament. Shows the mentality of your leaders. Indian intervention was fueled by revenge and not for any other reason. The amusing/sad part is that they were taking revenge for something that occured hundereds of years back. They should have taken solace in the fact that among hundreds of defeats there was after all one victory. Chauhan Sahib did win against Ghauri at Tarian (sp ?).``

OK, if Indira did make that comment she was just another person taken in by the propoganda of the subcontinental Muslims in general and Pakistan in particular.

Whether Indira said that or not, the fact is that its not the Indian (or Pakistani) Muslims who ruled India, when it was ruled by all the Muslim dynasties. So the Indian (Indian in the ethnic sense) Muslims including your ancestors were RULED, much like the Hindus and other communities of India. If you are claiming direct unbroken lineage from the barabarians of Afghanistan like Ghouri etc, or from the refined of Persia or from Mohammad Bin Kasim etc, then its a different matter. But then there is hardly any Muslim in South Asia who can rightly make such a claim. Its a pity that a nation of 150 million has to look for their heroes from among those who invaded, looted, plundered their land, their forefathers. Its a shame that a nation whose 50% population is Punjabi should name its most advanced missile Ghouri, after an Afghan warlord, who ravaged the plains of Punjab, killed and raped its people, on his way to looting the temple of Somnath in Gujarat. Couldnt you guys find one hero from among YOUR OWN? Jinnah, or Iqbal or Syed Ahmed would have been much more appropriate names. And the name Prithvi (meaning Earth) for one of India`s missiles is not a jusitification either, because it doesnt come from Prithviraj Chauhan( the onewhom Ghouri fouhgt) as many Pakistanis believe. Prithv (Earth) is one of the five ELEMENTs (fire, water,earth, air and I forget the fifth) much like other Indian missiles Agni (Fire) and Jal (Water).

That South Asian Muslims ruled India for a thoudand years, is as true, as saying that Indian and Pakistani Christians ruled India (and Pakistan) for 150 years, because the British, the rulers then, were also Christians.

Your comment about the ``one victory`` of Chauhan as against hundreds of defeats is very condenscending. Shows, you think all those victories by the Muslim invaders were your own. Such a mockery of logic. And to set the record straight, Muslims arrived in Sindh in the 7th-8th centuries and didnot have Delhi captured until the 11th century. They captured Gujarat around 13th century and never could rule South of Deccan except for a few kingdoms here and there. Talking about defeats, dont forget the Marathas and Sikhs and how they kicked the ass of the Mughal empire, which had almost crumbled 120-130 years before it officially came to an end in 1857. So much for the thousand year subjugation of India.

Satyavadi

rajanuja wrote (reply #7):

``lets not forget that Mujeeb Sahib was no angel. They betrayed us by bedding with our enemies. And lets not forget the atrocities committed by Mukhti Bani. There were quite a few Bengal Light Infantry battallions whose non-Bengali soldiers and their families were brutaly mudered by these traitors, not to mention uncountable number of non-Bengali civillians. What did they expect in return-flowers? There are no tree-huggers in Pakistan-not enough to be significant anyway.``

Rajanuja might want to go thru a Chowk article, ``Balkan Tragedy :A Re-enactment of the 1971 Genocide in Bangladesh`` by Jamal Hasan. Here`s a quote from that article:

``Apologists for the infamous military junta that ruled Pakistani in 1971 shed crocodile tears quite copiously for the ``Biharis`` who have been rotting in refugee camps in Bangladesh for over quarter of a century. The indignation of the apologists knows no bound as they explain away the military junta`s crimes against humanity as its attempt to curb acts of violence against ``Biharis`` in the supercharged ambiance of 1971. The very riots that were instigated by the rulers by playing off ``Biharis`` against the rest of the population become the raison d`etre for the merciless mass killings by the army. Systematic extermination of targeted sections of the population by the Pakistani soldiers is justified as a necessary evil. It is indeed a travesty of the highest order that the apologists of the Pakistan`s military junta would even try to

explain away the wanton murder of three million Bengali civilians as the justified reaction to random acts of violence by unruly mobs in isolated pockets of the country.``

Jaman Hasan went on to write:

``I came across an article by a Pakistani on the

Internet. It gave a grotesque account of decomposed bodies of ``Biharis`` unearthed by Pakistani soldiers in Shantahar. The account was a riposte to a discussion on the 1971 mass murders

in Bangladesh. It was an attempt to prove that Bengalis had nobody but themselves to blame for the genocide. Quite a few Pakistanis will never tire of this line of blaming the victims for the crimes. To them, the crimes of 1971 were nothing more than the inevitable [comeuppance of] those that challenged their cherished ideology of religious apartheid. The carnage is seen as a clash of history where to be on its right side one must accept the primacy of Urdu and Pakistani brand of Islam under the aegis of West Pakistan`s ruling class.``

Jamal Hasan gave a clear indication of the cynicism of Pakistan`s establishment by the way it used the ``Biharis`` as its cat`s paw:

``The ``Biharis`` in East Pakistan disdained the language of the natives. They were brainwashed into becoming the cat`s paw for Pakistan`s ruling oligarchy. Inevitably, and tragically, they got singed when the ruling junta used them to retrieve chestnuts from the fire. What is worse, the ``Biharis`` were discarded unceremoniously like the rind of a squeezed lemon once they were no longer useful to the rulers in Islamabad. A quarter million of the hapless ``Biharis`` have been rotting in refugee camps in Bangladesh for the last 27 years as successive rulers in Pakistan feigned lack of funds to repatriate them to the country of their choice.``

http://www.atimes.com/ind-pak/BC21Df03.html

Caught between here, there, and nowhere

By Tabibul Islam

DHAKA - It`s not a shortage of eligible grooms, but an acute accommodation problem that`s the reason behind a large number of women remaining single in the cramped refugee camps for Pakistani nationals in Bangladesh.

Hard pressed to raise money to build even an extra room, refugee parents are in a bind. There are some 20,000 unmarried girls in the 65 camps spread across the country. These were set up to shelter Pakistanis who remained after the creation of Bangladesh in December 1971.

``Where shall I live with my wife if I marry right now?`` asks a 30-year-old man, pointing to the tiny one room in which he lives with his parents, and eight siblings and cousins in a camp at Mohammadpur.

Sheikh Md Jalaluddin owns a small semi-permanent room in the camp. His two daughters are of marriageable age, but he cannot afford to build two rooms for them. Each would cost about $700. ``Where can I get so much money from?`` he laments.

These refugees, who are called Biharis since they are originally from Bihar, India - having migrated to what was then East Pakistan in 1947 - have been interred in refugee camps in the hope of being repatriated to Pakistan. But successive governments in Islamabad have stalled on the issue, unwilling to risk a backlash against a fresh flux of outsiders in Sindh province where a majority of refugees from India had settled following the creation of Pakistan in 1947.

Nor are the Urdu-speaking Biharis are welcome in Bangladesh. Though the majority of refugees in the camps were born after 1971, they are still seen as having sided with the Pakistani army during the country`s liberation war. Over the last two decades they have tried all possible ways to draw international attention to their plight, taking to the streets, holding demonstrations and hunger protests. ``Our life is hell, the animals are better than us,`` says a very bitter Jalaluddin, a refugee.

Tanvir Adnan, a young Bihari thinks there`s no future for young people like him in the camps. It`s worse for the girls, he says. There`s every chance of their going ``astray``, he adds. Another refugee said young women in the camps are targetted by sex-traffickers and pimps. There is a hint that sometimes the girls leave willingly because of the bleakness of life in the camps.

Ejaj Ahmed Siddiqui, chairman of the one of the groups representing the refugees, says his organization offers monetary assistance for the marriage of poor Bihari girls. ``But our capacity to help is limited,`` he adds.

The Bihari refugee camps are squalid. Piles of garbage lie unclaimed, everywhere. Sanitation is deplorable and water supply is scarce. Residents have to queue up for hours to use the toilets. Tempers run high, and fights and scuffles are common sights as people hurriedly try to get ready for work. Many of the younger people have found jobs in the garment and sari-weaving factories, handicraft units and other small establishments. But many more are involved in the illicit liquor trade, and in petty crime.

Older refugees blame Pakistan for the mess they are in. After four rounds of repatriation of some 175,000 Biharis between 1974 and 1992, the rest have been left to languish in camps, they say.

Refugees under 35 years are increasingly reluctant to share their parents` hopes of migrating to Pakistan. Born in Bangladesh, they want to become Bangladeshi citizens.

A 40-year-old Bihari with two children said two generations of his people have led ``sub-human`` lives in refugee camps awaiting repatriation. ``Our children are now studying in Bangladeshi schools and speak Bangla. Bangladeshi culture is now our culture. We have no intention to go to Pakistan if the Bangladesh government gives us citizenship, voting rights and other facilities,`` he says determinedly.

Some refugee leaders are now publicly making this demand. Addressing a press conference at the National Press Club, Dhaka, on March 5, Sadakat Khan, president of a refugee youth organization, said they would ``prefer`` to stay. ``We prefer to rehabilitate and settle ourselves in Bangladesh deviating from the earlier stand of repatriation which seems a closed chapter with no prospect at all.``

Urging the government to accept them as nationals, he said Pakistan has betrayed them. He said that while Pakistan provided food and shelter, and even arms, to some 4 million Afghan refugees during the communist-rule in Kabul, it ignored the Biharis in Bangladesh.

``Pakistan is testing nuclear bombs and weapons and also providing help to Kashmiris fighting against India. But it is a matter of shame to say that Pakistan cannot afford the burden of its own citizens stranded in Bangladesh,`` said Khan.

(Inter Press Service)

Its funny to see Indians comment on Pakistani issues with so much fervour...India is doing the same in Kashmir...Pakistan is helping out Kashmir just as India helped the Bengalis...get over the ``we r angels`` mentallity...Indians are just as pathetic and ruthless as, according to their claims, are Pakistanis...stop pointing fingers...solve problems rather than creating them by propagating all this hatred...it wont serve anyone in the end...whats the point of all this nationalism when it only serves to divide and fuel anger amongst people...

I`m extremely saddened to see that even our educated and intellectual class, those responsible for leading our respective countries into the future are busy creating problems and divisions, rather than searching for solutions which is what our region needs...our ``discussions``, the conflicts we create today(and we do create them...there is no inheritence here) will directly impact the lives of thousands...u r all helping to develop the mentallity that leads to the kind of cruelty seen in East Pakistan...what is the damn point?!!

Victim of 1971 Bangladeshi war finds `great joy` in the truth (AFP) -

As Bangladesh celebrated the 29th anniversary of its independence on Sunday, the first woman to go public about the torture she suffered at the hands of the Pakistani army says she has found ``great joy`` in facing the truth.

``There is a great joy in coming to terms with the truth, but the pain and sorrow would never go away,`` Ferdousy Priyabhashini, a celebrated sculptor who was among the at least 250,000 women raped during the war, told AFP in an interview on Saturday.

Priyabhashini explained she had reconciled herself to the fact she was a ``victim of circumstance`` and needed to tell a new generation about the bad months.

Collaborators and Islamic fundamentalists who helped the Pakistani army now want to downplay those events, she said.

``I want to be alone when the melancholic winds of March (the month of independence) start blowing, which at one time made me romantic and now takes me back to those horrific days of pain and anguish,`` she said.

``I can only say I was trapped to my fate.``

Priyabhashini, a mother of six, said that when she decided to go public in Bangladesh`s conservative Muslim society she told her husband she was ``responsible for everything and I have nothing to lose whether the society accepts or rejects me.``

A mere 22-years-old in 1971, she went public in November 10, 1999, when her story was published in ``Tormenting `71,`` a book by prominent anti-fundamentalist Ekkaturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee.

At least three million Bengalis were killed in Bangladesh`s 1971 independence war against Pakistan, and 250,000 women were raped during those nine months, according to official estimates.

Priyabhashini, then a divorced mother of three, fell into a trap set by Urdu-speaking Pakistani collaborators in May of that year after failing to run away and returning to her job at the privately owned Crescent Jute Mills in southwestern Khulna district.

She was alone as the Pakistani army launched its military crackdown code-named ``Operation Searchlight`` to silence the independence movement.

``I can never say or give the real picture of my horrific days in captivity and the killings I saw at that time,`` she said, suddenly becoming silent.

Priyabhashini came face-to-face with her first horror as soon as she stepped into the place she thought would be her ``shelter`` -- the home of her Urdu-speaking boss.

She fell victim to the man, who she said once treated her as a younger sister, immediately on entering the house. Between May and Bangladesh`s Victory Day on December 16 she was tortured and raped by Pakistani army officers based in Khulna and Jessore.

``In that house, owned by the jute mill owners, I saw whisky on the table and I still wondered why was this man who I saw always as my elder brother behaving like that with me ... I was so naive I did not even understand that a war of such great magnitude had broken out,`` she said.

``My boss made me a prisoner and before going to inform his military officers he told me `don`t go anywhere, army officers will come here`,`` she said, still seething with bitterness.

``I was supposed to be killed and often wonder why I am alive. Maybe I feared death and learned to survive during those tormenting days.

``I saw truckloads of Bengalis being brought to the mill and beheaded by a machine at the factory before being thrown into the adjacent river.``

Asked about her experiences after going public, Priyabhashini said ``it was my life`s greatest gift when my fried, and now my husband, accepted me along with my children despite my tragedy.``

``I never want any sympathy from anyone.``

Her husband Ahsan Ullah Ahmed, employed in a private company, said his wife`s decision to publicize her case ``has not changed our life.``

``I think how helpless one can be in her own country and I could not help her, besides there are so many more women who even suffered more than my wife,`` he said.

Some folks here are claiming the following:

The erstwhile Prime Minister of India who carried an 80% Muslim mandate into the parliament, on the floor of the house proudly addressed the members of her ministry (many of them Muslim) and her fellow parliamentarians (many of them Muslim) and said that the splintering of Pakistan was, ``a revenge for a thousand years of subjugation``.

This is a very important tidbit of information! Would you good folks please substantiate this information with some solid references? It would really go a long way in allowing some of the Indians here to downgrade their high opinions of concepts like `Indian Secularism`.

Thanks.

PS: And while you are at it.... would somebody also be kind enough to produce reliable proof of the fact that Shree Atalbehariji Bajpaiji refused to accept the oath of office from the President who is a `shudra`? That will surely put to rest all the funny rumors about India striving to have an equal opportunity society.

PPS: And I for my part, am browsing the net right now to see if I cant document the little known fact that Dilip Kumar & A.K. Hangal are long lost twins and card carrying members of the nefarious ISI.

News From Bangladesh

August 15, 2000

Editorial and Commentary

The Revelation of Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report: An analysis

By A.H. Jaffor Ullah

``In every sort of danger, there are various ways of winning through, if one

is ready to do and say anything whatever.`` -- Socrates, quoted in Plato,

`Apology`

On August 11, 2000, a spectacular event happened in the Internet. An

Internet Newspaper from India -- India Today Group On Line -- published the

entire supplementary report of the Hamoodur Rahman Commission (HRC) report.

Within minutes, this scribe received several e-mails from South Asian

writers who pointed out the enormity of the news.

I was baffled by the news because it was not published in Pakistan. Nor was

it published in any of the known prestigious news dailies in India or

Europe. Naturally, the veracity of the report became more important than the

report it self. Several readers of the HRC Report wrote to India Today Group

On Line asking the same question. Some even asked specifically -- who gave

the paper copy of the HRC report? The spokesperson representing the On Line

paper said that it was an authentic report of HRC. They would, however, not

reveal the source for the fear of repercussions. This is quite justifiable

knowing how brutal the Pakistani military could become because the HRC

report has some scathing remarks that give black eye right away to Pakistani

military. Lest we forget, the same military establishment is now at the helm

in Pakistan.

The HRC report means a lot to Bangalees who suffered a horrendous loss at

the hands of a brutal military machine. Pakistani military under the

leadership of Yahya Khan and a number of senior military officers devised a

scorched-earth policy to quell the aspirations of freedom loving Bangalees

during the tumultuous nine-month period in 1971. The result was disastrous,

to put it mildly. An estimated 10 million Bangalees left their home for the

fear of losing their life and went to neighboring West Bengal state of

India. Another three million simply perished in the hands of Pakistani army

brute. The sad part is that not a single Pakistani army faced jail term for

their crime against humanity. To add insult to the injury, not a single

Pakistani army was charged anywhere in the world for the crime they

committed under broad day light during 270 days of terror and turmoil in

occupied Bangladesh. The HRC report quite succinctly points fingers at the

culprits. No wonder, when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto saw the report himself, he

shivered and ordered the burning of every copy of the report. Supposedly,

Bhutto’s wish came true and all the copies were burned to ashes.

Nevertheless, some folks in Pakistan suspected all along that few copies may

have survived the capitulation.

Some of us have even opined that one day the surviving copy of the HRC

report would see the light of the day. Indeed that is what has happened on

Friday (August 11, 2000). The newspaper India Today deserves our special

commendation for making the document public for once and all. The HRC report

was thought to be an unbiased because of the composition of the commission.

They have painstakingly interviewed a large number of military and civilian

government officer to reconstruct what went wrong during the nine-month

period in Pakistan and in occupied Bangladesh, which they call East Pakistan

then. They also send elaborate questionnaires to high officials who had the

knowledge of what went wrong from the perspective of Pakistanis. Mind you,

the HRC was very focused on finding what led to the dismemberment of Jinnah’

s united Pakistan. The Commission never did try to figure out why too many

Bangalees perished in the hands of Pakistani military brutes. While

conducting the inquiry, the HRC found out that atrocities of mammoth

proportion did happen all over erstwhile East Pakistan. They pointed out

quite succinctly that indeed that is what had happened during the nine-month

period all over the Bangla soil. Also, reference was being made about

certain zealots among Pakistani senior military officers, the planner of

Bangalee Genocide, who said they would change the greenery of Eastern Bengal

into a river of red – an oblique reference to blood bath.

The publication of HRC report in the Internet and its subsequent fallout

does not bode well for Pakistani military who are now at the helm. Needless

to say, Pakistani army with a proven record for their disdain for democracy

had again revealed their true color when they deposed a democratically

elected Prime Minister from power in October 1999. By doing so Pakistan has

become a pariah nation all over the world. And now, the publication of HRC

report in the popular Internet media would paint a very dismal picture of

Pakistan’s armed forces. Almost everyone of the senior army commanders of

Pakistan during 1971 was implicated by HRC commission.

It is amusing to note that one such villain, Lt. General Gul Hassan, who was

one of the mastermind behind not giving power to Bangalees in the aftermath

of December 1970 general election in Pakistan claimed that his hand is

tainted with Bangalee blood because he was far removed from the epicenter of

trouble during the nine-month period in 1971. In 1999, one ex-Brigadier by

the name Z.A. Khan wrote a memoir in which he implicated that General Gul

Hassan made secret tip to Chittagong to fine tune killing and subjugation of

Bangalees. HRC report also mentions copiously the role Gul Hassan played

sitting snugly in his office in the cantonment near Islamabad. The same Gul

Hassan also penned a memoir in which he tried to distance himself from the

ruling military clique. In a vain effort, Gul Hassan even reproduced a

letter that he wrote to General Osmani, the head of Bangladesh Army in 1972.

Isn’t that odd that he could possibly sent a letter addressed to Gen. Osmani

at the time Pakistani government did not acknowledge the legitimacy of the

newly formed Bangladesh government. There is a reason for doing all this on

the part of Gen. Gul Hassan. He needed badly a character certification from

his old pal (Gen. Osmani) to save his head from the HRC. Obviously, like

other military high officials, Gen. Gul Hassan was also under severe

pressure to answer some tough questions about the his wrong doings to

dismember the united Pakistan. Gen. Gul Hassan just devised a stratagem by

writing a letter to General Osmani. This scribe would like to know how in

the world Gul Hassan’s letter could reach Gen. Osmani, which was addressed

to his office in Mintoo Road, in 1972?

General Gul Hassan’s activities in post-1971 days exemplified how terrified

the army generals of Pakistan acted to save their head. They knew rather

well that if HRC report was published, the entire defense establishment of

Pakistan would be tainted with the blood of slain Bangalees. Furthermore,

they did not want to take the blame for the dismemberment of Pakistan. They

were successful in intimidating even Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who became a pawn

in the hands of Islamabad/Rawalpindi army generals during 1970-71. All

successive governments in Pakistan no matter whether they were of civilian

or military origin had failed to publish HRC report. This leads to one

question -- why did someone take the enormous risk of leaking the report at

this time? The answer could very well lie in the fact that in Pakistan we

have some disgruntle members of intelligentsia. Some of them would like to

give military establishment in Pakistan a bad name. The revealing of HRC

report would most certainly embarrass the ``CEO`` of Pakistan (read: the

military strongman) Gen. Pervez Musharraf. He was a junior army officer

during 1971. It is not certain whether Pervez Musharraf served even for a

day in erstwhile East Pakistan.

The publication of HRC report would boost the morale of Bangalees who have

launched an effort to take responsible Pakistani military officers to

International Tribunal for the crime they have committed against humanity.

As the news of HRC report permeates in Bangladesh and other South Asian

civil society, more people would know about it and a public opinion would

favor the movement to take those culprits to International Tribune at The

Hague. This would be a positive outcome of publication of HRC in the public

domain. There will be some ripple effect in Pakistan too. It is, however,

too early to predict the full breadth of after-shock that awaits in

Pakistani civil society.

In summary, the publication of HRC in public media is a coup de grâce for

common Bangalees over the issue of culpability of Pakistani defense

establishment. For too long, they get away from taking the blame. Now, the

HRC report squarely put the blame on the same institute of Pakistan. Much

remains to be seen what happens now in Pakistan in the aftermath of this

tumultuous event. No one can predict the future for sure. The HRC report

could very well be the catalyst that Pakistan needs badly to take them out

of their quagmire. The timing of the publication of this very important

document could not have been better.



A.H. Jaffor Ullah writes from New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. His e-mail

address is - jhankar@bellsouth.net