Bangladesh Memories

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/asia/afp/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/000326/asia/afp/Victim_of_1971_Bangladeshi_war_finds__great_joy__in_the_truth.html

Victim of 1971 Bangladeshi war finds `great joy` in the truth

DHAKA, March 26 (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.

The seeds for breakup were sown in 1951/2 when the West Pakistani politicians (God knows what they were thinking) tried to impose the Urdu language in Bengal. There are, I think, certainly more memorials (and at least as much official/unofficial remembrance) of the language riots of 1951 in present day Bangladesh as there are for the 1971 war.

If someone wishes to reflect on what went wrong, perhaps that reflection can start with considering the importance of respect for other cultures (be they of the East or of the West). And take it from there...

Much to the disappointment of every sane citizen of Pakistan. It is very much true that we ``Pakistanis`` have never been told our real history. The ``muslim era`` in the sub-continent has been fabricated and mis-told to us during our school days by the teaching of useless bunch of lies known as the text book, whose publication has always been controlled by the government. The real truth about how the division of British India took place has never been told to us. Since childhood we have been told nothing but a bunch of lies about our history. The idea of India is our enemy has been sowed into us from start. The idea that Jinnah was the greatest man on earth and Gandhi was nothing but a pro-hindu, British puppet has been somehow drilled into us. So much so that we do not even want to listen to the real truth. If we don`t go much far back and just take a look at the TV Serial Jinnah, played a couple of years ago by PTV. Jinnah was portrayed to be a man who was devoted Muslim from birth, who spoke absolutely flawless ``Lukhnavi Urdu``. In real Mr Jinnah was hardly a Muslim, records show he didn`t even knew how to say his namaz. He could not speak Urdu at all. Regardless of all I still consider him to be a great person, who did us a great favour by providing us with this nation to mess up.

Similarly regarding the partition of Pakistan, we still have no clue why, what happened. I agree to RR that the attitude of the native Bengalis was hostile towards us, but why was it. Let`s keep in mind that they were of majority in Pakistan. If we were a real democratic country, why didn`t we have a Prime Minister who was from the then ``East Pakistan``? I agree that jute wasn`t the only source of income for Pakistan, but still it was one of the major ones. The Balance of social development between the two factions was definitely not in favour of East Pakistan. But ``East Pakistan`` did have the greater share of industry. Specially sugar cane and Jute.

We shred tears on the wrong doings of Nazis with Jews. We call it inhuman and disturbing. But if we recall the misdeeds of Pakistan Army on Bengalis were very much the same. Perhaps not bad as mass murders, but yes they did gang rapes. Do you think they should be called shaheed?

I personally am not a Bengali. I am a Pakistani. I have had no contact with Bangladesh ever. But I am a realist. I try and learn about the facts using neutral media. I do try to sound neutral, but still I do apologise for any biased attitude that might be portrayed from my above writings. My point was to blame both the parties. But my experiences in life say that we should improve ourselves by blaming ourselves. And not repeat the same mistakes we did with East Pakistan on Kashmir and maybe even Karachi. In our 50-year national history, we have lost a lot. Lets try and keep together the remaining we have.

An apolgia pro forma to Bangladesh, from Pakistan, for the war of 1971 will only be forthcoming when we, Pakistanis, realize that that our actions were wrong. As long, as the thinking and, the false ideas about that war persit, we will never accept truth and nor learn the consequences from that war.

Nothing much has changed since those dark December days. The lies told, then, are the same ones being told today, but only the difference is the place mentioned; Kashmir instead of Dhaka. If we, as Pakistanis, are so eager to teach our children the games of spears, bow and arrows and guns, we should also, in all fairness, tell them how these games end: a mother crying over the grave of her child.

Nice and reflective!

I read all the comments by various chowkees.

We can today blame army for all we want, and i condemn what happened in East P., but it was a game of punjabi dominated politics, that did not want power and autonomy vested in the east. Poor Army soldiers don`t have thinking power, they just kill on orders, similiar to Americans in Vietnam, where they could not not tell b/w vietcong and ordinary civilians, Army was insensitive b/e peacesul bengalis and Mukti bahaini liberation movement. The genocide that followed is not a surprise, as it has happened before in history. The irony was Muslims killing Muslims, in my opinion. I believe it was West Pakistanis who turned our brothers in the East from autonomous to seccesionist!

Ras,

Incredibly evocative!

Anita

Expressive, is the word. Much has been written on the subject and yet, in our traditional fashion, we do not have an official version of history as to what happened in `71, or for that matter before and after that. This ignorance of our ruling class is not uncommon. What better way to keep the status quo and keep people under control than to keep a criminal silence about the past: who did what, where, when and why? The answers to these questions are so painful that our ruling establishment would much rather forget about it all than to embarrass itself in front of the country and the world and perhaps cause the beginning of its end. Why would they want to do that?

There`s another chapter in the story of East/West Pakistan. Bengalis had this notion well entrenched in their psyche that they were in the majority therefore they should have been the rulers of Pakistan and Dhaka should`ve been the capital. They also believed that ALL the prosperity of West Pakistan was ONLY due to the Bengalis and their export of jute. Pictures of old buildings in Karachi, built well before Pakistan were printed in the Bengali papers with the caption that your jute income is spent on these extravagant buildings.

My father, who first migrated to Bengal after the partition, describes the hatred that Bengalis showed towards all non-Bengalis at the time. When he asked for directions he would be sent into the opposite directions by the very resident of that neighborhood. When he would ask for the price of bananas, he was told one for five anaas, when other Bengalis were buying them five for one ana right in front of him. One rickshaw driver told him one price before the ride and upon getting there said it was four times as much. When my father disputed that, all the Bengalis gathered around him angrily and almost beat him up when another non-Bengali who could speak Bangla interrupted and saved him.

And that was another thing. ``Urdu Jaane Na, Bangla bolay`` was what he was told repeatedly when he would ask someone something in Urdu. Even educated Bengalis who did speak Urdu would do the same. When he got his papers certified by a well-respected principal of a large public school, the judge tore his application and rudely said in English that he would not accept any application in Urdu. Quaid-e-Azam had to rush to Dhaka non-stop to stop the mini-revolt that resulted when he proclaimed Urdu as the official language of Pakistan.

It was this hatred and resentment towards West Pakistan and non-Bengalis, mainly due to misguided feelings about Begal`s right to dominate, that resulted in the sweeping victory of Mujib in the elections held just a couple of years after Muslim League had done the same. ML won only one seat in the entire Bengal. And this was just the beginning.

I`m not trying to blame it all on the Bengalis, but merely stating that had they been more mature about their majority, history would have been a lot different.

What the Pakistan army did was wrong. It was shameful and evil. It should not have happened no matter what. As Saima said, racism was also a factor. Still, if we apply the current criteria for army recruitment in Pakistan, most of the Chinese and Vietnamese soldiers would not qualify. And we all know what that means.

BUT, the point I must stress is that had Bengalis and their leadership been a little less hostile towards non-Bengalish, things could`ve been different today. They must share a little bit of the blame in why things didn`t work out the way they were supposed to. All I`m saying is that Pakistan should apologize to Bangladesh but Bengalish must also do some soul-searching of it`s own. And more importantly, we must try and cooperate with each other in the future, while not forgetting the past. If the US could do that with Japan and Germany, we can do it too.

Rehan.

thanks. enjoyed reading it.

Very well said, Ras. The more people talk and reveal about that dark chapter of history the more likely it is for others to learn from past blunders.

In the late `80s, over 90% of all Pak fauj officers were Punjabi. A staggering 60% were domiciles of Lahore city. This could have serious implications. The rump, post-Zia, Pakiland has some frightening similarities with post-Tito Yougoslavia. Yougoslav federal army was largly a Serb army (Serbia being their largest `province`). The post-Tito decade saw increasing internal power struggle, corruption, ethnic and linguistic strife, ecnomic stagnation, infra structure degradation and institutional decay. Sounds familiar?

Those who don`t learn from history are demned to repeat it.

...SR

Found an interesting and related letter to the Daily Dawn`s editor:

``Black December



DECEMBER 16 is a very important date in the history of Pakistan. In our endeavour to get rid of the bad memory of this day, when our country was torn asunder by a mixture of our collective follies, namely ambitions of unscrupulous politicians, ineptness of our military leadership, the opportunism of our enemy, the nightmarish memory of the surrender of our troops at Dhaka, we keep on making attempts to distort history. Of particular significance are the writings of the actual participants culminating in the Tiger Niazi`s books, Mein Nay Hathiar Nahin Dalay and Betrayal of East Pakistan. Certain other politicians simplify the whole problem into reluctance of Yahya Khan to part with power to Mr Bhutto`s wish to acquire power.

It is tragic to lose half your country but it will be a greater tragedy not to learn the correct lessons from the events preceding `Black December`. This is a chain of events, which should be acknowledged.

The East Pakistani disaffection started with West Pakistani (Punjabi) civil servants` colonial attitude towards our Bengali citizens starting with Mr. Aziz Ahmad, the then Chief Secretary of East Pakistan, personifying the Raj, as if they were still the `Resident Bahadur` of a foreign colonial power. Coupled with that, the military top-brass made no secret of their `contempt` for the so-called non-martial people of that region. Alas! the history of Bengal during Mughal and English rule tell us an entirely different story.

The second part of our fudging is the thesis that Muslim Bengalis could never have continued as part of Pakistan, because of a strong streak of `Bangla nationalism`. This flies in the face of history. Partition of Bengal, the establishment of Muslim League in Dhaka, the success of that party in elections in the united Bengal nullifies it. If Bengali nationalism was such a coherent force, a united Bengal would have resulted, when Kiran Shankar Roy and H.S. Suhrawardy mooted it.

Six points surfaced in the Ayubian era. Quite a number of people believe that a `Punjabi` intellectual was its author. Whatever the truth, the fact is that absence of political process and Ayubian attempt to prolong his rule led the Bengalis to believe their permanent ouster from representative offices.

The free-est elections of 1970 were not free at all. First armed forces leadership distributed cash amongst rightist politicians (just as a later-day general did many years afterwards) to obtain a fragmented result. Worse, the civil administration was allowed to be totally over-awed by strong-armed Awami Leaguers and thus ensured the lop-sided result. The rest following a logical pattern.

The army`s operations in East Pakistan are steeped in controversy. Finally, the defence of East Pakistan against Indian onslaught is a sad story of the High Command being totally bewildered, out of touch with reality, living on false bravado and bombast. The doctrine of defence of every inch of East Pakistan was impractical and that the defence of East Pakistan can be assured by a determined panzer push from West Pakistan was not tested. The generalship throughout was very poor. Apart from some brilliant and courageous battles at Hilli and Brahmanbaria, the Indians advanced rapidly. The only two governments who had a realistic appraisal of the outcome were USA and India.

Footnote: Generals participating in military operations make poor historians. The victorious side exaggerates their exploits and the losing side lays the blame elsewhere. Personally I find Brig. Saadullah Khan`s (an Infantry Brigadier) modest book, East Pakistan into Bangladesh a sober, realistic and poignant account. The moral of the story is simple. You can only keep a country together through equality, equity and justice - not through armed legions and formidable fire-power.

H.N. AKHTAR

Karachi ``

Basically Pakistani Army is an army of mercenaries. And they haven`t just committed crimes against humanity domestically but internationally as well. Is anyone familiar with the Black Friday which palestinians observer? This is the day when hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugess were entering Jordan. And the Jordanians hired Pak Army (rather NaPak) to stop the influx, who in the process killed hundreds (or may be thousands) of Palestinians. And guess who was the leading the army? Yes, our beloved Gen Zia (or rather Kanra Dajjal). That`s why Palestinians hated him.

Pat Shah writes: ``Sadly, I fear that most ``West`` Pakistanis still don`t really respect their former eastern counterparts``

I think a reasonable policy is to give people the benefit of doubt. Sweeping accusations like the one above achieve little other than fomenting dissent. Let us give modern Pakistanis a chance. A generation has passed and people are now not only more educated and enlightened, but also chastened by history. Let us talk of friendship and peace and the promise of an intelligent future.

Saad

Simply brilliant work here.

Even though at a personal level I cannot relate to 71. I dont have the fantastic memories of Bangladesh that others do here, but it has bothered me for along time why so-called white Pakistanis have this distate for Bengalis. For one reason or other I have heard many put-downs of Bengalis in our social circles.

The reasons revolve around poverty and colour/size.

An apology is very much needed for 1971. It was truly shameful.

I think its amazing that its literacy rate and female development ratios are better than ours.

A highly reflective piece.

Coincidence? I, too, was enrolled in Karachi Grammar School, or as we refered to it, Karachi Gutter Supply, in the fateful year of 1971.

I remember hiding under the stairwell of our apartment flat as the dull bass of falling Indian bombs could be heard, everynight, in the distence. I still remember my late father angrily denouncing the government, and he always blamed Islamabad, for the loss of East Pakistan and my mother telling him to be careful of what he said! I still remember infuriating my father by badgering him to take me to Clifton, so I could see the US Seventh Fleet!

PS: Just out of curiosity, how many Grammarians are hiding out and lounging about at Chowk?