Daily Times

On 23 March 1940 during the annual session of the All India Muslim League under the leadership of Quaid-e-Azam decided to demand a separate homeland for Muslims. According to India’s independence act 1947 under which the British gave independence to the dominion of Pakistan which comprised West Pakistan (present day Pakistan) and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and there was nothing common between West and East Pakistan except religion. There was difference in language, culture, traditions from West Pakistan. The two parts of the country were located along distance of more than 1000 miles from each other.

After independence urdu was declared national language which was not well received by people in East Pakistan as East Pakistan constituted more than 55 percent of population of the country. This led to a language movement in East Pakistan and in early 1968 sign boards in Urdu/English were replaced with Bengali and the Bihari Colonies were set on fire in Dhaka.

In 1970 elections were held in both wings as Awami League won majority seats i.e 160 followed by Pakistan Peoples Party 81. As a whole Sheikh Mujeeb won 167 seats out of total 315 seats in the national assembly. Sheikh Mujeeb was in no mood of sharing powers with Bhutto where as Bhutto was of the view he is representing majority in West Pakistan. On 20 December 1970 Bhutto declared that his party would not sit in opposition. On 3 January 1971 a map of Bangladesh was displayed in Dhaka by Awami League. In the mean time on 30 January 1971 an Indian Fokker was hijacked during its flight from Srinagar to Delhi and landed at Lahore. Later passengers were released by hijackers and the plane was set on fire. As a pretext of this India cancelled all flights by Pakistani aircrafts plying between West Pakistan and East Pakistan.

In the mean time peoples party refused to attend national assembly session at Dhaka, however, the session was postponed. These development led to an announcement in march 1971 by Sheikh Mujeeb that he is planning to run his own government in East Pakistan. On 23 march 1971 Bangladesh flag was hoisted on government buildings by Awami League. The British high commission and Soviet consulate also hoisted Bangladeshi flag. On 30 March 1971 both the houses of Indian parliament passed a resolution moved by prime minister Indra Gandhi expressing their sympathies and solidarity with the people of East Pakistan and assured full support for their struggle for independence. East Pakistan was surrounded on three sides by Indian territory and the border was 2000 miles long.

There were 1000 enclaves, water ways were the main means of communication. The geographical location of East Pakistan, the shape of its borders and communication infra structure made vulnerable of attack from India. Dhaka was centre of gravity surrounded by major rivers and the capture of Dhaka was essential to achieve the kind of political victory which India and Mukti Bahini wanted.

Indra Gandhi directed RAW to undertake covert operations and exploit political turmoil in East Pakistan. RAW started supplying Bengalis with arms and ammunition for conducting guerilla operation against Pakistan army. RAW also backed the Hindu minority in East Pakistan who played an important role in motivating Bengali Muslim against West Pakistan. Mukti Bahini was formed by India by mixing Bengali regulars and civilians after proclamation of Bangladesh’s independence on 26 march 1971. Mukti Bahini guerillas along with RAW operatives and regulars from Indian army operated training camps in the Indian states of West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and Tripura. By late 70s Mukti Bahini had started sabotage activities targeting power plants, bridges railway line and also killing non Bengalis. India armed and equipped Mukti Bahini with Italian howitzers, Dakota aircrafts, Otter fighter planes and alouette helicopters. On 26 march 1971 Pakistan army launched operation “Search Light” to restore law and order and safeguard lives of innocent civilians. By June 1971 the Mukti Bahinis were organized into sectors and by the end of July the Mukti Bahini operated in company strength in major towns. In his book “Inside RAW: The Story of India’s Secret Services Asoka Raina writes “Indian sources including journalists have put on record how much RAW had established the network of a separatist movement through cells within East Pakistan and military training camps in India adjoining East Pakistan”. During the period of April to October 237 officers, 136 junior commissioned officers and 3559 other ranks of Pakistan Army were martyred. During the period from June to November 1971, the Indian media and politician conditioned world opinion to accept India’s armed intervention in East Pakistan.

In the meantime Indian army with the help of Mukti Bahini selected its bases inside borders. From the last week of October to 20 November, 1971 the Indian army started encroaching into East Pakistan territory and setup bases for invasion of East Pakistan. On 19 November 1971 Eastern Command ordered Pakistan Army to occupy their battle positions. It was appreciated that Indian invasion of East Pakistan would start on 21 November on the day of eid-ul-fitr. Indian army surrounded East Pakistan with five corps and each corps target was Dhaka, the center of gravity. By 20 November Indian forces completed their preliminary phase of operation by occupying border out posts and Indian invasion started on 21 November when majority of Pakistani troops were on the move after leaving the internal security operations. The terrain and insurgency made it virtually impossible to hold defensive positions with secure flanks. Pakistan had only one corps and the total number of forces were around 34000. Most of the battalions were reduced to two regular companies and most companies were reduced to one regular platoon.

East Pakistan, the shape of its borders and communication infra structure made vulnerable of attack from India

Regular troops were diluted with civil armed forces, Frontier Constabulary, West Pakistan Rangers, West Pakistan Police and Mujahids. By November 1971 most of the Pakistani troops had fought for nine months under appalling conditions and the troops were living and fighting from water logged bunkers. Fighting within inside against a insurrection the eastern command was in no position to deal with an invasion from India. There were many acts of heroism where officers and soldiers preferred to die fighting rather than surrender. On night 9/10 December an enemy brigade attacked with four battalions on Jamalpur fortress which was repulsed by lone Battalion of 31 Baloch. Brigadier Hardit Singh Kler asked commanding officer 31 Baloch Lt Col Sultan through a letter to surrender. The commanding officer reply was “give my love to Mukties. Let me see you with a sten in your hand next time instead of the pen you seem to have much mastery over”. His reply was wrapped round a bullet. Major Muhammad Akram shaheed was commanding a company of 4 Frontier Force Regiment in Hilli area. In this sector the main objective of Indian army was Bogra to cut rest of Pakistani forces from north. This was only possible through Hilli area.

Indian 20 mountain division attacked this area under Major General Lachman Singh comprising three infantry brigades, one armour brigade, one engineers brigade and with the support of corps artillery. This position was continuously attacked, despite enemy superiority in men power and fire power the company repulsed many attacks. In the heat of battle Major Akram roseup to create history and move forward with a rocket launcher and destroyed three enemy tanks. He embraced martyrdom and was posthumously awarded the Nishan-e-Haider, Pakistan’s highest military award. On 9 December 2019 another hero of 71 war Colonel Suleiman passed away in CMH Lahore, who refused to surrender and escaped to Burma with a wounded colleague Major P D Khan (later Lt Gen). He was always referred by friends and course mates as “Suleiman the magnificent”.

Brigadier Liaquat Bukhari who was commanding only aviation squadron in East Pakistan has written an account of military operations in East Pakistan. He too did not surrender and flew helicopters under skies dominated by IAF with 169 women and children through Burma to Pakistan. Lieutenant Salar Beg volunteered to join an independent armored squadron in East Pakistan.

During the battle his tank was hit, despite this he kept on fighting and destroyed two Indian tanks. Soon his tank caught fire and was evacuated to nearest hospital. He rejoined his squadron to participate his last battle at Khulna where he embraced martyrdom.

He was laid to rest in the same place. The then Indian army chief General Manek Shah acknowledged the facts that he had all the advantages over Pakistan army, infact he said he had almost 15:1 advantage and praised the bravery of Pakistan army during the war. He also paid rich tribute to Captain Ahsan Malik (later Colonel) and sent a personal congratulatory message to Captain Ahsan Malik commending his defiant stand and wrote “Militarily his performance was excellent”.

On his return Captain Ahsan Malik was decorated with Sitara-e-Jurat. The alleged massacre of three million Bengalis by Pakistan army is infact a lie as spread by Russian news agency Pravda and Indian media. In a article by Drong Andrio of RUDN University Moscow, wrote “The birth of Bangladesh came in reality with India’s support and sympathetic supervision of USSR”.

Later no evidence of mass killing was found as figures were exaggerated by design by Sheikh Mujeeb. Not a single grave was found in East Pakistan as found in recent times in Kosovo and Bosnia. Qutubuddin Aziz has written an eye witness account in his book titled “Blood and Tears” exposed crimes committed by Indian army and Mukti Bahini on the people of East Pakistan.

The troops taken prisoners and killing of Bengalis are highly exaggerated. Even media and politicians keep on quoting these exaggerated figure. According to Dr.

Junaid Ahmed in his book “Creation of Bangladesh: Myths Exploded” has rejected these false and exaggerated claims linked to 1971 war in East Pakistan. In East Pakistan the total combatant were 34000 and 11000 were non combatant’s. Pakistan’s one corps was facing Indian five corps, a total strength of two lacs against 34000. According to commander eastern command Lt Gen Niazi in his book “The Betrayal of East Pakistan” the total strength available to me was forty five thousand -34000 from the army, plus 11000 from civil armed forces and West Pakistan civilian police and non combatants” when the total number of troops were between 34000 to 45000, how could 93000 surrender? According Air Marshal Rahim Khan, PAF the number of regular Pakistan troops in East Pakistan never exceeded 33000-34000. The rest is just propaganda by India and the Awami League, to magnify their success”. Dr. Junaid has also quoted the remarks of US congress man Charles Wilson “in 1971 it was certainly not possible for the 35000 Pakistani troops in Dhaka to fight against the combined strength of 200000 Indian army and more than 100000 Indian trained Bengali guerilla”.

According to Sarmila Bose, the famous Indian Bengali writer and researcher at Oxford University in her book “Dead Reckoning”, “it appears that while the total figure in Indian custody is about right to state that 93000soldiers were taken prisoners is wrong, and creates confusion by greatly inflating the Pakistan fighting force in East Pakistan”. Actually the figure of 93000 also included children, women, civil administration officials and staff, non combatants. According to Siddiq Salik press relation officer during war writes in his book “Witness to Surrender” the army had been deployed in penny pockets all around the border with India to prevent India from seizing territory and setting up a puppet state. Indian prime minister Modi during his visit to Bangladesh confirmed his participation in Jana Sangh campaign backing the Mukti Bahini.

He said the establishment of Bangladesh was the desire of every Indian and thats why Indian forces fought alongwith Mukti Bahini. 16 December is the darkest day in the history of Pakistan when country broke up and East Pakistan became a separate country Bangladesh.

Pakistan army was engaged by the Mukti Bahinis on one hand and Indian forces on the other hand.

Unfortunately there was no political will on both sides (East and West) to address the power sharing issue, we could have avoided the debacle. Military operations could not succeed on its own without political support to win the hearts of people and nation standing next to their armed forces.

The writer is a retired brigadier and freelance columnist