By: Sohail Parwazon
Almost 44 years have passed but the wounds haven’t heeled yet. For those indifferent and heartless folks who considered the fall of Dhaka just as a geographical change it doesn’t matter much but those who have the hearts to cry for a motherland that was founded after the great sacrifices and lying millions of lives, it was nothing less than some great debacle and tragedy. Our enemy cultivated the seeds of hatred, animosity and acrimony, while we the ignorant people who got this freedom as a result of a struggle by our elders showed no value for it. Hence, India who never accepted the division of Subcontinent started the efforts to dismember Pakistan. Our irresponsibility and personal differences added fuel to the fire, thus India achieved what it desired in almost 24 years.
No one can dare to negate that at the time of independence the country inherited some evading flaws like; East Pakistan and West Pakistan were 1600 km away from each other with India and the sea between them, great misunderstandings were created between them due to communication gap, both the parts of Pakistan had different kind of problems and issues, language was another barrier since the Bengalis were not ready to accept Urdu as the national language, funds and the budget was another issue since the Bengalis believed that the earning of jute was being spent in West Pakistan while West Pakistanis had faith that the earning of the western wing is totally spent on the cyclone and flood effected Eastern wing. West Pakistani officers posted in East Pakistan were never respected by the Bengalis while they would also not behave properly with latter. All these issues and many other allied hitches and glitches paved way for a filthy conspiracy by our enemy.
The irony is that India didn’t put an end to her enmity. In fact after the fall of Dhaka they accelerated the pace to tear limb from limb of rest of Pakistan. The terrorist activities deep inside Pakistan by RAW and the hostile propaganda were few of those heinous crimes that our enemy is committing ever since the fall of East Pakistan. About the terrorist activities everyone is aware well and fully, as the government has been sharing the proofs about Indian involvement with the world quite off and on. Nevertheless, the Indian propaganda is the front where our enemy’s intelligence agencies are working with great zeal and extremely scientifically. The first and foremost aim of their propaganda is to malign Pakistan army and our intelligence agencies. It’s almost 44 years now that India is beating the drum of Pak army’s atrocities in East Pakistan. Dozens of fake and baseless stories about killing of innocent Bengalis by the army were swelled and people were persuaded persistently.
This manifold propaganda campaign had various angles; initially, a strong storyline based on ‘biased propaganda’ was promoted without evaluating factors like the role of India, Mukti Bahini, Awami League and wrong decisions at political level. Secondly, most sadly, Bangladeshi youth is also being brain washed and brought up on this cooked up account that East Pakistan was not governed properly. One may agree to it partially, however, it can’t be a 100% true assessment since the violence that was let loose in the year prior to the secession was way too embroidered and puffed up. The brutal murder of innocent Bengalis, painted as the ghastly and dreadful act of Pakistan Military, was actually cooked up to cover the slackness of pro-Mujib East Pakistani political and civil administration. Thirdly, the new plot that was created in the subsequent years was to protect the violence conducted by Mukti Bahini and Awami League’s members against those East Pakistanis who were not convinced that the solution to governance problems in East Pakistan was to break away from West Pakistan. These patriotic East Pakistanis believed in Pakistan and paid heavy price by losing their lives and damage to property. As it was intended and designed, later on, all the killings were termed as genocide by West Pakistan’s policy tool and Pakistan Army was presented as the rogue.
However, as we know that only a silly fish is caught twice with same bait, hence this propaganda didn’t work for long and soon sane voices from within the Indian civil society started exposing the unethical maneuvers being made by their government and the intelligence set-ups. It was not only the Indian scholars and researchers who courageously exposed the defaming and lethal propaganda but many of the Bengali writers also stood against these baseless and so-called stories about the crimes committed by Pakistan army. Amongst the Indian intellectual voices, Sarmila Bose is one such author, who in her book, “Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War” quoted first hand interviews listing the accounts during the time and relating many mysteries that have been overshadowing the literature on East Pakistan circumstances. Similarly, the book “The Wastes of Time: Reflections on the Decline and Fall of East Pakistan” written by a Bengali professor, Dr Syed Sajjad Hussain, who remained Vice Chancellor of Rajshahi University and moved to Dhaka University in July 1971, gives an insider’s account that unfolds many secrets regarding East Pakistan, buried in the history.
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