SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
Mohammad Jamil
There has been certain element of mistrust between Bangladesh and Pakistan due to the propaganda campaign by India and detractors of Pakistan that three million Bengalis were slaughtered by Pakistan military in 1971. Efforts were made in the past to remove the trust deficit and improve ties between the two brotherly countries that are bound by faith, shared values of love and passion for peace. It goes without saying that people of both countries have common heritage, as Muslims of the undivided India including people of East Bengal had struggled for a separate homeland in order that they could live according to their own way of life and without domination by the brute Hindu majority. They were successful in creating Pakistan – a beacon of hope for the Muslims of the subcontinent and beyond.
But on 16th December 1971, Pakistan was dismembered through an international intrigue and pernicious designs of India whose leadership had never reconciled with the partition of the sub-continent and creation of Pakistan. Anyhow, in February 2006 the then prime minister of Bangladesh Khaleda Zia had visited Pakistan to discuss a whole range of bilateral issues in diverse fields and promote bilateral and brotherly relations between the two countries. However, it appears that it would be difficult to improve Pak-Bangladesh ties while Sheikh Hasina Wajed is at the helm; however efforts should be made to draw the attention of people of Bangladesh towards the false propaganda that three million were dead and Pakistan army raped women in thousands, which has been falsified by independent writers. There is need to counter egregious propaganda, so that Bangladeshis could understand the true visage of India and Awami League leaders.
Sarmila Bose, a noted British academic and senior research associate at the Centre for International Studies at Oxford University, in her book ‘Dead Reckoning: Memories of 1971 Bangladesh War’ published in 2011, attempted to quantify the deaths in the Civil War by interviewing the participants on both or, rather all sides. She moved back and forth between Pakistan and Bangladesh, seeing retired Pakistani officers in the west, survivors of killings and their relatives in the east, as well as members of the non-Bengali and non-Muslim minorities. She had laid bare the nature and scale of atrocities committed by the ‘nationalist’, which had been edited out of the dominant narrative. Its discovery spoils the “villains versus innocents” spin of Bangladeshi nationalist mythology. Her investigations revealed the death toll between fifty thousand to one hundred thousand, including Bengalis and non-Bengalis.
Authors, Richard Sisson and Leo Rose in their book published in 1990 titled ‘War of secession: Pakistan, India and creation of Bangladesh’ gave an account of the events that took place from 1970 to 1971 in former East Pakistan. The authors wrote that India planned to interfere in the internal affairs of Pakistan and invaded the then East Pakistan when three million Bengalis mostly Hindus fled to West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. The book gives a comprehensive select bibliography with regard to the source of material as well as a detailed list of the participants interviewed by the authors including politicians, government and military officials, journalists, jurists and scholars of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The authors wrote that crisis of 1970 was solely incapacity and impotence of the ruling elite of West and the then East Pakistan; thus blaming both sides.
Many books have been written; some justifying struggle for creation of Bangladesh and others comprising details how a country with recognized borders was dismembered through international intrigue. Most authors have narrated the facts, and majority is of the opinion that when there is movement for secession or civil war, excesses on both sides take place. During civil war, West Pakistanis, Biharis and members of security forces were butchered by Bengali army officers – erstwhile colleagues – and Mukti Bahini guerillas.
However, people of Bangladesh were given one account of the events by India and anti-Pakistan writers. By now, they know that India is their real enemy, and Sheikh Hasina Wajed is hiding facts from them. Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration’s verdict on India and Bangladesh’s maritime boundaries in Bay of Bengal is a case in point. To look at, Bangladesh has been given three fourth of the exclusive economic zone, which Hasina Wajed government highlights.
But fact of the matter is that India stands to gain immensely from Talpatti Island – a gas rich island having more than 1trillion cubic feet gas reserves. The verdict, binding on both countries, opens the way for Bangladesh to explore for oil and gas in the Bay of Bengal, and ends a dispute over a sea border with India that had ruffled ties between the neighbors. Even though India believes the delimitation has been done in an arbitrary fashion, it is not the loser. Both the governments have called it a win-win situation. There are other irritants between India and Bangladesh. One is extrajudicial killings by Indian army on the Indo-Bangladesh border, issues of raising border fences by India, and sharing Ganges River water. But independent and patriotic Bangladeshis term it as an act of betrayal and treason on the part of Sheikh Hasina, who will be made answerable one day.
Bangladesh’s (BD) ruling party Awami League (AL) under Sheikh Hasina Wajed maintains an anti-Pakistan posture by expressing animosity, antagonism and unrestrained emotional flare-up. The aim is to exploit feelings of masses by keeping the “hate Pakistan” agenda alive to appease India. But Pakistan wishes to see brotherly country Bangladesh as stable and strong. And this is one of the reasons that Pakistanis have invested heavily in Bangladesh. Secondly, conditions for investment and exports are better as compared with Pakistan. Capital invested by Pakistanis in BD certainly contributed positively in strengthening BD economy. Unfortunately, politics in BD under the leadership of Prime Minister Hasina Wajed created an anti-Pakistan environment; firstly to appease India, and secondly as a cover up for her government’s failure in addressing socio-economic problems of the people. However, people of Bangladesh will soon recognize her real face, and she will again be rejected by her own people.
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