Posts Tagged Bangladesh War

 

 

BANGLADESH1971- ASGHAR KHAN CASE-PAKISTAN 2012

 

 

 

 

       

 

Lot of water has flown under the Bridge ever since 16 Dec 1971. There is a 

 

need to re evaluate the East Pakistan Tragedy in the present environment. We need 

 

to draw lessons?  Why do people revolt? What is Freedom? Can we subjugate 

 

people forcibly? How do we see the war on terror in FATA & Swat? How do we see 

 

the burning of Pakistan Flags in Baluchistan ? How do we see the Ethnic Target 

 

Killings ?      

 

 Bangla Desh Revisited.  I went to Bangla desh in 2004:  All my Bengali course mates 

 

invited me & my friends for lunch in Defence club Dhaka. They gave presents to all 

 

my Colleagues. Majority of them had revolted as Majors in 1971 and fully participated 

 

in their war of liberation. In 2004 they were as loving as in 1963, when we met first 

 

time in PMA. But I am sure we  would have killed each other like Animals if we 

 

had seen each other  during the 1971 in then EAST PAKISTAN . Thank Allah I was in 

 

Chamb sector.  

 

      How would we explain our actions of 1971 to our younger generations and 

 

compare the same to our present situation, will it be fully understood by them in 2012. 

 

Many of my best friends were involved in 1973 Attock case. They were the best of 

 

the lot, one of them having won the sword of honour from PMA another had been to 

 

RMA. Three of them had won the Sitara e Jurat. They were tried and sent to jail! 

 

       Asghar Khan takes retired retd COAS and ISI chief to Supreme court for 

 

distribution of Rs 140 million of Private money to Politicians, whereas Supreme court 

 

lets off Gen Beg for a bigger Crime of forcing the then Supreme court not to restore 

 

the Government of MK JUNEJO and Parliament?  Yayha khan is buried with full 

 

military honors by Zia Ul Haq. Zia Ul Haq and Gen PM are let off, for their actions by 

8th, 17th Amendments?       

 

A/Cdr Mitty Masud in 1971, three Brigadiers in 1977 are retired 

 

for standing up for the truth, where as the young men of Attock case are sent to jail.

 

        Why none of the Senior Officers ever stood up against Yahya khan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Zia Ul 

 

Haq for Forming IJI or Mehran Bank  1988-1999 and finally Gen PM.   Is there is 

 

anything wrong with our System to select officers for higher ranks both in civil and 

 

military? Presently Gen Aslam beg and Gen Asad Durrani are crying like children on 

 

TV and blaming each other. Why has Gen Beg and Gen Durrani forgotten the writing 

 

in the INGALL  HALL PMA” Matters not what happens to you, what matters is how 

 

you behave while it is happening.”

 

 

 

         Therefore it is high time we must discuss debate and find solutions to this aspect 

 

of adhering to the law and define what lawful command is and what is not? Other wise 

 

we shall have serious implications of discipline cases, when the ARMY is fighting the 

 

war of terror on the western border.

 

Indra Gandhi , Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Sh Mujib the architects of the 1971’ were

 

murdered by their own people (1975-1984).

 

Lt Gen Aurora the Victor in 1971 war ; A decade later was talking

 

to BBC about the injustices suffered by Sikhs at the hands of the state,

 

(Sarmila Bose writing about the 1971 war)

 

Gen Yahya was put under arrest in an isolated rest house in Kharian

 

hills. He suffered a stroke became paralyzed and died after a prolonged

 

illness in his brothers house. Lt Gen Gul Hasan summarily retired by

 

ZAB on 2 March 1972; Suffered a rash of leukoderma, died after a bout

 

with Cancer, alone in services club Rawalpindi.” (Extracts from Page 218-

 

219’ East Pakistan the end Game’ By Brig AR Siddiqui.)

 

1975-1981 Bangla Desh. Maj (Maj Gen) Zia Ur Rehman, Maj (brig)

 

Khalid Musharraf, Maj (Maj Gen) Manzur and other officers, who defected to

 

join their war of Liberation were killed by their own Soldiers within first ten

 

years of independence of Bangla Desh. Many other Freedom fighters were

 

tried and hanged in Bangla Desh; some are still in hiding either in Bangla

 

Desh or in foreign countries.

 

Bangla Desh- 25 Feb 2009. In DHAKA, the entire lower ranks of

 

Bangla Desh rifles (Ex EPR) mutinied they killed all their officers in the

 

HQ including their Director General Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed, his wife and

 

others including 40 officers and their Families. Army was called to disarm

 

them.140 died, within two days, mostly officers and their families.

 

  ADVICE BY A SENIOR BENGALI ARMY OFFICER TO PAKISTAN-

 

2003.Maj Gen I A Karim  Ex GOC 6 ARMED DIV IN 1971 in his forward to Brig A R 

 

Siddiqui’s Book’( East Pakistan the End game-  OUP-2003)’.

 

 

 

         “The people of East Pakistan now BanglaDesh are devout Muslims and if I 

 

may say, more religious in practice than our brothers in the west.  But the religious 

 

bond that gave us Pakistan could not be sustained primarily due to ethnic differences. 

 

Presently, Pakistan, though overwhelmingly Muslim, comprises four different ethnic 

 

groups: Pathans, Balochis, Sindhi and Punjabis. The pakistan government  must, 

 

therefore learn from  past mistakes and cater for some of the peculiarities of these 

 

regions so that policies can be adjusted to ensure fairness in all aspects of governance 

 

in order to bring about harmony and avoid dissention.

 

           Gen Karim is right but is there anyone listening?or we as dumb as we were in 

 

1971.

 

         

 

          MAY ALMIGHTY ALLAH HAVE MERCY ON US AND FORGIVE US 

 

AND OUR LEADERS AND GIVE THEM THE VISION TO UNDERSTAND AND 

 

FORESEE TO AVOID ANY MORE BREAK UP/BALKANISATION OF OUR 

 

BELOVED COUNTRY.    

 

   In conclusion I shall quote a write up on the death of “CHE’. “ It is men like CHE, 

 

who immortalize revolution, who brighten afresh the fading ideals and who are ever 

 

-living testimony to ultimate victory of cause of the liberation of mankind. Death for 

 

Che was more acceptable than the compromises that are made to carry out the 

 

revolution.”