| by Rajeev
Sharma
( December 27, 2012,
New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) It was a five-hour visit to Dhaka but it
was long enough to bring Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar
face-to-face with a reality that she and her countrymen have long tried to
gloss over but the people of Bangladesh have not. Her host, foreign minister
Dipu Moni surprised her by bringing up the 1971 genocide committed by the
Pakistani armed forces and said that Bangladesh was still waiting for an
official ‘apology’ from Islamabad. She added that Bangladesh was not satisfied
with the ‘regrets’ expressed by Pakistan over the crimes perpetuated as a part
of deliberate official policy of teaching a lesson to the then East Pakistani
Bengalis.
 |
|
West Pakistani
soldiers did not spare even unarmed rickshaw-pullers in Dhaka city on the first
day (March 25, 1971) of their 9-month genocidal crackdown on the East
Pakistanis (Bangladeshis) - Photo courtesy: Press Information Dept. (PID),
Govt. of Bangladesh (1972)
|
Khar tried to
wiggle out of the situation by using the familiar refrain that she uses with
Indian leaders: forget the past and move on. She had used the same line with S.
M. Krishna, her Indian counterpart at the time (since changed) as she told him
that that the two countries should ‘move on’ without looking back. Krishna was
probably a patient listener. Not so Dipu Moni who insisted that future
relations with Pakistan depended on the awaited official apology from Pakistan
.
The Bangladeshi
minister probably saw through the hollowness of the ‘move on’ plea advanced by
her petite Pakistani counterpart. It was only a few months ago that Islamabad
was making such a hue and cry about an ‘apology’ from Washington for a drone
attack on Salalah post on Pakistani side of the Pak-Afghan border. The US
President and others had expressed ‘regrets’ over the incident that claimed the
lives of several soldiers. But Pakistan would not accept anything less than an
official ‘apology’.
Eventually,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tendered some kind of ‘apology’ although it
was not paraphrased as apology. Cash-starved Pakistan , desperate to come out
of an awkward situation it had created, accepted the‘apology’ and went to town
about it, much to the amazement of many at home and abroad.
Dipu Moni was
aware that the Pakistani leadership which talks of ‘forget and move on’ does
just the opposite in regard to the so-called Kashmir dispute. Whatever one
might say in the current simulated atmosphere of Indo-Pak bonhomie, the fact
remains that Pakistan makes it abundantly clear that it was not going to
‘forget’ Kashmir even if it stalls further movement in bilateral relations.
Be that as it
may, there is a very strong case for Bangladesh insisting on an official
apology from Pakistan . The pogrom ordered by General Yahya Khan, as the
military ruler in what was then known as East Pakistan has few parallels in
recent history, except perhaps the holocaust of the Jews ordered by Adolf
Hitler in Germany .
Though it was
the Pakistani military which had unleashed unspeakable atrocities on the
Bengalis, the civilians of West Pakistan were equally enthusiastic supporters
of the mass murder plan. The reason was the contempt the West Pakistanis had
for the Bengali speaking fellow citizens; they were seen as inferior in
physique and intellect and, in addition, were considered not Islamised enough.
In December 1970
general election, the Awami League of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had swept the polls
in the eastern wing of Pakistan . Being more populous, East Pakistan sent more
members to Parliament (National Assembly), and, therefore, the Awami League
qualified to rule the country. The Punjabi military and the West Pakistanis,
led by a man called Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, would have none of it. They used to
call the Bengalis of East Pakistan ‘monkeys’ and ‘chickens’ who did not share
their (West Pakistanis) hatred for India and the Hindus.
When Bengali
nationalism, already fuelled by the neglect of their language by the ruling
elite, began to assert itself, the military decided to deal with them
ruthlessly. Gen Yahya Khan, generally preoccupied with his favourite mistress
and a bottle of Scotch, asked his men to mercilessly crush any sign of
rebellion in East Pakistan . Men, women, children, old and infirm, none was to
be spared by the bullets of the‘patriotic’ Pakistanis.
The Pakistani
army went on a killing spree. They did not have to think much about their
target. But in many cases they were helped by local religious fanatics, who led
them to the ‘traitor’ and Hindu targets. A Pakistani journalist of Goan origin,
Anthony Mascrenhas, (he died in London in December 1986), who had worked for
Karachi daily, Dawn, wrote a graphic account of the mass murder planned (in
East Pakistan ) by Yahya Khan’s ‘Operation Searchlight’.
There is no
definite word on the number of people killed but most opinions settle for a
seven figure. At one time half of the then 70 million population of East
Pakistan was running for the elusive safety. Ten million refugees had poured
into India adding to the drain on a fragile economy and forcing the hand of the
then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, to take on the US-backed might of Pakistan
army.
The Richard
Nixon administration backed Islamabad unmindful of its grossest human rights
violations. In fact, after Yahya Khan launched Operation Searchlight in March
1971, Nixon sent nearly $4 million worth of arms to Pakistan and also dispatched
his naval fleet from the Pacific to the Bay of Bengal.
After the
creation of Bangladesh , Pakistan continued to play tricks with the new nation.
It refused to accept the Urdu-speaking ‘Biharis’ stranded in East Pakistan who
were unambiguous in their allegiance towards Pakistan . That problem still
remains as does the question of divisions of common assets.
Taking advantage
of the presence of religious zealots, who had collaborated with the Pakistani
army during the Bangladeshi war, the notorious ISI of Pakistan began to spread
its wing in the new nation. It helped the ISI that the subsequent events in
Bangladesh brought to the fore political forces that were opposed to Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman, the father of the nation. Bangladesh became a major hub of ISI
activities that included helping in all possible ways the insurgent groups
operating in eastern India, and pumping of fake Indian currency into India
either directly or through Nepal.
The ISI network
also helped the Islamist groups in Bangladesh who opposed their country wearing
the ‘secular’ tag. Prime Minister Sheik Hasina’s government is under threat
from the religious fundamentalists and their political pivot, the Bangladesh
Nationalist Party, which is said to have received help from the Pakistani spy
agency.
The BNP opposes
almost everything that the Awami League does or says. That is why Pakistan
never offered an official apology to Bangladesh for the 1971 genocide. It is
the opponents of Awami League who are also vehemently opposing the current
trial of ‘war criminals’, the collaborators during the liberation war of 1971.
But there is a strong public opinion against the pro-Pakistani elements. It is
this section that stands firmly behind Hasina. That must have been a factor
behind Dipu Moni’s firmness in demanding the long overdue apology from Pakistan
—and rejecting Hina Rabbani Khar’s hypocritical plea to forgive and forget. A
natural corollary of this firmness was Hasina’s decision not to attend the
four-day D-8 summit Pakistan convened in Islamabad from Nov 19.
D8 or Group of
developing eight Muslim countries - Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran,
Malaysia, Nigeria, and Turkey besides Pakistan -- is a relatively low key forum
which meets once in two years. Its bargaining power thus far has been limited
but it is determined to leverage the fact that D 8 accounts for almost 60
percent of global Muslim population to enhance their share of world trade by 15
per cent by 2018. Already D8 has achieved trade volumes worth $130 billion,
which is double its share of global trade three years ago.
Islamabad summit
is geared up to discuss ways to strengthen business and trade relations, and
ties between Muslim-majority states. Broadly speaking therefore, D 8 summit
holds great significance for Bangladesh too since it is keen to broad base and
deepen its trade opportunities. Already Dhaka has become a major investment
destination even for Pakistani businessmen, and some of them are shifting their
operations from volatile Karachi to Dhaka ’s neighbourhood.
The message from
Moni’s snub of Khar is therefore clear. And it is that Pakistan can hope to
have a turnaround in relations with Bangladesh only on Bangladesh’s terms.
Pakistan must put on trial military and political personalities involved in the
1971 genocide, and tender a public apology. These terms, as Prime Minister
Hasina and Foreign Minister Dipu Moni told Hina Rabbani Khar are not
negotiable.
Dhaka can afford
this luxury as an in-depth analysis on 'Pakistan-Bangladesh Economic Expansion
Challenges and Opportunities’ conducted by Pakistan ’s Federal Board of Revenue
(FBR) in September shows. Bangladesh is miles ahead of Pakistan with a robust manufacturing
base and real GDP at an impressive 6.3 per cent. In contrast, the land of the
pure remains dependent on regular IMF bailout and US treasury largesse to avert
defaults on loan repayments.
*The writer is a
New Delhi-based journalist-author and a strategic analyst who regularly writes
for several leading international media outlets. He can be reached at bhootnath004@yahoo.com.
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