Bangladesh is rich in culture and heritage. Pakistani rulers wanted to play with it and hence were thrown out of the country. The nation has had enough of patriots; let us not add to it by fighting amongst each other.
by Anwar A Khan
December is the Month of Victory for Bangladesh.
If war is necessary, it is a necessary evil. Its evil is sometimes concealed for a time by its glamour and excitement, but when war is seen in its reality, there is a little glory about it. At its best, it is hideous calamity. It brings in awful loss of life. In our great liberation war of 1971, millions of men, women and children were killed; many died of diseases, and encountered untold sufferings. Hundreds of thousands of our mothers and sisters lost their chastity at the wretched hands of Pakistan’s savage military forces and their local mango-twigs, particularly Jamaat-e-Islami gawks.
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| The surrender ceremony of Pakistani Army to Bangladesh and India Joint Command on 16 December, 1971 [File Photo] |
If we recall the divested homes and wrecked hearts tell the rest of the story with tears. It brought in destruction of property, waste of health, dislocation of trade and industry, and general upsetting of the social life of the nation by war - imposed on us deliberately by Pakistani military junta.
Men have found way to abolish their great evils, such as, slavery and if they want to abolish war, they can definitely find ways to do that as where there is a will there is a way. We must not think the way Pakistan and American rogue states think.
Some people forget that war always brings destruction on mass scale. They forget Mahatma Gandhi’s teaching of non-violence, following which he freed his motherland from the shackles of slavery. They forget that if Gandhi could oust the powerful Britishers by dint of non-violence, why not others follow the same foot print.
In the month of our victory, we want to remember that wars are necessary evils and their horrors are so many and of such magnitude that they cannot be described in words. We must not forget the horrors of the two world wars. In the wars, there was mass-killing and destruction of property. Thousands were made widows and orphans. War brings hatred and spreads falsehood. People become selfish and brutal. As a result, humanity and morality suffers.
War is the enemy of all humanity.
Wars are not the solution of the problems. Instead, they generate problems and create hatred among nations. War can decide one issue but gives birth too many. Bangladesh, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the greatest horrible faces of the consequence of wars. Even after so many decades, people are suffering from the miseries of war. Whatever be the cause of war, it always results in destruction of life and property at large.
One obnoxious face of modern warfare is terrorism which targets the strongest of the strong and causes dangers beyond control of anyone. Terrorists do not discriminate between races, religion, and culture. They target only the humanity as a whole.
Victory Day is celebrated on every 16 December in Bangladesh to mark the anniversary of the surrender of Pakistan’s armed forces in Bangladesh at the end of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.
We are in the know of the union with Pakistan only came about as a result of the partition of British India into Muslim and Hindu zones in 1947 – India becoming one nation and Pakistan another. However, West Pakistan (now Pakistan) was separated by hundreds of miles from East Pakistan (Bangladesh), which made for a most unnatural union.
Later, Pakistan began to refuse equal status to the Bengali language, people of this land and otherwise ignite resentment in Bangladesh. Finally, in 1971, a bloody broke out with Pakistan as Bengalis demanded an independent and sovereign state.
Aided by India and former Soviet Union, Pakistan was finally defeated by us. The Pakistan’s General Amir Niazi finally surrendered to the joint forces of Bangladesh and India on 16 December at the-then Ramna Race Course in Dhaka. The crowds gathered to witness the event cheered wildly. Within only a few months’ time, most other nations of the world had recognised Bangladesh’s hard-won independence.
The 16th of December, 1971 is a red-letter day in our national history. It was on this day; we were to snatch our independences after a life and death liberation war for long nine months. This victory was a victory of right against wrong. It was a war of self-emancipation. Every year, we observe this day in a colorful manner. This day reminds us of the supreme sacrifices of our people in a colorful manner.
This day also reminds us of the supreme sacrifice of our freedom fighters who will ever shine in our hearts like the luminous stars in the sky. But at the same time, we must remember the spirit of the liberation war.
We wanted a country where justice will prevail over injustice and wrong. The lords of the mischief mongers are getting upper hand in the society, whereas the meek and mild become the worst sufferers. Disorder in everything has become the order of the day.
I call back after the victory, I felt proud and dignified. I revisited the well-known battlefields, which were familiar to me, after the war was over.
December - the month of the war victory marks great memories for us as we lived the moments of victory on 16 December 1971, and feel glory of eliminating all sense of sorrow incurred by the defeat of Pakistan’s military forces.
On this month of December, we pay rich tributes to the memory of the martyrs who laid down their lives for the sake of our independence. So, let all of us remember the spirit of the victory and see to establish just laws in the country to build it as a country which is rightly be called ‘Sonar Bangla.’
December is a red-letter month for the people of Bangladesh. The biggest fight for the people of a nation is the fight for independence. Salute to the brave people and army of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is a symbol of the immense victory of good against evil! It was a celebration of the right against wrong. Every fighter who sacrificed their life for the freedom of the country will forever stay at the heart of the people.
The struggle for freedom was long and gory for the people of Bangladesh. However, the moment they achieved it, there was a sigh of relief in the entire country.
Let us use the independence in the right manner as it comprises the hard-earned tears and sweats of all the people of the nation who had been through the liberation war of 1971. Salute the flag as the red ball in the national flag of Bangladesh symbolises the power of the country and also the blood that has been shed by our soldiers to get freedom. Victory day of Bangladesh is part of the collective memory of country. The greatest battle fought and won by the nation and its people.
Let us take an oath that we will not misuse the freedom given to us by the country. We will make each of the freedom fighter proud with the way we use our independence. Independence of ours shall not cut the freedom of others. Co-exist and co-ordinate is the mantra of living.
Our freedom was possible due to the support of India and former Soviet Union. Our youth got trained and we got freedom through our youths. Victory day is a struggle to be at the depth of our heart forever.
The cruelty can only be defeated with grit and determination. Every warrior from Bangladesh was then determined to drive out the Pakistani enemies and live on their own terms. The nation faced its greatest crisis until finally the Victory Day arrived and the people of Bangladesh could finally smile.
On the morning of 16th December 1971, the sun did shine bright on the land of Bangladesh and the day was greeted with smile throughout the entire country.
Bangladesh is rich in culture and heritage. Pakistani rulers wanted to play with it and hence were thrown out of the country. The nation has had enough of patriots; let us not add to it by fighting amongst each other.
You cannot cage a wild bird and so you cannot cage Bangladesh. It is a country flying high with dreams and thriving to betterment every moment. We struggled our way to freedom and we are never going to easily let it away! The cries of pain yet reverberates into the ears of the living. Our nation has a dark history and it teaches us to fight and stand for ourselves.
On the whole, war has always been the greatest blot on humanity. Now it requires retrospection for the whole of human race to think over it for the sake of humanity, otherwise nothing will remain neither war nor humanity.
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