The Fall of Dhaka: Five Big Fallacies

On December 16, Bangladesh is celebrating its golden jubilee of independence. Despite the passage of half a century, the propaganda that has been done regarding the independence movement of Bangladesh is so effective that today the actual facts have been lost somewhere.

Below is a review of five major misconceptions that many Pakistanis believe to be true.

Surrender of 90 thousand soldiers

A big fallacy is that 90 thousand soldiers had surrendered in East Pakistan. In this regard, Sharmila Bhose, who teaches at Oxford University and is the granddaughter of Indian national leader Subhash Chandra Bhose, writes in her book ‘Dead Reckoning’ that ’93 thousand Pakistani soldiers surrendered in the 1971 data. The matter has been repeated so much that it is now almost undeniable. Everyone is delusional about this number. India should have accurate figures on prisoners of war, but it is not. In March 1971, the total number of West Pakistan soldiers in East Pakistan was 12,000. More troops were brought in to deal with the critical situation. In 1971, according to Commander Eastern Command Lt. Gen. AAK Niazi, he had a total of 34,000 army officers and soldiers. The rest remain police, civil officers, staff and women and children. By adding them together, the number of those taken into custody may be correct. However, saying that 93,000 soldiers were captured is completely false.

Could Pakistan have really survived by giving power to Sheikh Mujib?

A common perception is that Pakistan could have been saved if the Awami League had come to power in the 1971 general elections. But no one knows what were the six points of Sheikh Mujib, due to which he won the elections. They would have a separate currency and banking system, separate foreign exchange accounts, autonomy in trade with other countries, a separate army, and the federation had only limited defense and foreign affairs.

Now, if Awami League had followed its manifesto, apart from East Pakistan, West Pakistan would also have been divided into many parts. According to the Hamud-ur-Rehman Commission report, direct evidence of India’s collusion with anti-state elements in East Pakistan came when the Agartala conspiracy case was exposed in 1967. An organization was formed to separate East Pakistan from Pakistan and Sheikh Mujib was associated with it. Not only did India promise to provide arms and financial aid to organize the insurgency in East Pakistan, it also promised to close the air and sea routes connecting East Pakistan and West Pakistan.

The well-known diplomat Afrasiab Mehdi Hashmi writes in his book “The Fall of Dhaka, What is Fact, What is Fiction” that in the August 14, 2012 issue of Bangladeshi newspaper Daily Star, Awami League analyst Badrul Hasan wrote that in 1950, Sheikh Mujib who was at that time was a young politician, asked the Prime Minister of United Pakistan Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, himself a Bengali, a question, ‘Would it be possible for East Pakistan to gain independence one day?’

On this Prime Minister Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy warned Mujeeb and said, ‘Never bring such thoughts into your mind. Pakistan has been won at a very heavy price and it is our duty to keep it united.’

Mujeeb grumbled and said, ‘When the time comes, we will show our work.’

3 million people killed

The death toll of 3 million people and the desecration of 200,000 women in the Bangladesh movement first came to light when Sheikh Mujib was first released from prison in Pakistan and first went to Britain and then reached Bangladesh through India. .

He stated in Dhaka in January 1972, ‘During independence our 3 million people were killed. I say with full confidence that there is no example in the history of the world that such a heavy sacrifice of lives has been made in a freedom movement.’

Many independent institutions, journalists and authors of the world have described this number as an exaggeration. According to the Norwegian Peace Research Institute, the number of people who died during the Bangladesh movement was 58,000, while the Hamud-ur-Rehman Commission report put this number at 26,000.

Interestingly, the Bangladesh government itself set up a committee headed by a Deputy IG of Police in January 1972 to ascertain the exact death toll. But no report of this committee has come out till date, probably because the actual death toll was far from the figure of 3 million.

Bengali journalist Tajumal Hussain, who is a graduate of Dhaka and University of Oklahoma, writes that if the number of 3 million is accepted as correct, then from March 25 to December 16, there are 267 days in the nine months, i.e. 11,236 people every day. were killed What can be a bigger exaggeration?

Rape of two lakh Bengali women

Like the massacre of 30 people, the story of the rape of two lakh Bengali women was also started by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. It was also revealed when Sheikh Mujib himself requested Britain that ‘Pakistani army has violated two lakh women, so they should send special teams to Bangladesh to abort these women.’

When the team came from Britain, they had only one hundred cases of abortion.

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had raised the slogan ‘Adhar Hum Adhar Tum’

Actually this word is not Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s, but the headline of a newspaper of that time, daily ‘Azad’, which is the result of the pen of famous journalist Abbas Athar.

This was in the early 1970s. Elections were held not long ago, in which Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League won an overwhelming majority in East Pakistan, while Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party won in West Pakistan. Just when the discussion regarding the transfer of power was going on, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto addressed Sheikh Mujib in a meeting and said that if you have got the majority in East Pakistan, then we have the majority in West Pakistan.

Abbas Athar summarized the same thing in the form of ‘Adhar Hum Adhar Tum’, but it is taken to mean that Bhutto had said that your government should be formed in East Pakistan and ours in West Pakistan, that is, break the country from him. , although Bhutto meant something else.