December 16, 2010: khoon ke dhabbe dhuleN ge kitni barsaatoN ke baad

Posted on December 16, 2010
Filed Under >Owais Mughal, Foreign Relations, History
37 Comments
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Owais Mughal

Bangladesh celebrates its Independence DayToday it has been 39 years since East Pakistan became Bangladesh. It has been longer that Bangladeshis have been politcially separate from Pakistan (39y) than they were together (24y). A new generation has grown up without seeing the time when the two countries were together. A lot of water has flown under the bridge since then and this is a good time for both countries to forgive and forget about the past. I would go as far as to say it should be okay to seek forgiveness from each other and say sorry for the war of 39 years ago. Nobody becomes smaller in stature by saying sorry except for inflated egos. It can only heal and make friends. And Pakistan needs friends.

We want to wish Bangladesh prosperity and good luck in their future.

Also see earlier posts at ATP:

2007: A Pakistani in Bangladesh
2007: Bangladesh Turns 36: Bringing Stranded Pakistanis Home
2008: History’s Ghetto: Stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh
2008: Sahabzada Yaqub Khan
2009: 1971: A Blot of Shame
2009: 1971: The Lessons We Did Not Learn
2009: 1971: The Forgotten Silence
2009: 1971: Hum kay thehray ajnabi…
2010: Remembering Lt. Gen. Azam Khan

37 responses to “December 16, 2010: khoon ke dhabbe dhuleN ge kitni barsaatoN ke baad

  1. fuzair says:

    Imran:

    Sorry, you lost me. I don’t understand your post.

    I said that Khushwant Singh said it had been sent to him from Islamabad but I also said that it had clearly been written by a non-Desi.

    In any case, we also blame everyone but ourselves for our problems.

  2. fuzair says:

    Nadia: I never said that the Army was not brutal: what part of “PA’s indiscriminate and often very brutal use of force” don’t you understand? I was referring to military operations AFTER Operation Searchlight (the assault on Dacca University that you refer to). Even the most rabid Bangal/Indian nationalist doesn’t allege that the PA was carrying out wholesale massacres before 25th March. That was being done by the Awami League against the Biharis–who got their own back with interest by joining the various razakar units organized by the Army.

    In any case, Bangali propaganda does not contradict the Indian’s own casualty estimates for the PA. The Bangali propaganda is usually so third rate that refuting it is trivial. IIRC reading one “first hand” account where the survivor describes the G3 rifles used by the PA soldiers. Now the G3 is indeed the official PA issue rifle… but it was only issued to the Army in the mid1970s (IIRC 1976?). It wouldn’t even have been issued to SSG troops in 1971 as it is completely unsuitable for special forces–too big and heavy for their role.

    Again I am not claiming the PA were angels with insanely restrictive rules of engagement. They weren’t; the Army was absolutely indiscriminate in the use of its (relatively limited) firepower and Bangali civilian casualties were numbered in the tens of thousands. However, these were usually ‘collateral damage’ (to use the American term) and to the extent that killings were “targetted” they were usually of male Hindus (there is a relatively easy but crude way to check).

    The Army in E. Pakistan had no heavy equipment worth talking about: one tank regiment plus an independent squadron IIRC (i.e. ~60+ clapped-out tanks of WWII vintage, mainly Walker Bulldogs ‘bakshed’ to us by Uncle Sam as a way of getting rid of the junk in storage) and the regular artillery component for one division (i.e., one, maybe two?, regiment with WWII equipment as the East was not a priority for the PA) and one PAF squadron (14th squadron IIRC–the PAF had planes shot down by the IAF in Novemver 1971). I know from personal knowledge that much of the heavy equipment in E. Pakistan had originally been condemned by the British after WWII and then salvaged by the PA.

    All the reinforcements sent AFTER Operation Searchlight were sent by air without ANY of their equipment other than personal weapons, LMGs and maybe light mortars (i.e., weapons you can stuff in the cargo hold of PIA passenger planes).

    Anyway, I grow bored trying to educate the uneducatable; believe whatever you want to and don’t let facts get in the way.

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