As one grows, so does one accumulate and imbibe the history that has shaped our environs.
Unfortunately for us in Pakistan, these historical ephemera are either the ravings of obscurantist lunacy, the blatant lies of our Eastern friends, or even the expedient and cynical political rhetoric of one’s chosen party.
One of the things one learned about growing up in this new digital age of “culture wars” and “soft power” was the extent of the human suffering that was attributed to South Asia during the 1971 Indian Aggression.
Names such as Operation Searchlight and the Dhaka University “massacre” brought terrifying imagery to mind, and for most of one’s comrades, forever villainized their own armed forces.
What follows, then, is the story of how Mujibur Rahman, Indira Gandhi, and the USSR managed to successfully spin the (indubitably tragic) events of 1971 to paint Pakistan as an orchestrator of genocide.
Genocide refers to the act of deliberately targeting a particular group of people, with the aim of destroying that group of people. The word itself has now become almost synonymous with the Holocaust, with every discussion on the subject invariably finding its way to comparisons with that sanguinary and barbaric atrocity.
As such, the (almost frivolous) use of that word in modern rhetoric makes only too much sense, since it plays right into the victim mindset of much of the globalized Left and also starkly paints any given “aggressor” in the same brushstroke as Himmler. It is thus a tactically useful deployment of language.
That is not, under any interpretation, to downplay the horror of genocide when it does happen, nor is it to say that one should take such claims with a grain of salt. But one does dare to suggest that such claims need to be investigated to the utmost of one’s facilities.
The author maintains that in the case of 1971, claims of a genocide are either unfounded or direct falsehoods.
The Wheat from the Chaff
The claim of 3 million Bengalis having been killed was first put forth on the 21st of December by a Soviet newspaper called Pravda in an article titled “Enemy Occupation.”
Anyone even remotely familiar with the fast-and-loose attitude of communist “news” outlets should immediately backpedal at this point, but for the sake of argument, let us take it in stride;
In the article itself, it was stated that Pravda “estimated” 3 million people had been killed—including casualties of war, Biharis, and Pakistanis. How this estimate was achieved, what sources were used, what resources were available to Pravda on the ground is not deemed necessary information for such a claim (no surprise there).
On the 8th of January, 1972, Sheikh Mujib was released from captivity, arriving in Dhaka on the 10th. It was then, addressing PM Tajuddin Ahmad, that Mujib asked the inevitable question of exactly how many people died. Mr. Tajuddin replied by saying,
“I do not know, but I think around 3 Lakhs”.
This conversation was reported by a Mr. Siraj Ur Rahman, who at the time was heading BBC Bangla.
Mujibur Rahman was then interviewed on the 18th by members of the foreign press, where another BBC reporter, namely David Frost, asked again the question of victims of war, to which Mujib had no response. Incidentally, the reporter representing Pravda chimed in with the infamous figure of 3 million. Since Mujib chose to confirm this, the BBC then reported 3 million.
Surprisingly, the PM, Mr. Tajuddin, confronted the Bangabandhu on the subject, outright accusing him of “adding a 0.” This back-and-forth between the newly catapulted leader and his PM caused Mujib to appoint a 12 person commission to investigate the sensitive subject of killings and rapes, on the 26th of January 1972. This commission set about gathering information from Awami League members throughout Bangladesh.
Until August of 1972, the number of mass graves uncovered by the commission lay at exactly zero. So hard-pressed were they to somehow attain evidence that a prize of 1000 Takka was announced by the commission for anyone that could point to evidence of mass killing. For information on victims of rape, a prize of 3000 was announced.
By the end of their investigation, the total number of people killed that the commission came up with was of 38,000 people killed, and 2,680 raped.
These numbers were then blatantly fudged and rounded off to 50,000 killed and 25,000 raped.
When these numbers were presented to Mujib, he was raving mad and threw the report back at the commission. The report was never published, but the contents were leaked. And many firsthand accounts of the above exist.
The author wholeheartedly recommends the books Dead Reckoning and Creation of Bangladesh for even more detailed accounts. By the venerable Sarmila Bose and Dr. Junaid Khan, respectively.
The Impossibility of Genocide
One must also consider that the totality of the Pakistan Army in East Pakistan in 1971 was around 34,000 regular troops, with 11,000 militiamen organized into 3 divisions. These were not only engaged in counterinsurgency but also in giving combat to 15 regular divisions of the Indian Army. At least 2 of which had begun giving active combat to Pakistan well before the infamous airstrikes, whose drums are beaten about by so many in all three countries.
Indira Gandhi’s brutish bellicosity and India’s overt involvement make the task of pinpointing an exact beginning of hostilities difficult; even so, let us take it to be March 26th (OP Searchlight). Counting from that point till the surrender is 262 days. Even if the figure of 3 million is true, one comes to the figure of an average of 11,480 people being killed every day. How a force of 34,000 regular forces, engaged in combat both within and without, could manage to do that, with stretched resources and a hostile population, is beyond the author’s comprehension. And of course they had to rape thousands of women as well.
This is not a frivolous dismissal akin to Holocaust denial, as mentioned earlier; no organized killing fields or mass graves were found by the Bengalis themselves. A far cry from the industrial scale of the Holocaust.
One has not, by now, even counted for the fact that the Mukti Vahini and other militants committed their own fair share of wanton destruction.
Conclusion
Whatever their motivations, those that have peddled this myth did so out of ill intent.
Did Pakistan royally mismanage the situation? Yes. Mea Culpa—Mea Maxima Culpa.
Did Pakistan or its armed forces sully and degrade themselves with genocide? No.
