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.
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.
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.
First published in South Asia Analysis Group SAAG, December 26, 2012
Rajeev Sharma 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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