BDR MUTINY IN BANGLADESH – AN ATTEMPT BY PAKISTAN TO ERASE THE 1971 GENOCIDE

MASS GRAVE IN DHAKA CAUSED BY BDR MUTINY, 2009.

1971 – Role of Pakistan Army’s genocide in Bangladesh

To understand the context for the present crisis, we need to look back at the bloody birth of Bangladesh. In 1970, Bangladesh was part of united Pakistan. During the 1970 general elections, the Bengalis of Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) won an overwhelming majority, electing Sheikh Mujib to Prime Minister of Pakistan. Alarmed at the thought of being ruled by their racial inferiors from East Pakistan(EVEN TODAY PAKISTANIS VIEW THE SHORT STATURED DARKER BANGLADESHIS AS RACIALLY INFERIOR), the Pakistan army cancelled the results of the election and launched a brutal crackdown. In the mass genocide that followed, 3 Million Bengalis were killed and 10 Million became refugees in India.


PAKISTAN ARMY SURRENDER

The war that followed - Pakistan was soundly defeated in 1971 that led to the creation of Bangladesh, the retreat of Pakistan was marred by charges of genocide and brutality that were so horrifying and cruel that Pakistan itself chose to bury the findings of report of this massacre.

HAMOOD-UR-RAHMAN REPORT



In December 1971, within a week of replacing General Yahya as the President, Bhutto formed a commission headed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Hamood-ur-Rahman. The Commission's responsibility was to ascertain the facts of the 1971 debacle.

Originally there were 12 copies of the Report. These were all destroyed; expect the one that was handed over to Z. A. Bhutto. Though the Report remained classified, till its contents were made public in 2002.

The Hamood-ur-Rahman Report's findings accuse the Pakistan Army of carrying out senseless and wanton arson, killings in the countryside, killing of intellectuals and professionals and burying them in mass graves, killing of Bengali Officers and soldiers on the pretence of quelling their rebellion, killing East Pakistani civilian officers, businessmen and industrialists, raping a large number of East Pakistani women as a deliberate act of revenge, retaliation and torture, and deliberate killing of members of the Hindu minority.

NIGHTS & DAYS OF PAKISTANI BUTCHERS – ABUL KASEM (BANGLADESH)

I beseech every reader to read his real life accounts of by clicking here.

On the last para Abul writes: “As I write this re-count, I learnt that 100 new 'killing fields' have been discovered all around Bangladesh. Was I surprised? No, not at all! However, what surprised me the most was why did it take so long?

Why did we have to wait almost 30 years to know that innocent folks were butchered just as cattle? Rest assured that many more killing fields will be found. The killing fields of Cambodia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Afghanistan, etc., will be nothing when compared to the killing fields in Bangladesh. Let us not forget these killing fields. Let us not forget the sacrifice of 3 million people who shed enough blood to change the verdure of monsoon drenched land of Bengal. They certainly gave their lives so that we can enjoy the fruits of freedom. Freedom from the tyranny of Punjabi masters and Pakistani Oligarchy. I would ask every Bangalees not to forget the butchers of those nights and days when we remember the fallen angels of our land. The crime should never go unpunished.”

Seeing his writing, one Major Kashif from Pakistan Army wrote to Abul: (excerpts)-

From: kashif khan <kashifkhan29@hotmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, 7 August 2005 1:43:11 AM
To: abul88@hotmail.com
Subject: friendship

“d. Why we always spread hatred now, even u have got ur free country.
e. I normally go through all the papers concerning East Pakistan crises and i always found a hatred towards Pakistan Army from u my bengali brothers. Why.
f. i m from the same Pakistan Army, i have done nothing to u. Granted my forefathers must have done something, well i seek apologies on their behalf because i cannot do any thing at this time except for seeking apologies.
g. why cant we forget those follies which were committed by my forefathers as well as ur forefathers.”

REPLY FROM ABUL KASEM:

To get an idea of how your favourite army killed uncountable innocents and burnt thousands of our villages, may I request you to go through page 91 of the famous document "Witness to Surrender" by Pakistani Brig. Siddque Salik?

Now, please tell me:

How can we ever forgive and forget an army whose soldiers indiscriminately killed our young children and old people? I can tell you for certainty that there is probably not a single family in BD (Bangladesh) who has not lost at least one close or distant relation in the gratuitous murder committed by the Jawans of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

How can we forgive and forget those soldiers who raped our mothers, sisters, wives and daughters? They perpetrated this Islamic rape (to use their terminology) to around 400,000 of our women. The Islamic army of Pakistan regarded our women as captives (ganimatter maal), and, as per Islamic law, they were entitled to have sex with them. Please tell me how could we tolerate and forget such calumnious, debauched rectitude of Pakistani Jawans and Officers?

How can we forgive an army who treated us like they were treating animals and cattle? They believed, Allah had permitted them to kill all the unbelievers living in BD. This, of course, included almost the entire Bengali race, who, according to general Yahya Khan, were not true Muslims and, so, were fair game for the genocide. I have written an elaborate essay on this.

And, how can we forgive a nation that has not, as yet, given to us what rightfully belonged to us?

Please answer me: If you had gone through what we Bengalis had suffered for nine months, would you have forgiven the perpetrators of rape, loot and arson? Do you think that by forgiving your great Muslim army, we would be able to forget the atrocities they committed when we were helpless and unarmed?

Are you trying to absolve your nation of the assets it owes to us by seeking our forgiveness?

Let the Pak-Govt pay us back, as was on 26 March 1971 (A) half of the State-Bank reserve (B) Half of PIA, (C) Half of Pakistan National Shipping Corporation and all other national resources. Don't you think this is just fair, Islamically speaking? - as you claim to be a very good Muslim?

Only when these are settled, could we talk of peace and reconciliation. Our hearts and minds will burn for ever, for what Pakistan army did to us in the name of Islam and the so-called Islamic brotherhood, which were just the tools of exploitation and oppression for the simple-minded and gullible Bengali people. We shall never ever let this happen to us again.

To the Pakistan army, India is the eternal enemy. This is not true for us. We can, and we are, living quite amicably with India. We never forget the help Indian government and the its common people accorded us generously when Pakistan army was killing us. Please know that India is not our enemy, it can never be. We shall, for ever, remain grateful to India and its citizens to let us survive when your Islamic brothers were slaughtering us.”

BuA: In my numerous trips to Dhaka, the above sentiment is nearly all pervasive and being a Bengali myself, I speak the same language as Bangladeshis. And during my work, I wanted to meet the person I will vilify shortly, Salahuddin Qader Chowdhury – however he just refused to meet me after he came to know I was from India.

In that fight for freedom there were elements in Bangladesh that sided with the Paskistan Army – they were Jamaat e Islami, Al Badr & Razakars amongst others.



The Razakars were officially created by the Pakistani military and trained and paid by the government of Pakistan should not be forgotten - and will become an important element in any future genocide trial.

The history of 1971 and the Bangladesh Genocide is under attack from revisionists and genocide deniers. The victims of this attack will be the younger generation of Bangladeshis unless there is an attempt to preserve that history.

Razakars: (1970) They are paid Rs. 3 a day (25 pence at the official rate) and receive seven days’ training which appears to consist entirely of learning how to shoot a police Lee-Enfield rifle. Their work consists of “security checks” - guiding the West Pakistan troops to the homes of supporters of the Awami League. They are supposed to be under the orders of local `peace committees” which are selected by the military authorities on a similar basis of “loyalty to Pakistan”. These people are, in fact, representatives of the political parties - were routed at the last elections, with an admixture of men with criminal records and bigoted Muslims who have been persuaded that strong arm methods are needed to protect their religion.



ASSASINATION OF SHEIKH MUJIBUR RAHMAN:



NOVEMBER 8, 1998 could well be a turning point in Bangladesh's history. On that day, Kazi Gulam Rasul, a District and Sessions Court judge of Dhaka, sentenced to death by firing squad in public 15 former Army officers, the "self-confessed killers" of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, 23 years after the country's founding father was assassinated in a military coup that overthrew Bangladesh's first Government. Mujibur Rahman was brutally murdered along with 26 others, including his wife, three sons (one of them was just 10 years old), two daughters-in-law, brother, close relatives, political associates and security men in a pre-dawn attack on August 15, 1975.

The historic verdict, which was delivered after 17 months of hearings, came at the end of an agonising trial. The "Bangabandhu murder case" - as it is called - was filed in October 1996, more than 21 years after the assassination took place and four months after the Awami League Government led by Sheikh Hasina, one of Mujibur Rahman's two surviving daughters, assumed office.

The shame that accompanied the killings was deepened by the proclamation in 1975 of the Indemnity Ordinance by the military government of Khandaker Mostaque Ahmed, who appointed himself President of the country following Mujibur Rahman's assassination. The infamous Ordinance was incorporated in the Constitution by President Gen. Ziaur Rahman. The Ordinance granted indemnity from prosecution to those who plotted for and participated in the bloody political changeover.

However, the Shiekh Hasina Government, after it assumed office in June 1996, sought the opinion of a panel of judges and legal experts and cleared the hurdles in the way of prosecution of the plotters. In October 1996, cases were filed against 19 persons in connection with the assassination. All but one of the accused were former military personnel.

WHAT IS THE PRESENT SITUATION?

Sheikh Hasina, one of the two surviving daughters of the assassinated Mujibur Rahman is the Prime Minister of Bangladesh today, having secured over 2/3 majority in the Parliament. She wanted to put on trial the 1971 collaborators.
If one looks at the collaborators – they were Bangladeshis who sided with Pakistan Army.

Hence, Pakistan has told Bangladesh that the “time is not ripe” for Dhaka’s conducting the trial of ‘war criminals’ who committed atrocities on civilians during the 1971 freedom movement.

Islamabad is very uneasy at the prospect of the war criminals trials in Bangaldesh and does not want the true story of genocide to come out in public, specially now since it is already in the eyes of the world as a “terrorist” spewing entity and home to Al-Qaeda and Taliban.

MERE COINCIDENCE OF TIMING OF MUTINY - I THINK NOT !


MATIUR RAHMAN NIZAMI

Just a few days prior to the BDR mutiny, trials had begun against the JI chief, Matiur Rahman Nizami, and nine others for "carrying out a massacre during the war of independence in 1971".

MAIN PERPETRATORS OF THE BDR MUTINY - YOU TUBE:



SALAUDDIN QADER CHOWDHURY:



The Bangladesh Liberation War Documents and a report by the people's commission appointed by the Committee for Elimination of the Killers and Collaborators of 1971 describe in horrifying details some of the brutalities Salauddin had gratuitously committed against freedom fighters in Chittagong district. These include the gruesome killing of 71-year-old principal Nutan Chandra Singha, and assassination of Farooq, a student leader and Dayalhari Biswas, another college student.

Soon after the liberation of Bangladesh, Salauddin and his father were arrested when they were about to flee to Pakistan with a maund of gold. Following a brief detention, they were let off under the general amnesty declared by the Sheikh Mujib government. Salauddin has thrived ever since on numerous heinous crimes. Killing and maiming of political opponents are his favourite pastimes.

In Khaleda Zia’s government, he was an MP. Salauddin Qader Chaudhury lets go no pretext to spit venom against India to arouse communal passions against religious minorities. He is invariably involved in every act of Hindu-cleansing in Raujan upazilla and Chittagong metropolitan areas.

It's an open secret that Salauddin has made a huge fortune through his close links with the criminal underworld and smuggling networks operating in the Chittagong port and coastal belt. Despite his pathological hatred for India, in 1991, he made a frantic bid for the GSA of the Indian Airlines and Air India. His failure to clinch that lucrative deal only sharpened his enmity towards India.

Originally a diehard Muslim Leaguer, Salauddin served as a Cabinet minister in the late Eighties in the Cabinet of Gen. Ershad. He joined the BNP just before the parliamentary election in 2001. His machinations ensured the defeat of the BNP candidate and freedom fighter Col. (Retd.) Oli Ahmed to the unofficial Jamaat candidate Shajahan Chaudhury. Despite this treachery, Begum Zia appointed him her adviser on parliamentary affairs solely for the purpose of using his unending mischief potential against the Awami League. Salauddin has been doing this task most effectively, making it impossible for the opposition Awami League to function in the Parliament.

Despite this un-edifying profile of the man, the BNP-Jamaat government has nominated Salauddin as its candidate for the post of Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Countries. This has triggered an avalanche of protests throughout the country. For his part, Salauddin has launched a fierce counter-offensive against his detractors. He has filed two defamation cases against the editors of two respected dailies of Dhaka for publishing criticisms of his nomination.

The Bangladesh intelligentsia has no doubt at all that the Khaleda government has nominated this war criminal for the OIC assignment at the instance of Islamabad in the hope that, should he scrape through, it would enormously increase the leverage of the Pakistan-Bangladesh axis in the Islamic world that can be used, among other things, to discomfit and disturb India.

He had the temerity to call the then opposition leader and now Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina as “bua” = housemaid.

He is the mafia owner of the port of Chittagong and runs a racket on illegal arms through his transport company. The last "ENORMOUS" haul of illegal shipment of arms in Chittagong port was pinpointed to him. The Hindu newspaper reports: The cache included 690 7.62 mm T-56-I sub-machine guns (SMGs); 600 7.62 mm T-56-2 SMGs; 150 40 mm T-69 rocket launchers; 840 40 mm rockets; 400 9 mm semi-automatic spot rifles; 100 `Tommy Guns'; 150 rocket launchers; 2,000 launching grenades; 25,020 hand grenades; 6,392 magazines of SMG and other arms; 700,000 rounds of SMG cartridges; 739,680 rounds of 7.62 mm calibre; and 400,000 cartridges of other weapons. Most of the arms and ammunition were reportedly of Korean, Italian, Chinese and American make. (And this was only part of the huge cache that were caught, the rest suspected to have reached its destination).

Independent media investigations also revealed that a labour leader linked to Jamaat-e-Islami, a major constituent of the ruling coalition, had employed workers at the jetty of the state-owned Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited (CUFL) to offload the arms from two fishing trawlers and a local Bangladesh National Party (BNP) leader supervised the clandestine operation. BuA: This was none other than Salauddin Qader Choudhury.

Interestingly the Chittagong City Mayor and Awami League leader A.B.M. Mohiuddin Chowdhury alleged that Indian insurgent groups ran "at least 50 to 60 camps" in Bangladesh to train militants. Addressing a media conference on April 10, the Mayor claimed that the weapons were sent by the U.S. and Pakistan "to arm Indian rebels camped in Chittagong Hill Tracts" (US & PAKISTAN ???)

Amerian Chronicle reporting on the arms haul points out : "...former advisor to the Prime Minister, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury might have been involved in the arms hauls. But, none of these figures could ever be interrogated by the members of the investigations authorities, as they all are extremely influential politically in the country."

It was his fleet of trucks that were caught ferrying arms to ULFA and other terror groups in India’s north eastern corridor. No wonder, he was ISI’s favorite man in Dhaka.

He was also a “collaborator” in the 1971 and Sheikh Hasina surely would have targeted Salauddin first (the comment of bua would have instigated her no doubt).

BDR



The defense of border falls to BDR and in pay terms they draw a far lesser salary than Bangladesh Army. During Khaleda Zia’s regime, the BDR was infiltrated with fundamentalists owing allegiance to Jamaat e Islami, AL BADR, HUJI-B and other terror organizations – and overseen by Salauddin.

Seeing the trials of “war criminals” as an end of the road, both Pakistan Army (whose image will be tarnished) and Salauddin (who will get hanged, if found guilty) found common ground to stir up trouble in Bangladesh using lower level BDR recruits owing allegiance to it and using the discontent on the pay disparity as an excuse (valid, as it was).

Both Pakistan and BNP and Jamaat from time to time tried to kill of Sheikh Hasina and this was one more attempt. That Army Chief Moeen Ahmed may himself have been a target in this mutiny - for being "SECULAR" - is not ruled out either.. However this failed in the final objective and full scale of Pakistan’s links with the “mutiny” is yet to come out.

Anup Chetia, the jailed ULFA leader in Dhaka, is set to be handed over to India. Surely this could be bad news to Paksitan, as Chetia will be made to showcase the close relation ISI had with ULFA and other terror groups.

What is yet to come out is the dubious role the Bangladesh intelligence agency the DGFI played in the BDR revolt. The DGFI has sold itself lock, stock and barrel to ISI. Efforts are on to cleanse the rot, though. Read this excellent blog : DGFI & ISI plan to capture Bengal (West Bengal, INDIA) through vote machinery.

For an excellent perspective from Bangladesh - do go to these "important" blog - Shada Kalo (White & Black) & SUCHINTA (Good Thoughts).

SO THAT WE DO NOT FORGET: