Kill Four Birds With One Stone (A synopsis of Pakistan’s 1971 war)

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Their population in general was agrarian and illiterate.  So, when Pakistan was carved out, the Pakistan army consisted mostly from West Pakistan specifically from Potohar Region. However, the West Pakistanis were concerned of the majority of Bengal Province because if democracy is to be practiced, the Bengalis, whom they considered lesser being short, darker Dravidians, would sweep the elections and govern them. Further culturally, linguistically, and being one thousand miles apart with India in between, there was nothing common between the four provinces in the West and the East Bengal, except the Religion. Another reason was that in PM Liaquat Ali Khan’s period the then CM of Bengal Nur-Ul Amin on the orders of Liaquat Ali did Land Reforms in 1948-1951 period but the CMs of the other four provinces in West Pakistan did not comply Liaquat Ali’s orders.

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Thus, Bengal got rid of Landlords by enforcing LAND REFORMS and democracy prevailed in Bengal Province whereas the CMs of the four provinces in West did not act and thus Landlords in four provinces of West Pakistan kept the masses under their yoke and kept hold on the masses causing a disparity between Bengal Province and the four provinces of West Pakistan.  Due to Bengal’s majority and other reasons cited above, Pakistan delayed making constitution and holding of elections. It also struggled to annex Kashmir to counter the Bengal Majority. For this, it waged war on Kashmir in 1947 and got a small area as India stopped it.  After 9 years of independence, Pakistan made its first Constitution in January 1956. Until then Pakistan was ruled under British Constitution and as its Dominion.  For the 1956 Constitution, Pakistan joined all four provinces in the west making them as ONE UNIT and named it WEST PAKISTAN whereas EAST Bengal was named as EAST PAKISTAN.

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Thus, Pakistan now consisted of TWO UNITS. Despite the majority of East Pakistan, ‘Principle of Parity’ (Rather than one man one vote) was adopted in this Constitution thereby giving equal seats to each of the Two Units of Pakistan (and depriving Bengal of their majority). But even this arrangement did not last more than 33 months, as the army under General Ayub Khan, who was very political, revolted in October 1958, declared Martial Law, abrogated the 1956 Constitution, debarred politicians and political parties by his Elected Body Disqualification Ordinance (EBDO). The debarred politicians were jailed and the country continued to be ruled by Gen Ayub under Martial law and hybrid democracy for the next 11 years. Although, earlier Governor General Ghulam Mohammad too did injustices to the Bengali leaderships, Gen Ayub is the main culprit who hated and had nothing but contempt for the Bengalis and had openly tried to remove Bengal as part of Pakistan.

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He made several attempts regarding removal of East Bengal from Pakistan. His infamous Law Minister Justice Munir, in his book ‘Jinnah to Zia’ wrote that Gen Ayub directed him to go the Bengalis and ask them to secede from Pakistan. The Bengali minister to whom Justice Munir approached and proposed for their secession responded that we are Majority, we made Pakistan and that we are Pakistan. We will not secede, you may if that’s what you want. In 1969 Gen Ayub, because of the out of control protests, insults and demonstrations by the public against him was forced to resign.  He handed over the power to his army buddy General Yahya Khan, rather than to the Speaker as required by the Constitution of 1962 which he had made. Why? Because the Speaker then happened to be a Bengali. Gen Yahya Khan who declared Martial Law, issued a Presidential decree named Legal Framework Order(LFO), broke the Two Units system and the Western Provinces were reverted to four Provinces and thus back to five province country.

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His LFO had political principles and laws governing the upcoming 1970 elections- the first ever elections in Pakistan. Seats were assigned according the population of the provinces i.e. one man one vote. Out of a total Assembly seats of 313, the seat distribution within the five provinces was as follows:

Bengal169(54%); Punjab 85(27%); Sind 28(9%); NWFP19 (6%); and Baluchistan 5(1. 6%).

Mujib Ur Rehman of Awami League of Awami League campaigned and ran on his Six Point Agenda.  He has made the ‘Six Point Agenda’ right after the 1965 war with India in which Bengal/ East Pakistan was left defenseless and if India wanted it could have taken it over without fight.

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Further, the Six Points were based on Mujib’s observation of years of discrimination and financial exploitation of Bengal by the West Pakistan since the 1950s.  Neither the Military Government nor Bhutto’s PPP or any other party objected to the SIX POINT Agenda of Awami League and on its running of elections on this basis.  The elections were held in December 1970 and Awami League from Bengal won landslide with 167 seats whereas PPP won 86 seats. Rather than conceding losing the elections, Zufiqar Ali Bhutto of PPP objected to Six Point Agenda of Awami League and threatened anarchy if Awami League was handed over the power by the Marshal Law Government. As per LFO, assembly session holding date was to be announced by the Military Government post the result of the elections. Gen Yahya announced assembly holding date which he postponed twice, the second one indefinitely.

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This caused restlessness and anger in the Bengalis who suspected the motives as deprival of handing over the power to them and started the protests. Gen. Yahya shuttled between Islamabad and Dacca holding six meetings with Mujib, but also was secretly sending troops (As per army a total of 34,000+ soldiers/officers were sent) to crush the protests and twist arms of the Awami League and the Bengali people and shove in their throats the PPP’s and the army’s desired outcome to accept a lesser role of the winner Awami League in the Government, share power with PPP or army’s participation in power. Since Mujib Rehman ran his election campaign on the Six Points, he stood up firm against the Army Pressure and declined to accept any participation in government/power by the losing party PPP or the army. The army then suddenly on the night between March 25th and 26th, 1971 launched its shock and awe operation on Bengal under the code name ‘Operation Searchlight’.

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They arrested Shiekh Mujib, and began mass killings students, professors and intelligentsia and rapes of girls, and women just as any occupying army of another country does, except that it was their army. The Bengali masses, civilian and Military leadership who escaped the wrath of the army, took refuge in the neighboring Indian territory. Later with the help of India they formed a Guerrilla force ‘Mukti Bahini’ and began their gorilla war with the Pakistan Army. This Guerrilla war continued for 9 months till start of December 1971, and was wearing out the Pakistan Army soldiers who were not used to the Climate and terrain and rivers of East Bengal. Further, December was about to arrive when the Typhoon season hits the region. The previous year Typhoon ‘BHOLA’ had caused havoc, lots of deaths and property damage. The Pakistan army that had transported the 34,000+ troops a thousand miles away with India in between had no backup plan, no supply line, no escape routes and no safe retreat to pull out and save the lives of the entrapped

soldiers.

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They were simply sitting ducks and their only choices were either to surrender or to die. But surrendering to Mukti Bahini was dangerous because they could be tortured, killed as the Geneva Convention rules would not apply to Mukti Bahini. However, if the surrender was made to a member country’s army, then the soldiers’ lives and safety is guaranteed. As we have stated above, the Pakistan army mostly consisted of people from West Pakistan and specifically the Top Generals were from Punjab who had the goal of: (1) Removing Bengal from Pakistan. (2) The blame of dismemberment should not fall on them, rather on the Bengalis or on India. (3) To save the entrapped soldiers from torture and bring them back alive, and, (4) Not let UN interfere and stop the war they started, and thus not accept proposals that will keep Pakistan intact with Power handed to Bengal. For our Proverb (KILL FOUR BIRDS WITH ONE STONE), let’s recognize these four goals as the four birds.

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Despite that India has been going around the world notifying the economic burden on India created by the refugees from Bengal and that it will have to attack Pakistan to force it to take back its citizens, but so far it has neither acted nor started the war. Therefore, Pakistan Army decided to formally invite India to walk in East Pakistan and help break Pakistan and hand it over to Mukti Bahini to announce a new Country ‘BANGLADESH’. For this purpose, Pakistan Martial Law Government decided to attack India from its Western Border and thus throw this one stone that would kill four birds. On December 3, 1971 Pakistan Airforce suddenly attacked India on their eleven air bases under the Code Name ‘Changez Khan’. Immediately after this surprise attack, India notified the world that it has been attacked by Pakistan and it mobilized its forces on both wings of Pakistan. Thus, on December 5th, war started on both fronts in East Pakistan and West Pakistan.

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Within 11 days of war, the Pakistani Eastern Command surrendered to the joint forces of Indian Army and Mukti Bahini on December 16, 1971. Thus: (1).  East Pakistan was separated from Pakistan and announced independence as Bangladesh. (2). By responding and defeating Pakistan army, India took the blame of intervening and breaking Pakistan. (3) The Indian army took the Pakistan army and Civilians totaling to 93,000 as Prisoners of War, kept them safe and fed them for two+ years as per the Geneva Convention. And finally, the fourth bird. (4). Bhutto as Pakistan representative to UN ensured that the UN proposals would not stop the war before the planned surrender. He delivered very emotional(Childish) speech, tore the Polish Proposal and walked out of UN with his delegation. Thus, by one move of attacking India on December 3, 1971 Pakistan army achieved its four goals (paraphrased as One Stone killed four birds).

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The funny part is that on December 17, 1971, after the shameful surrender, Gen Yahya Khan declared “–war will continue till victory” when India voluntarily had declared cease fire. Indira Gandhi addressed her National assembly “Today, The Two Nation Theory has been drowned in the Bay of Bengal”. The sad part is that the General Public of Pakistan does not know that it’s not just East Pakistan that was lost in the 1971 war, but along with the loss of East Pakistan, the Pakistan army also lost 15,010 sq. KM of lands in West Pakistan (Sind) and 883 Sq. Km of Lands in Kashmir/ Baltistan areas. (Turtuk and adjoining villages leading to Siachin). As per Hamud ur Rehman Commission Report, the commanders of these lost areas on the western front of India (West Pakistan Borders) ran away leaving their posts to save their own lives, and the commission recommended their court Marshals. Nothing was done to any officer of the army.

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In July 1972 Bhutto signed Shimla Agreement with India in which India returned the 93,000 Prisoners of War (POWs) and the lands that Pakistan lost on its West Pakistan territory except the lands in the ‘disputed’ territories of Kashmir and Baltistan. As per the agreement, Bhutto signed over the five villages Consisting of Turtuk and adjoining villages to India, moved the PEACE KEEPING LINE of 1948 into Pakistan borders and renamed it as LINE OF CONTROL (LOC). Those Pakistani lands and Citizens are Indians since then. Bangladesh was formed as a new independent country as Indian forces vacated after Mukti Bahini took over the new Country.

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