BANGLA DESH1971- ASGHAR KHAN

 CASE-PAKISTAN 2012

        Lot of water has flown under the Bridge ever since 16 Dec 1971. There is a need to re evaluate the East Pakistan Tragedy in present environment. We need to draw lessons?  Why do people revolt? What is Freedom? Can we subjugate people forcibly? How do we see the war on terror in FATA & Swat? How do we see the burning of Pakistan Flags in Baluchistan ? how do we see the Ethnic Target Killings ?     

  Bangla Desh Revisited.  I went to Bangla desh in 2004:  All my Bengali course mates invited me & my friends for lunch in Defence club Dhaka. They gave presents to all my Colleagues. Majority of them had revolted as Majors in 1971 and fully participated in their war of liberation. In 2004 they were as loving as in 1963, when we met first time in PMA. But I am sure we  would have killed each other like Animals if we had seen each other  during the 1971 in then EAST PAKISTAN . Thank Allah I was in Chamb sector.  

      How would we explain our actions of 1971 to our younger generations and compare the same to our present situation, will it be fully understood by them in 2012. Many of my best friends were involved in 1973 Attock case. They were the best of the lot, one of them having won the sword of honour from PMA another had been to RMA. Three of them had won the Sitara e Jurat. They were tried and sent to jail!

       Asghar Khan takes retired retd COAS and ISI chief to Supreme court for distribution of Rs 140 million of Private money to Politicians, whereas Supreme court lets off Gen Beg for a bigger Crime of forcing the then Supreme court not to restore the Government of MK JUNEJU and Parliament?  Yayha khan is buried with full military honors by Zia Ul Haq. Zia Ul Haq and Gen PM are let off, for their actions by 8^th, 17th Amendments?        A/Cdr Mitty Masud in 1971, three brigs in 1977 are retired for standing up for the truth, where as the young men of Attock case are sent to jail.

        Why none of the Senior Officers ever stood up against Yahya khan, ZAB, Zia Ul Haq for Forming IJI or Mehran Bank  1988-1999 and finally Gen PM.   Is there is anything wrong with our System to select officers for higher ranks both in civil and military? Presently Gen Aslam beg and Gen Asad Durrani are crying like children on TV and blaming each other. Why has Gen Beg and Gen Durrani forgotten the writing in the INGALL  HALL PMA” Matters not what happens to you, what matters is how you behave while it is happening.”

         Therefore it is high time we must discuss debate and find solutions to this aspect of adhering to the law and define what lawful command is and what is not? Other wise we shall have serious implications of discipline cases, when the ARMY is fighting the war of terror on the western border.

          Indra Gandhi , ZAB and Sh Mujib the architects of the 1971’ were murdered by their own people (1975-1984).

        Lt Gen Aurora the Victor in 1971 war ; A  decade  later was talking to BBC about the injustices suffered by Sikhs at the hands of the state, (Sarmila Bose writing about the 1971 war) 

       Gen Yahya   was put under arrest in an isolated rest house in Kharian hills. He suffered a stroke became paralyzed and died after a prolonged illness in his brothers house.   Lt Gen Gul Hasan summarily retired by ZAB on 2 March 1972; Suffered a rash of leukoderma, died after a bout with Cancer, alone in services club Rawalpindi.”  (Extracts from Page 218-219’ East Pakistan the end Game’ By Brig AR Siddiqui.)

        1975-1981 Bangla Desh.  Maj (Maj Gen) Zia Ur Rehman, Maj (brig) Khalid Musharraf, Maj (Maj Gen) Manzur and other officers, who defected to join their war of Liberation were killed by their own Soldiers within first ten years of independence of Bangla Desh. Many other Freedom fighters were tried and hanged in Bangla Desh; some are still in hiding either in Bangla Desh or in foreign countries.

        Bangla Desh- 25 Feb 2009.   In DHAKA, the entire lower ranks of Bangla Desh rifles (Ex EPR) mutinied they killed all their officers in the HQ including their Director General Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed, his wife and others including 40 officers and their Families. Army was called to disarm them.140 died, within two days, mostly officers and their families.

             ADVICE BY A SENIOR BENGALI ARMY OFFICER TO PAKISTAN-2003.Maj Gen I A Karim  Ex GOC 6 ARMED DIV IN 1971 in his forward to Brig A R Siddiqui’s Book’( East Pakistan the End game-  OUP-2003)’.

         “The people of East Pakistan now Bangla Desh are devout Muslims and if I may say, more religious in practice than our brothers in the west.  But the religious bond that gave us Pakistan could not be sustained primarily due to ethnic differences. Presently, Pakistan, though overwhelmingly Muslim, comprises four different ethnic groups: Pathans, Balochis, Sindhi and Punjabis. The pakistan government  must, therefore learn from  past mistakes and cater for some of the peculiarities of these regions so that policies can be adjusted to ensure fairness in all aspects of governance in order to bring about harmony and avoid dissention.

           Gen Karim is right but is there anyone listening?or we as dumb as we were in 1971.

          MAY ALMIGHTY ALLAH HAVE MERCY ON US AND FORGIVE US AND OUR LEADERS AND GIVE THEM THE VISION TO UNDERSTAND AND FORESEE TO AVOID ANY MORE BREAK UP/BALIKNISATION OF OUR BELOVED COUNTRY.   

   In conclusion I shall quote a write up on the death of “CHE’. “ It is men like CHE, who immortalize revolution, who brighten afresh the fading ideals and who are ever -living testimony to ultimate victory of cause of the liberation of mankind. Death for Che was more acceptable than the compromises that are made to carry out the revolution.”

 Muhammad Shahbaz Thuthaal ;