Kamran Zia
Bangladesh Law Commission has drafted law which criminalizes the “distortion or denial” of any of the events that were for the preparation of ‘Liberation War from August 14, 1947 to December 16. 1971. Misinterpretation or undermining any of the documents published and publicized by the govt or presenting false, half-truth or misleading information about the history of the “Liberation War” in any media including text-books and making statements to national or foreign media to undermine any events of the Liberation War will be a criminal offence. Showing justification for or publicizing support for various criminal activities conducted by Pakistan army in 1971 and its collaborators is also offence. Any individual will be able to file a case against the violators of the law. The perpetrators will be punished with a jail term of up to five years and a monetary fine of Takka 1 crore.
Why this law has become necessary after 45 years of Bangladesh creation and what is its background? The law commission started drafting the proposal when Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leaders, including the party’s Chairperson Khaleda Zia, questioned the number of those killed in 1971. On December 2I, 2015, Khaleda Zia said, “There is still a controversy about the exact number of people martyred in the Liberation War, different books and documents show different numbers in this regards. No one can write true history now, fearing harassment by the govt. Those who are now writing the facts are being subjected to harassment and being pressurized to withdraw their books from the market. But they are refusing to give in, saying they have written the truth”.
On December 25, 2015, BNP Standing Committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy said, “I ask journalists to do a survey on anything anyone says. Ask people to send text messages with the addresses of the ones who died in their villages. Not just the ones shot dead by Pakistani forces but also the ones that passed away naturally. Then we will get the right statistics. Now we have modern technology. We can find out the statistics within a week if we wish. That’s why I wonder whether the intellectuals of Awami League are idiots as they do not advise the govt to find out the exact numbers. I ask them to tell the prime minister to conduct a survey through the Liberation War affairs ministry. Let’s get the real history. Begum Khaleda Zia said there is a debate. She didn’t say that the number was smaller or larger. The debate was placed in Parliament in 1 991. Late MP Colonel Akbar Hossain raised the issue then. At Heathrow Airport in 1972, Shiekh Mujibur Rahman turned 3 lakh into 3 million out of ignorance. Someone hurriedly whispered into his ear and he uttered the words hastily. As far as I know, there is a list of 2.76 lakh families of the martyred in the Liberation War affairs ministry. Then where did the rest 27 lakh come from?”
Roy also criticized the country observing ‘Martyred Intellectuals Day’ on December 14, every year. Awami League claims that on this day, Pakistan forces brutally killed a large number of university professors, writers, doctors, artists, journalists and intellectuals of different occupations. Gayeshwar Chandra Roy said people died on the night of March 25, 1971, due to the ignorance of the leaders and absence of advance warning. But those who died on December 14, 1971 did not die because they did not know. They remained in their homes willingly; because till then they went to their offices regularly and drew salaries and allowances from the Pakistani govt till the end of the war…the intellectuals killed were actually ‘anti-liberation elements’ who ‘died like fools…and foolish people like us place wreaths on their graves every year …not doing so tantamount to sin …if they were that intelligent, why did they stay in their homes till 14 of December 1971 to get killed?
After such statements from BNP leaders, Awami Leagues filed sedition cases against Khalida Zia and others. On the insinuation of PM Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, they marched towards her residence in the diplomatic zone on December 29, 2015. The protestors demanded her trial and were chiming, ”my motherland will not be allowed to become Pakistan. No space for Pakistan lovers in Bangabandhu’s Bangla and others. She is an agent of Pakistan”.
On December 27, the President of A wami League and Indian sponsored Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, Shariar Kabir, in his written statement said. ”It proves that she supported Pakistan during the liberation war and such support still remains intact.” He demanded the govt to formulate two new laws, one to punish the denial of the history of war and mass genocide of 1971 and second to compensate the victims of the war. He commented to model the Liberation Denial War Crimes Act after the laws that exist in Europe against holocaust denial. About ‘Liberation War Victims’ Compensation Act, he demanded that the govt must ask Pakistan to compensate the victims and include the provision in the law for confiscating properties and assets of war criminals i.e., those facing war crimes”. Awami League claims that during the war three million people were killed, two lakh women raped, I 0 million people fled to take shelter in India and millions were internally displaced. What is the source of this figure? Where does the truth about the numbers lie?
The three million figure was popularized by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He misspoke in an interview to David Frost, a British journalist. On May 23, 2011, Serajur Rahman, the Deputy Head of the BBC Bengal service, wrote a letter to the British newspaper The Guardian. He was commenting on an article written by Ian Jack, an American Journalist, in which the issue of the number of deaths during the Bangladesh war was discussed. He wrote, “On 8 January 1972, I was the first Bangladeshi to meet independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after his release from Pakistan. He was brought from Heathrow to Claridges … [in London] … and I arrived there almost immediately…He was surprised, almost shocked, when I explained to him that Bangladesh had been liberated and he was elected president in his absence. Apparently he arrived in London under the impression that East Pakistanis had been granted the full regional autonomy for which he had been campaigning… During the day, I and others gave him the full picture of the war. I explained that no accurate figure of the casualties was available but our estimate, based on information from various sources, was that up to “three lakh” (300,000) died in the conflict. To my surprise and horror he told David Frost that “three millions of my people” were killed by the Pakistanis. Whether he mistranslated “Lakh” as “million” or his confused state of mind was responsible I don’t know, hut many Bangladeshis still believe a figure of three million is unrealistic and incredible”
Sheikh Mujib’s biographer, Sayyid A Karim, who was also his first foreign secretary, viewed the number as “a gross exaggeration.” In his book “Sheikh Mujib: Triumph and Tragedy,” Mr Karim reported that the prime minister’s office told him the figure was taken from Pravda, the Soviet newspaper.
