Qammer Abbass Anka
As a frenzied, shouting mob of 5,000 Bengalis screamed encouragement; young Mukti Bahini guerrillas methodically tortured four suspected Pakistani quislings. For 30 minutes, the guerillas battered the bound bodies of the helpless prisoners with kicks and karate blows with bayonets. Quietly and systematically, they began stabbing their victims over and over again, all the time carefully avoiding the prisoners’ hearts. After more than ten minutes of stabbing, the grisly performance seemed at an end. The soldiers wiped the blood from their bayonets and begun to depart. But before they left the scene, a small boy, perhaps a relative of one of the victims, flung himself on the ground next to a prisoner’s near lifeless body. In an instant the guerrillas were back, kicking the boy and beating him with their rifle butts. And as he writhed, the child was trampled to death by the surging crowd. This horrendous blood-letting took place next to Dhaka stadium. The man who ordered the public killing and personally saw the order being carried out is Abdul Kader Siddiqui, the Mukti Bahini commander from Tangail”. (Mu’min Chaudhary)
March 26 may be Independence Day for people of Bangladesh, however, when one looks back in history; one can still see the butchered men, lynched children and dishonored women lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulches of East Pakistan. It was probably the biggest genocide of last century at the hands of Mukti Bahinis. Besides gene pigs, something else died there in the bloody mud and was buried in the blizzard of time. People’s dream died there. It was a beautiful dream.
Events before and after 1971 debacle witnessed large scale massacre of non Bengalis and Pro-Pakistani population of East Pakistan/Bangladesh by Awami League and its sponsored Mukti Bahini. These killings and tortures were mostly done in open and were witnessed by thousands of people including eminent journalists and the writers. Unfortunately, stories of these atrocities have been deliberately forgotten by Bangladesh and its anti Pakistani masses. Nevertheless, the history has been preserved by the contributions of many journalists and writers both Bangladeshis as well as those from international community.
Lawrence Lifschultz in his book titled ‘Bangladesh: The Unfinished Revolution’; Zed Press, 1979, narrates that Mukti Bahini (Awami League) leader, Abdul Kader Siddiqui, personally bayoneted three prisoners to death and the entire incident was filmed by foreign film crews who were invited to witness the spectacle. According to another report published in ‘The Times’ on 21 December 1971, Siddiqui’s guerillas beat up and subsequently bayoneted and shot to death a group of prisoners after a rally near Dhaka Stadium on 19 December 1971 at which Siddiqui himself gave an hour-long speech. The prisoners were murdered after performing Islamic prayers together with their captors. Shortly before murdering them, the Mukti Bahini promised the prisoners a fair trial, as in any civilized country.”
Security of life and living had become a rare commodity in Mujib’s Bangladesh. Anarchy and lawlessness was promoted by Mujib himself, his own clans and his bully boys. His own son Sheikh Kamal, nephew Fazlul Haq Moni, his pet Dacca Police Chief, S.P. Mahbub, etc. became a symbol of terror in Dacca city itself. The unconstitutional Para military force, the Rakhi Bahini, raised under the guidance of Indian General Ovan, directly controlled and directed by Mujib himself, since about mid 1972 became another terror symbol for peaceful and patriotic people of Bangladesh.
Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci herself witnessed macabre murders of pro-Pakistan Bengalis in Dhaka by the Mukti Bahini. The matter of the killings of the Bihari Muslims and Razakars was brought up by Oriana Fallaci during her interview with Sheikh Mujib. She mentioned how on December 18, two days after Bangladesh had achieved independence, in Dhaka Stadium she had witnessed the Liberation War hero Kader Siddique (Bagha Siddique) lynching the presumed ‘Razakars’ with bayonets while their hands and legs remained fastened with ropes. “He had bullets loaded in his guns, he could have had shot them to death.” Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib did not believe her and abruptly stopped the interview.
These brutal killings by Mukti Bahini were also recorded by Bengali analyst Taiammul Hussain in his Book titled ‘Bangladesh Victim of Black Propaganda Intrigue and Indian Hegemony’, He narrates, “Neutral observers know that killing in East Pakistan did not start just on the 25th March 1971 when the Federal army had cracked down. The truth is that bloody riots, looting and killing started in early 1971. On the night of 25th March sudden army action resulted in killing of some people of Dacca, mainly the Bengalese. Immediately after the 25th March, however, mass killings of non-Bengali speaking people, no matter civilians or non-civilians staying in far lying areas and towns started more or less all over East Pakistan, as a reaction to army action at Dacca. Thus the widespread killings of non- Bengalis all over the country in far lying areas had continued until the arrival of the Federal Army in the particular area away from Dacca. The figure of killings during the period of war in 8.3 months from 25th March to 3rd December 1971, as recorded by New York based organization named ‘Co-relates of War’ was noted as 50,000”.
L F Rushbrook Williams, in his famous book titled ‘The East Pakistan Tragedy’ published by Drake Publishers Inc, New York in 1972 narrates, “On March 7 Sheikh Mujib announced plans for setting up a parallel Government of his own. These included the complete closure of all educational institutions, Government Offices and Courts; the stopping of all remittances to West Pakistan; and the organization of Revolutionary Council in every union, Mohalla, Thana, sub-division and district who were to take over the administration under the direction of local Awami League units. Later, the original directive to pay no taxes was modified to ensure that taxes were collected, but were to be paid into two private banks. Detailed directives were issued to the Press, radio and T V stations ensuring that nothing went out which did not conform to the liking of the Awami League. Many peaceful citizens, including those in high positions, went in fear of their lives and of the lives of their families; even the Chief Justice did not dare to administer the oath of office to the new Governor, Lt.-General Tikka Khan, until the Awami League’s reign of terror had been brought to an end. Nor were these things confined to Dacca; in many places in East Pakistan frightful atrocities were inflicted by Awami League ruffians upon non-Bengalis and upon all who were not open supporters of Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman”.
After the fall of Dhaka, Indian army and Mukti Bahini arranged mass slaughter ceremonies of Pakistanis and Bihari Muslims in Dhaka Race course ground. Thousands of Bengali Muslims were also butchered who had sided with Pakistan against India and Mukti Bahini. In front of cheering crowds of Mukti Bahini terrorists and Indian army troops, one by one, these Pakistanis were brought, tortured, their eyes taken out and they were bayoneted in sadistic macabre.
Kamal Matinuddin in his book, titled ‘Tragedy of Errors-East Pakistan Crisis, 1968-1971’, while narrating the atrocities unleashed by Indian backed and Awami League sponsored Mukti Bahini on non Bengalis of East Pakistan states, “The Mukti Bahini like other ideologically motivated guerilla organizations went berserk after the surrender of 16 December 1971. Two weeks after capitulation, the non- Bengalis were in the throes of a slaughter. The Mukti Bahini was taking their revenge by lynching anyone who appeared to be an enemy. They had gone so out of control that even the Indian Army had to kill thousands of Muktis after the surrender to put the fear of Allah in them”.
The typhoon of madness that swept through East Pakistan during 1971 accounted for a major genocide of non Bengali populace at the hands of Mukti Bahini. These deaths will remain unaccounted and forgotten, unless Bangladeshi people identify their real enemy, India, who has been disguising himself as a friend in the past, now and in future as well.
