Dear friends:
During my week-long visit to Bangladesh (I’m back now in Virginia), I’ve learned things I wish I had known 40 years ago when I was reporting on the conflict that led to the country’s independence.
Some the following may be slightly esoteric, so you may want to bail out right now. otherwise, be patient, please.
For example:
I had been told years ago that sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of the east Pakistani-based Awami league political party that won a smashing victory in the 1970 election that left him poised to become the prime minister ofPakistan, did not want to be the prime minister ofPakistan.
Kamal Hussain, who was arrested and jailed with mujib when the Pakistan army struck in Dhaka 25 march 1971 in an effort to smash an alleged secessionist movement, told me in Dhaka that after the i970 election, sheikh canvassed his party leadership asking if any one of them wanted to go to Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, instead of him to become prime minister. kamal said no one wanted to go.
He said that mujib had learned from the experiences of other east Pakistan politicians, including the man he called his “boss”, h.s. suhrawardy, that any easterner surrounded by the civil service, a powerful business community and the military in west Pakistan, where the capital was located, soon was marginalized or emasculated. suhrawardy, for instance, after a year as prime minister, was sacked in 1957 by the army chief ayub khan and banished toLebanon. mujib preferred to rule his east Pakistan fiefdom under a new constitution that made that province virtually autonomous. kamal said he had drafted such a constitution based on the program on which mujib campaigned as “the six points.” that constitution instead became the basis for theBangladesh constitution.
here’s another example:
I’ve often wondered how much sheikh mujib knew about thePakistan army flying in Boeing 707 planes packed with 300 soldiers in civilian dress daily as reinforcements toDhaka while the military president Yahiya khan was negotiating with him in march 1971 for a solution to the political impasse that threatened the country’s unity. while the talks continued inDhaka, the army was preparing the strike it unleashed that 25 march. did that mean the army never seriously sought a negotiated settlement but was stalling for time when it had the strength to act in force?
sitting with me at dinner in the Dhaka club was a.k. khandker, the Bangladesh minister of planning who 40 years ago was a Bengali air force officer based at the Dhaka airport. he later became the second in command of rebel Bangladesh forces that fought the Pakistan army in 1971 and after independence founded the Bangladesh air force.
he told me he knew thePakistan military was up to something as early as 18 February 1971, weeks before negotiations even started. up until that date, he said, he had been involved in planning a huge military parade in Dhaka to markPakistan day, the country’s national day marking the proclamation on 23 march of a 1940 resolution calling for an autonomous Muslim state. on that date, he recalled, he came across an unusual meeting of army brass. planning for the parade halted, he said. soon thereafter, he noticed the planes arriving, spilling out large groups of men with military bearing but in civilian clothes.
khandkar evidently felt he was in a compromised situation because of his loyal military status, unable to inquire openly to discover what was happening or to openly warn sheikh mujib and the awami league leadership. he did warn the later, he said, surreptitiously telling friends to carry the warning or calling directly without giving a name. he didn’t know if the information reached mujib. he did the same the morning of 25 march when he saw Yahiya arrive at the airport and take off. this departure took place after another convoy of cars, presumably carrying Yahiya, headed for town. once again, he told me, he called anonymously to warn the awami league that the president had left.
at the same dinner, major general k.m. safiullah, a former chief of the Bangladesh army staff and a retired diplomat, recalled that in march 1971 he was a young officer in the Pakistan army with a brigade in Mymensingh, north of Dhaka. he said Bengali units clashed with regular Pakistani army units as early as 19 march when full-fledged fighting might have broken out except for a desire to avoid undercutting the political talks inDhaka.
both khandkar and safiullah are leaders of the sector commanders’ forum, the war veterans group that invited me to talk at theirDhakaconvention marking the 40th anniversary of independence,
kamal hussain, also at that dinner, was reminded of his interrogation after his 1971 arrest because of my talk to the veterans. in my talk, I mentioned that the Pakistani public schools still were teaching that Hindus were responsible for the separation of west and east Pakistan 40 years ago. one specific teaching point in a guide for Pakistani teachers claimed Hindu teachers swayed Muslim Bengali student minds,
kamal said that the first point an interrogating officer raised with him concerned those Hindu teachers. kamal said he had to laugh, provoking the officer to ask why he laughed at a moment when he could be shot. he told the officer the claim about the Hindu officers was wrong, noting only a few Hindus, for example, were among the faculty atDhakauniversity.
most of this information probably is well known by now. I’ll bet there s much more out there for me to catch up.
the entireBangladesh visit was a grand experience, even if it revealed how little I knew at the time.
regards all, AZ
Arnold Zeitlin is the Managing Director at Editorial Research & Reporting Associates (ERRA) and Visiting Professor for the Department of Journalism at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China. He was the Associated Press (AP) bureau Chief in Pakistan during the 1971 liberation war of Bangladesh. Zeitlin, currently Managing Director of the Editorial Research and Reporting Associates Worldwide in addressing the national convention 2011 organized by the Sectors Commanders’ Forum in the Dhaka University stadium, said that he, while attending a conference in Washington recently, had come to know that the Pakistan education ministry had set a guideline on the teaching of history in Class IX and X.
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