Demanding apology from a myopic establishment

The government and the people of Bangladesh have quite justifiably expressed their shock and indignation at the reaction of Pakistani parliament following the execution of two notorious collaborators who committed despicable crimes against humanity on their own people in 1971. There is a demand for apology from Pakistan government for the crimes of its army during our War of Liberation. While we must not relent in our demand for an apology, we cannot be oblivious of the perverse thought process of the Pakistani establishment.

To recollect, in December 2013, Pakistan's National Assembly's resolution expressing concern over the capital punishment of Bangladeshi Jamaat leader Abdul Kader Mollah, though outrageous, did not come as a surprise to those who are aware of the military-feudal mindset of the country's ruling class. Manifestly galling was the impertinence and ignorance of Pakistan's Interior Minister who commented that Mollah was hanged "through a judicial murder for supporting a united Pakistan in 1971."

Pakistan's National Assembly may be within its rights to express grief and sorrow for the execution of traitors and quislings of 1971, but when it demands that Bangladesh avoid reviving the wounds of 1971, it clearly betrays an arrogantly diseased mind that has not as yet come to grips with reality.

The fact of the matter is that in 1971, Bangalees, despite clinching an electoral majority were not only denied their due, they also became the unfortunate victims of a regime-sponsored genocide whose gory details and dimensions are yet to be ferreted out.

The recently published book Blood Telegrams, that tells of a forgotten genocide and the Spivac Communications before and after Bangladesh's cruel birth, brings tragically to the fore the monstrous deeds committed by the Pakistan army and its Jamaat collaborators against hapless Bangalees in 1971. Leaving aside this credible evidence, one could talk to scores of living men and women of Bangladesh who are first-hand witnesses to the horrendous criminality of the Jamaat hirelings against their own countrymen in 1971.

It is, in fact, only a small fraction of the above perpetrators that have been accounted for and are now being charged for crimes against humanity. Let us be very clear on one point; after March 25, 1971, no self-respecting Bangalee could support the Pakistan establishment's action in then East Pakistan. The Pakistan army was in fact quite unabashedly carrying out what in later days was termed as ethnic cleansing. The racist rage of the 'Brown Sahibs' against the dark skinned Bangalees, despite following the same religion, was manifest. Unspeakable and dastardly crimes were committed in the name of the so-called 'Islamisation drive.'

Let us do some fact checking. The fact that Muslim League, which spearheaded the Pakistan movement, was founded in Dhaka in 1906, the fact that the historic Lahore Resolution of 1940 demanding independent homeland for Muslims in the Indian subcontinent was initiated by a Bengali braveheart, and also the reality that in 1946 Bangalee Muslims voted overwhelmingly in favour of Pakistan, could not be grounds for Bangalees to remain within the Pakistan state. The reason was painfully clear. In 1971, their rights, honour, culture and existence were at stake. The Pakistan state was the enemy.

The Bangalees of East Pakistan experienced the insensitiveness of the Pakistan establishment quite early in 1948 when their mother tongue was denied the recognition of state language. It had to be earned after much struggle and loss in terms of human lives in 1952. A duly elected government was arbitrarily toppled by executive arrogance. Economically and politically, East Pakistan was reduced to the ignominy of a colony. It was thus no wonder that Bengali nationalism received unprecedented support in the general election of 1970. That support was most brutally countered by the Pakistani military junta. For Bangalees, in 1971, there was no love left for Pakistan.

Historically speaking, and insofar as Jamaat-e-Islami is concerned, Pakistan failed first in 1953 when two groups of Muslims fought bloody battles on the streets of Lahore, known once as the pearl of the East, in the name of Islam. Hundreds died and a sect of believers was declared heretic and has been prosecuted and persecuted since then. And, at the core of the conflict was a simple question; who was a Muslim?

When a Pakistani minister terms the hanging of a quisling as judicial murder for supporting a united Pakistan in 1971, one can see the visible signposts of a self-destructing nation whose people and leaders remain blinded by unfounded myths and unreasonable denials. We can see a State riddled with mass insecurity and unrelenting rejection of its natural identity.

While we would not comment on the physical and mental harassment of the Chief Justice of Pakistan in the not-too-distant past, we have to emphatically assert that violence and destruction alone does not justify our existence. We do not want to create a sub-culture of hostility and brutality in which thousands would perish. Quite clearly, we cannot countenance a polity where violence against other fellow beings is justified as a religious cause.

The tracking of Nazi war criminals has been an unrelenting process. Armenians have not forgotten the extermination campaign against their existence in the early 20th century. Koreans still resent the brutalities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII. Bangladeshis, despite being subjected to a horrendous genocide, have been more than magnanimous towards their tormentors. So, let the Pakistan establishment atone for its crimes in 1971, as has been done by the Germans.

If indeed Bangladeshis are the "brotherly" people as has often been claimed by the Pakistani authorities, then let them respond accordingly and give their "brother" the due respect. Let them not defile our sentiments and distort history. We owe at least this much to the countless souls who sacrificed for our sovereignty. Let Pakistanis honour themselves by paying tributes to our war heroes of 1971, especially those brave soldiers of East Bengal Regiment who in large measure gallantly defended Lahore in the 1965 War.

The writer is a columnist of The Daily Star.