§ indicates events in the internal resistance movement linked to the Indo-Pakistani War. ‡ indicates events in the Indo-Pakistani War linked to the internal resistance movement in Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh genocide (Bengali: একাত্তরের গণহত্যা, romanized:Ēkātturēr Gôṇôhôtyā, lit. '71's genocide', Bengali: বাঙালি গণহত্যা, romanized:Bāṅāli Gôṇôhôtyā, lit. 'Bengali genocide') was the ethnic cleansing of Bengalis, especially Bengali Hindus, residing in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) during the Bangladesh Liberation War, perpetrated by the Pakistan Armed Forces and the Razakars.[2] It began on 25 March 1971, as Operation Searchlight was launched by West Pakistan (now Pakistan) to militarily subdue the Bengali population of East Pakistan; the Bengalis comprised the demographic majority and had been calling for independence from the Pakistani state. Seeking to curtail the Bengali self-determination movement, erstwhile Pakistani president Yahya Khan approved a large-scale military deployment, and in the nine-month-long conflict that ensued, Pakistani soldiers and local pro-Pakistan militias killed between 300,000 and 3,000,000 Bengalis and raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women in a systematic campaign of mass murder and genocidal sexual violence.[3][4][5][6] In their investigation of the genocide, the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists concluded that Pakistan's campaign involved the attempt to exterminate or forcibly remove a significant portion of the country's Hindu populace.[7]
The West Pakistani government, which had implemented discriminatory legislation in East Pakistan,[8] asserted that Hindus were behind the Mukti Bahini (Bengali resistance fighters) revolt and that resolving the local "Hindu problem" would end the conflict—Khan's government and the Pakistani elite thus regarded the crackdown as a strategic policy.[9] Genocidal rhetoric accompanied the campaign: Pakistani men believed that the sacrifice of Hindus was needed to fix the national malaise.[10] In the countryside, Pakistan Army moved through villages and specifically asked for places where Hindus lived before burning them down.[11] Hindus were identified by checking circumcision or by demanding the recitation of Muslim prayers.[12] This also resulted in the migration of around eight million East Pakistani refugees into India, 80–90% of whom were Hindus.[13]
Pakistan's imams declared Bengali Hindu women to be "war booty";[14][15] and Pakistani fatwa were issued legitimizing Bengali Hindu women as spoils of war.[15][16] Women who were targeted often died in Pakistani captivity or committed suicide, while others fled to India.[17]
Pakistan's activities during the Bangladesh Liberation War served as a catalyst for India's military intervention in support of the Mukti Bahini, triggering the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The conflict and the genocide formally ended on 16 December 1971, when the joint forces of Bangladesh and India received the Pakistani Instrument of Surrender. As a result of the conflict, approximately 10 million East Bengali refugees fled to Indian territory while up to 30 million people were internally displaced out of the 70 million total population of East Pakistan. There was also ethnic violence between the Bengali majority and the Bihari minority during the conflict; between 1,000 and 150,000 Biharis were killed in reprisal attacks by Bengali militias and mobs, as Bihari collaboration with the West Pakistani campaign had led to further anti-Bihari sentiment. Since Pakistan's defeat and Bangladesh's independence, the title "Stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh" has commonly been used to refer to the Bihari community, which was denied the right to hold Bangladeshi citizenship until 2008.
Allegations of a genocide in Bangladesh were rejected by most UN member states at the time and rarely appear in textbooks and academic sources on genocide studies.[18]
Background
Female students of Dacca university marching on Language Movement Day, 21 February 1953.
West Pakistan and East Pakistan
Following the Partition of India, the new state of Pakistan represented a geographical anomaly, with two wings separated by 1,600 kilometres (1,000mi) of Indian territory.[19] The wings were not only separated geographically, but also culturally. The authorities of the West viewed the Bengali Muslims in the East as "too 'Bengali'" and their application of Islam as "inferior and impure", believing this made the Bengalis unreliable "co-religionists". The Pakistani leadership perceived elements of Hindu influence within Bengali language and culture. As a result, they made repeated efforts to mitigate or eradicate these perceived Hindu influences.[20] Politicians in West Pakistan began a strategy to forcibly assimilate the Bengalis culturally and religiously.[21]
The Bengali people were the demographic majority in Pakistan, making up an estimated 75million in East Pakistan, compared with 55million in the predominantly Punjabi-speaking West Pakistan.[22] The majority in the East were Muslim, with large minorities of Hindus, Buddhists and Christians.
Discriminatory policies against Bengalis
In 1948, a few months after the creation of Pakistan, Governor-GeneralMuhammad Ali Jinnah declared Urdu as the national language of the newly formed state,[23] although only fourper cent of Pakistan's population spoke Urdu at that time.[24] He mentioned that the people of East Bengal could choose what would be its provincial language, and branded those who were against the use of Urdu as the national language of Pakistan as communists, traitors and enemies of the state.[25][26] The refusal by successive governments to recognise Bengali as the second national language culminated in the Bengali language movement and strengthened support for the newly formed Awami League, which was founded in the East as an alternative to the ruling Muslim League.[27] A 1952 protest in Dhaka, the capital of East Pakistan, was forcibly broken up, resulting in the deaths of several protesters. Bengali nationalists viewed those who had died as martyrs for their cause, and the violence led to calls for secession.[28] The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 caused further grievances, as the military had assigned no extra units to the defence of the East.[29] This was a matter of concern to the Bengalis who saw their nation undefended in case of Indian attack during the conflict of 1965,[30][31] and that Ayub Khan, the President of Pakistan, was willing to lose the East if it meant gaining Kashmir.[32]
The slow response to the Bhola cyclone which struck on 12 November 1970 is widely seen as a contributing factor in the December 1970 general election.[33] The East Pakistan-based Awami League, headed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won a national majority in the first democratic election since the creation of Pakistan, sweeping East Pakistan. But, the West Pakistani establishment prevented them from forming a government.[34] President Yahya Khan, encouraged by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto,[35] banned the Awami League and declared martial law.[36] The Pakistani Army demolished Ramna Kali Mandir (temple) and killed 85 Hindus.[37] On 22 February 1971, General Yahya Khan is reported to have said "Kill three million of them, and the rest will eat out of our hands."[38][39][40]
Bengali independence movement
Some Bengalis supported a united Pakistan and opposed secession from it.[41] According to Indian academic Sarmila Bose, these pro-Pakistan Bengalis constituted a significant minority, and included the Islamic parties. Moreover, many Awami League voters who hoped to achieve provincial autonomy may not have desired secession.[42] Additionally, some Bengali officers and soldiers remained loyal to the Pakistani Army and were taken as prisoners of war by India along with other West Pakistani soldiers.[43] Thus, according to Sarmila Bose, there were many pro-regime Bengalis who killed and persecuted the pro-liberation fighters.[43]Sydney Schanberg reported the formation of armed civilian units by the Pakistani Army in June 1971. Only a minority of the recruits were Bengali, while most were Biharis and Urdu speakers. The units with local knowledge played an important role in the implementation of the Pakistani Army's genocide.[44] American writer Gary J. Bass believes that the breakup of Pakistan was not inevitable, identifying 25 March 1971 as the point where the idea of a united Pakistan ended for Bengalis with the start of military operations.[45] According to John H. Gill, since there was widespread polarisation between pro-Pakistan Bengalis and pro-liberation Bengalis during the war, those internal battles are still playing out in the domestic politics of modern-day Bangladesh.[46]
Operation Searchlight
Operation Searchlight was a planned military operation carried out by the Pakistani Army to curb elements of the separatist Bengali nationalist movement in East Pakistan in March 1971.[47][48][49] The Pakistani state justified commencing Operation Searchlight on the basis of anti-Bihari violence by Bengalis in early March.[50] Ordered by the government in West Pakistan, this was seen as the sequel to Operation Blitz which had been launched in November 1970. On 1 March 1971, East Pakistan governor Admiral Syed Mohammed Ahsan was replaced after disagreeing with military action in East Pakistan.[51][52] His successor Sahibzada Yaqub Khan resigned after refusing to use soldiers to quell a mutiny and disagreement with military action in East Pakistan.[53][54]
According to Indian academic[55][56] Sarmila Bose, the postponement of the National Assembly on 1 March led to widespread lawlessness spread by Bengali protesters during the period of 1–25 March, in which the Pakistani government lost control over much of the province. Bose asserts that during this 25-day period of lawlessness, attacks by Bengalis on non-Bengalis were common as well as attacks by Bengalis on Pakistani military personnel who, according to Bose and Anthony Mascarenhas, showed great restraint until 25 March, when Operation Searchlight began.[57] Bose also described the atrocities committed by the Pakistani Army in her book.[58] According to Anthony Mascarenhas, the actions of the Pakistani Army compared to the violence by Bengalis was "altogether worse and on a grander scale".[59]
On the night of 25 March 1971, the Pakistani Army launched Operation Searchlight. Time magazine dubbed General Tikka Khan the "Butcher of Bengal" for his role in Operation Searchlight.[60] Targets of the operation included Jagannath Hall which was a dormitory for non-Muslim students of Dhaka University, Rajarbagh Police Lines, and Pilkhana, which is the headquarters of East Pakistan Rifles. About 34 students were killed in the dormitories of Dhaka University. Neighbourhoods of old Dhaka which had a majority Hindu population were also attacked. Robert Payne, an American journalist, estimated that 7,000 people had been killed and 3,000 arrested in that night.[61] Teachers of Dhaka University were killed in the operation by the Pakistani Army.[62] Sheikh Mujib was arrested by the Pakistani Army on 25 March.[63]Ramna Kali Mandir was demolished by the Pakistani Army in March 1971.[37]
The original plan envisioned taking control of the major cities on 26 March 1971, and then eliminating all opposition, political or military,[64] within one month. The prolonged Bengali resistance was not anticipated by Pakistani planners.[65] The main phase of Operation Searchlight ended with the fall of the last major town in Bengali hands in mid May. The countryside still remained almost evenly contested.[66]
The first report of the Bangladesh genocide was published by West Pakistani journalist Anthony Mascarenhas in The Sunday Times, London on 13 June 1971 titled "Genocide". He wrote: "I saw Hindus, hunted from village to village and door to door, shot off-hand after a cursory 'short-arm inspection' showed they were uncircumcised. I have heard the screams of men bludgeoned to death in the compound of the Circuit House (civil administrative headquarters) in Comilla. I have seen truckloads of other human targets and those who had the humanity to try to help them hauled off 'for disposal' under the cover of darkness and curfew."[67] This article helped turn world opinion against Pakistan and decisively encouraged the Government of India to intervene.[59] On 2 August 1971, Time magazine correspondent sent a dispatch that provided detailed description of the Pakistani army-led destruction in East Pakistan. It wrote that cities have whole sections damaged from shelling and aerial bombardments. The dispatch wrote: "In Dhaka, where soldiers set sections of the Old City ablaze with flamethrowers and then machine-gunned thousands as they tried to escape the cordon of fire, nearly 25 blocks have been bulldozed clear, leaving open areas set incongruously amid jam-packed slums." It quoted a senior US official as saying "It is the most incredible, calculated thing since the days of the Nazis in Poland."[68][69]
The Blood Telegram
Archer K. Blood, American diplomat wrote in the Blood Telegram addressing Richard Nixon administration's disregard for the situation: "with support of the Pak military, non-Bengali Muslims are systematically attacking poor people's quarters and murdering Bengalis and Hindus."[70][71]
On the high end, Bangladeshi authorities claim that as many as 3 million people were killed; the lowest estimate comes from the controversial Hamoodur Rahman Commission, the official Pakistani government investigation, which claimed the figure was 26,000 civilian casualties.[72][73] The figure of 3 million has become embedded in Bangladeshi culture and literature.[74] Sayyid A. Karim, Bangladesh's first foreign secretary alleges that the source of the figure was Pravda, the news-arm of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[74] Independent researchers have estimated the death toll to be around 300,000 to 500,000 people while others estimate the casualty figure to be 3 million.[75][59][76][77] Midway through the genocide, the CIA and the State Department conservatively estimated that 200,000 people had been killed.[78][79] The estimate of 3 million has come under strict scrutiny.[80][81]
Pile of bones of those killed in the Bangladesh Genocide
In 1976, the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh undertook a comprehensive population survey in Matlab, Noakhali where a total of 868 excess wartime deaths were recorded; this led to an estimated overall excess number of deaths in the whole of Bangladesh of nearly 500,000.[74] Based on this study, the British Medical Journal in 2008, conducted a study by Ziad Obermeyer, Christopher J. L. Murray, and Emmanuela Gakidou which estimated that 125,000–505,000 civilians died as a result of the conflict;[74] the authors note that this is far higher than a previous estimate of 58,000 by Uppsala University and the Peace Research Institute, Oslo.[87] This figure is supported by the statements of Bangladeshi author Ahmed Sharif in 1996, who added that "they kept the truth hidden for getting political advantages".[88] American political scientists Richard Sisson and Leo E. Rose give a low-end estimate of 300,000 dead, killed by all parties, and they deny that a genocide occurred, while American political scientist R. J. Rummel estimated that about 1.5million people were killed in Bangladesh.[89] Indian journalist Nirmal Sen claims that the total number killed was about 250,000 and among them, about 100,000 were Bengalis and the rest were Biharis.[88]
A 2018 paper by Christian Gerlach concluded that overall deaths due to the war in East Pakistan slightly exceeded half a million and could not have exceeded 1 million,[90] adding that the majority of the dead were rural dwellers who died of "hunger, want, and exhaustion" with many deaths occurring in the year following the conflict.[90] Out of 200,000 members of the Awami League, the paper states that, 17,000 were killed with the leaders of the league experiencing a death ratio of 15 to 20 out of 167.[90] The paper also denies based on statistical evidence that there was a coordinated attempt to exterminate the Bengali intelligentsia stating: "if one accepts the data published by the Bangladesh propaganda ministry, 4.2 per cent of all university professors were killed, along with 1.4 per cent of all college teachers, 0.6 per cent of all secondary and primary school teachers, and 0.6 per cent of all teaching personnel. On the basis of the aforementioned Ministry of Education data, 1.2 per cent of all teaching personnel were killed. This is hardly proof of an extermination campaign."[90]
Many of those killed were the victims of radical religious paramilitary militias formed by the West Pakistani Army, including the Razakars, Al-Shams and Al-Badr forces.[91][92] There are many mass graves in Bangladesh,[93][94] and more are continually being discovered (such as one in an old well near a mosque in Dhaka, located in the Mirpur region of the city, which was discovered in August 1999).[95] The first night of war on Bengalis, which is documented in telegrams from the American Consulate in Dhaka to the United States State Department, saw indiscriminate killings of students of Dhaka University and other civilians.[96]
On 16 December 2002, the George Washington University's National Security Archive published a collection of declassified documents, consisting mostly of communications between US embassy officials and USIS centres in Dhaka and India, and officials in Washington, D.C.[96] These documents show that US officials working in diplomatic institutions within Bangladesh used the terms selective genocide[97][98] and genocide (see Blood telegram) to describe events they had knowledge of at the time. The complete chronology of events as reported to the Nixon administration can be found on the Department of State website.[99]
Pro-Pakistan Islamist militias
The Jamaat-e-Islami party[100] as well as some other pro-Pakistani Islamists opposed the Bangladeshi independence struggle and collaborated with the Pakistani state and armed forces out of Islamic solidarity.[101][102][75] According to political scientist Peter Tomsen, Pakistan's secret service, in conjunction with the political party Jamaat-e-Islami, formed militias such as Al-Badr ("the moon") and the Al-Shams ("the sun") to conduct operations against the nationalist movement.[103][104] These militias targeted noncombatants and committed rapes as well as other crimes.[105] Local collaborators known as Razakars also took part in the atrocities. The term has since become a pejorative akin to the western term "Judas".[106]
Members of the Muslim League, Nizam-e-Islam, Jamaat-e-Islami and Jamiat Ulema Pakistan, who had lost the election, collaborated with the military and acted as an intelligence organisation for them.[107] Jamaat-e-Islami members and some of its leaders collaborated with the Pakistani forces in rapes and targeted killings.[108] The atrocities by Al-Badr and the Al-Shams garnered worldwide attention from news agencies; accounts of massacres and rapes were widely reported.[104][15][109]
During the war, the Pakistani Army and its local collaborators, mainly Jamaat e Islami carried out a systematic execution of the leading Bengali intellectuals. A number of professors from Dhaka University were killed during the first few days of the war.[110][111] However, the most extreme cases of targeted killing of intellectuals took place during the last few days of the war. Professors, journalists, doctors, artists, engineers and writers were rounded up by the Pakistani Army and the Razakar militia in Dhaka, blindfolded, taken to torture cells in Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Nakhalpara, Rajarbagh and other locations in different sections of the city to be executed en masse, most notably at Rayerbazar and Mirpur.[112][113][114][115] Allegedly, the Pakistani Army and its paramilitary arm, the Al-Badr and Al-Shams forces created a list of doctors, teachers, poets, and scholars.[116][117]
During the nine-month duration of the war the Pakistani Army, with the assistance of local collaborators, systematically executed an estimated 991 teachers, 13 journalists, 49 physicians, 42 lawyers, and 16 writers, artists and engineers.[114] Even after the official ending of the war on 16 December there were reports of killings being committed by either the armed Pakistani soldiers or by their collaborators. In one such incident, notable filmmaker Jahir Raihan was killed on 30 January 1972 in Mirpur, allegedly by armed Beharis. In memory of the people who were killed, 14 December is observed in Bangladesh as Shaheed Buddhijibi Dibosh ("Day of the Martyred Intellectuals").[92][114][118]
The generally accepted figure for the mass rapes during the nine-month long conflict is between 200,000 and 400,000.[75][123][124][125][126][75][127][128] Most of the rape victims of the Pakistani Army and its allies were Hindu women.[129][130][131][132][102] Some of these women died in captivity or committed suicide while others moved to India.[17] During the war, a so-called fatwa originating in West Pakistan declared that the Hindu women could be taken as the "booty of war".[133][134] Imams and Muslim religious leaders of Pakistan publicly declared that the Bengali Hindu women were 'gonimoter maal' (war booty) and thus they openly supported the rape of these women by the Pakistani Army.[15] Numerous women were tortured, raped and killed during the war.[135][136] A 17 year old Hindu bride who was gang raped by Pakistani soldiers, was also documented.
Two went into the room that had been built for the bridal couple. The others stayed behind with the family, one of them covering them with his gun. They heard a barked order, and the bridegroom's voice protesting. Then there was silence until the bride screamed ... In a few minutes one of the soldiers came out, his uniform in disarray. He grinned to his companions. Another soldier took his place in the extra room. And so on, until all six had raped the belle of the village. Then all six left, hurriedly. The father found his daughter lying on the string cot unconscious and bleeding. Her husband was crouched on the floor, kneeling over his vomit.[137]
Bangladeshi sources cite a figure of 200,000 women raped, giving birth to thousands of war-babies. The soldiers of the Pakistan Army and razakars also kept Bengali women as sex-slaves inside the Pakistani Army's camps, and many became pregnant.[75][138] The perpetrators also included Mukti Bahini and the Indian Army, which targeted noncombatants and committed rapes, as well as other crimes.[105] Among other sources, Susan Brownmiller refers to an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 women raped.[139] Pakistani sources claim the number is much lower, though they have not denied that rape incidents occurred.[140] Brownmiller writes:[141]
Khadiga, thirteen years old, was interviewed by a photojournalist in Dacca. She was walking to school with four other girls when they were kidnapped by a gang of Pakistani soldiers. All five were put in a military brothel in Mohammedpur and held captive for six months until the end of the war.
In a New York Times report named 'Horrors of East Pakistan Turning Hope into Despair', Malcolm W. Browne[142] wrote:
One tale that is widely believed and seems to come from many different sources is that 563 women picked up by the army in March and April and held in military brothels are not being released because they are pregnant beyond the point at which abortions are possible.
The licentious attitude of the soldiers, although generally supported by their superiors, alarmed the regional high command of the Pakistani Army. On 15 April 1971, in a secret memorandum to the divisional commanders, Niazi complained,
Since my arrival, I have heard numerous reports of troops indulging in loot and arson, killing people at random and without reasons in areas cleared of the anti state elements; of late there have been reports of rape and even the West Pakistanis are not being spared; on 12 April two West Pakistani women were raped, and an attempt was made on two others.[143]
Anthony Mascarenhas published a newspaper article titled 'Genocide in June 1971' in which he also wrote about violence perpetrated by Bengalis against Biharis.[144]
First it was the massacre of the non-Bengalis in a savage outburst of Bengali hatred. Now it was massacre deliberately carried out by the West Pakistan army ... The West Pakistani soldiers are not the only ones who have been killing in East Bengal, of course. On the night of 25 March... the Bengali troops and paramilitary units stationed in East Pakistan mutinied and attacked non-Bengalis with atrocious savagery. Thousands of families of unfortunate Muslims, many of them refugees from Bihar who chose Pakistan at the time of the partition riots in 1947, were mercilessly wiped out. Women were raped, or had their breasts torn out with specially-fashioned knives. Children did not escape the horror; the lucky ones were killed with their parents...
Pakistani Major General Khadim Hussain Raja wrote in his book that Niazi, in presence of Bengali officers would say ‘Main iss haramzadi qom ki nasal badal doonga (I will change the race of the Bengalis)’. A witness statement to the commission read "The troops used to say that when the Commander (Lt Gen Niazi) was himself a raper (sic), how could they be stopped?".[145]
Another work that has included direct experiences from the women raped is Ami Birangona Bolchhi ("I, the heroine, speak") by Nilima Ibrahim. The work includes in its name from the word Birangona (Heroine), given by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after the war, to the raped and tortured women during the war. This was a conscious effort to alleviate any social stigma the women might face in the society.[citation needed]
There are eyewitness reports of the "rape camps" established by the Pakistani Army.[38] The US based Women Under Siege Project of the Women's Media Center have reported the girls as young as 8 and women as old as 75 were detained in Pakistan military barracks, and where they were victims of mass rape which sometimes culminated in mass murder. The report was based on interview with survivors.[146] Australian Doctor Geoffrey Davis was brought to Bangladesh by the United Nation and International Planned Parenthood Federation to carry out late term abortions on rape victims. He was of the opinion that the 200,000 to 400,000 rape victims were an underestimation. On the actions of Pakistan army he said "They'd keep the infantry back and put artillery ahead and they would shell the hospitals and schools. And that caused absolute chaos in the town. And then the infantry would go in and begin to segregate the women. Apart from little children, all those were (sic) sexually matured would be segregated..And then the women would be put in the compound under guard and made available to the troops ... Some of the stories they told were appalling. Being raped again and again and again. A lot of them died in those [rape] camps. There was an air of disbelief about the whole thing. Nobody could credit that it really happened! But the evidence clearly showed that it did happen."[147][bettersourceneeded]
In October 2005, Sarmila Bose published a paper suggesting that the casualties and rape allegations in the war have been greatly exaggerated for political purposes.[47][148] Whilst she received praise from many quarters,[149] a number of researchers have shown inaccuracies in Bose's work, including flawed methodology of statistical analysis, misrepresentation of referenced sources, and disproportionate weight to Pakistani Army testimonies.[150]
Historian Christian Gerlach states that "a systematic collection of statistical data was aborted, possibly because the tentative data did not substantiate the claim that three million had died and at least 200,000 women had been raped."[151]
Mass murder of Hindus
An article in Time magazine, dated 2 August 1971, stated "The Hindus, who account for three-fourths of the refugees and a majority of the dead, have borne the brunt of the Muslim military hatred".[69] Pakistan army eastern command headquarters officials in Dhaka made clear the government's policy on East Bengal. After the elimination or exile of Hindus, their property was going to be shared among middle class Muslims.[152] According to Colonel Naim, Hindus "undermined the Muslim masses." He said Bengali culture to a great extent was Hindu culture, and "We have to sort them out to restore the land to the people."[153] In April 1971 at Comilla, Major Rathore said to Anthony Mascarenhas, regarding Hindus: "Now under the cover of fighting we have an excellent opportunity of finishing them off. [...] Of course [...], we are only killing the Hindu men. We are soldiers, not cowards like the rebels."[154]
Hindus were alleged to have corrupted the Awami League. Pakistani soldiers repeatedly boasted to US Consul Archer Blood that they came "to kill Hindus". A witness heard an officer shouting to soldiers: "Why you have killed Muslims [sic]. We ordered you to kill only Hindus."[153] US government cables noted that the minorities of Bangladesh, especially the Hindus, were specific targets of the Pakistani Army.[71][110] US consulates reported methodical slaughter of Hindu men in cities starting in the first 24 hours of the crackdown. Army units entered villages asking where Hindus live; it was "common pattern" to kill Hindu males. Hindus were identified because they were not circumcised. There were barely any areas where no Hindu was killed.[155] Sometimes the military also massacred Hindu women. There was widespread killing of Hindu males, and rapes of women. Documented incidents in which Hindus were massacred in large numbers include the Jathibhanga massacre,[156][157] the Chuknagar massacre, and the Shankharipara massacre.[158]
Senator Edward Kennedy wrote in a report that was part of United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations testimony, dated 1 November 1971, "Hardest hit have been members of the Hindu community who have been robbed of their lands and shops, systematically slaughtered, and in some places, painted with yellow patches marked "H". All of this has been officially sanctioned, ordered and implemented under martial law from Islamabad". More than 60% of the Bengali refugees who fled to India were Hindus.[159][160] It has been alleged that this widespread violence against Hindus was motivated by a policy to purge East Pakistan of what was seen as Hindu and Indian influences.[161]Buddhist temples and Buddhist monks were also attacked throughout the course of the year.[162] Lt. Colonel Aziz Ahmed Khan reported that in May 1971 there was a written order to kill Hindus, and that General Niazi would ask troops how many Hindus they had killed.[163]
The genocide and gendercidal atrocities were also perpetrated by lower-ranking officers and ordinary soldiers. These "willing executioners" were fueled by an abiding anti-Bengali racism, especially against the Hindu minority.[citation needed] According to R. J. Rummel, professor of political science at the University of Hawaii,
Bengalis were often compared with monkeys and chickens. Said Pakistan General Niazi, "It was a low lying land of low lying people." The Hindus among the Bengalis were as Jews to the Nazis: scum and vermin that [should] best be exterminated. As to the Moslem Bengalis, they were to live only on the sufferance of the soldiers: any infraction, any suspicion cast on them, any need for reprisal, could mean their death. And the soldiers were free to kill at will. The journalist Dan Coggin quoted one Punjabi [Pakistani] captain as telling him, "We can kill anyone for anything. We are accountable to no one." This is the arrogance of Power.[164]
The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Sydney Schanberg covered the start of the war and wrote extensively on the suffering of the East Bengalis, including the Hindus both during and after the conflict. In a syndicated column "The Pakistani Slaughter That Nixon Ignored", he wrote about his return to liberated Bangladesh in 1972. "Other reminders were the yellow "H"s the Pakistanis had painted on the homes of Hindus, particular targets of the Muslim army" (by "Muslim army", meaning the Pakistan Army, which had targeted Bengali Muslims as well).[citation needed] Missionaries in Bangladesh reported to Schanberg that massacres occurred on a nearly daily basis. One reported the slaughter of over a thousand Hindus in the southern district of Barisal in a single day. According to another, a Peace Committee in northeastern Sylhet district called residents together. Troops arrived and from the gathered crowd selected 300 Hindus and shot them dead.[165][166]
In 1947, at the time of partition and the establishment of the state of Pakistan, Bihari Muslims, many of whom were fleeing the violence that took place during partition, migrated from India to the newly independent East Pakistan.[167][168] These Urdu-speaking people were averse to the Bengali language movement and the subsequent nationalist movements because they maintained allegiance toward West Pakistani rulers, causing anti-Bihari sentiments among local nationalist Bengalis. After the convening of the National Assembly was postponed by Yahya Khan on 1 March 1971, the dissidents in East Pakistan began targeting the ethnic Bihari community which had supported West Pakistan.[169][170][171][172]
In early March 1971, 300 Biharis were slaughtered in rioting by Bengali mobs in Chittagong alone.[169] The Government of Pakistan used the 'Bihari massacre' to justify its deployment of the military in East Pakistan on 25 March,[169] when it initiated its infamous Operation Searchlight. When the war broke out in 1971, the Biharis sided with the Pakistani Army. Some of them joined Razakar and Al-Shams militia groups and participated in the persecution and genocide of their Bengali countrymen, in retaliation for atrocities committed against them by Bengalis,[169] including the widespread looting of Bengali properties and abetting other criminal activities.[110] When the war finished Biharis faced severe retaliation, resulting in a counter-genocide and the displacement of over a million non-Bengalis.[72]
According to the Minorities at Risk project, the number of Biharis killed by Bengalis was reportedly about 1,000.[172]Rudolph Rummel gives an estimate of 150,000 killed.[173] International estimates vary, while some have put the deaths as several thousands; Biharis faced reprisals from the Mukti Bahini and militias,[72][168] and from 1,000[172] to 150,000[170][174] were killed. Bihari representatives claim a figure of 500,000 Biharis killed.[175][173]
After the war the government of Bangladesh confiscated the properties of the Bihari population.[citation needed] There are many reports of attacks on Biharis and alleged collaborators that took place in the period following the surrender of the Pakistani Army on 16 December 1971.[176] In an incident on 18 December 1971, captured on camera and attended by members of the foreign press, Abdul Kader Siddiqui, together with Kaderia Bahini guerrillas under his command and named after him,[177] bayoneted and shot to death a group of prisoners of war who were accused of belonging to the Razakar paramilitary forces.[178][179]
International reactions
Time reported a high US official as saying of the slaughter of the East Pakistanis by their West Pakistani enemies, "It is the most incredible, calculated thing since the days of the Nazis in Poland".[69][180][105][75]Genocide is the term that is used to describe the event in almost every major publication and newspaper in Bangladesh;[181][182] the term is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group"[183]
International Commission of Jurists
A 1972 report by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) noted that both sides in the conflict accused each other of perpetrating genocide. The report observed that it may be difficult to substantiate claims that the "whole of the military action and repressive measures taken by the Pakistani Army and their auxiliary forces constituted genocide' that was intended to destroy the Bengali people in whole or in part, and that 'preventing a nation from attaining political autonomy does not constitute genocide: the intention must be to destroy in whole or in part the people as such." The difficulty of proving intent was considered to be further complicated by the fact that three specific sections of the Bengali people were targeted in killings committed by the Pakistani Army and their collaborators: members of the Awami League, students, and East Pakistani citizens of the Hindu religion. The report observed, however, that there is a strong prima facie case that particular acts of genocide were committed, especially towards the end of the war, when Bengalis were targeted indiscriminately. Similarly, it was felt that there is a strong prima facie case that crimes of genocide were committed against the Hindu population of East Pakistan.[184]
As regards the massacres of non-Bengalis by Bengalis during and after the Liberation War, the ICJ report argued that it is improbable that "spontaneous and frenzied mob violence against a particular section of the community from whom the mob senses danger and hostility is to be regarded as possessing the necessary element of conscious intent to constitute the crime of genocide," but that, if the dolus specialis were to be proved in particular cases, these would have constituted acts of genocide against non-Bengalis.[184]
After the minimum 20 countries became parties to the Genocide Convention, it came into force as international law on 12 January 1951. At that time however, only two of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council were parties to the treaty, and it was not until after the last of the five permanent members ratified the treaty in 1988, and the Cold War came to an end, that the international law on the crime of genocide began to be enforced. As such, the allegation that genocide took place during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 was never investigated by an international tribunal set up under the auspices of the United Nations.[citation needed]
Rudolph Rummel wrote, "In 1971, the self-appointed president of Pakistan and commander-in-chief of the army General Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan and his top generals prepared a careful and systematic military, economic, and political operation against East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). They planned to murder that country's Bengali intellectual, cultural, and political elite. They planned to indiscriminately murder hundreds of thousands of its Hindus and drive the rest into India. And they planned to destroy its economic base to insure that it would be subordinate to West Pakistan for at least a generation to come. This despicable and cutthroat plan was outright genocide."[185]
The genocide is also mentioned in some publications outside the subcontinent; for example, The Guinness Book of Records lists the atrocities as one of the largest five genocides in the twentieth century.[186]
U.S. complicity
President of Pakistan Yahya Khan with United States President Richard Nixon, 1970.
President Richard Nixon viewed Pakistan as a Cold War ally and refused to condemn its actions. From the White House tapes: "The President seems to be making sure that the distrusted State Department would not, on its own, condemn Yahya for killing Bengalis."[130] Nixon and China tried to suppress reports of genocide emanating from East Pakistan.[187] Nixon also relied on Americans not paying close attention to events in Asia: "Biafra stirred up a few Catholics. But you know, I think Biafra stirred people up more than Pakistan, because Pakistan they're just a bunch of brown goddamn Moslems."[188]
The US government secretly encouraged the shipment of weapons from Iran, Turkey, and Jordan to Pakistan, and reimbursed those countries for them[189] despite Congressional objections.[190]
A collection of declassified US government documents, mostly consisting of communications between US officials in Washington, D.C., and in embassies and USIS centers in Dhaka and in India, show that US officials knew about these mass killings at the time and, in fact, used the terms "genocide" and "selective genocide," for example, in the "Blood Telegram."[96] They also show that President Nixon, advised by Henry Kissinger, decided to downplay this secret internal advice, because he wanted to protect the interests of Pakistan as he was apprehensive of India's friendship with the USSR, and he was seeking a closer relationship with China, which supported Pakistan.[191]
In his book The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Christopher Hitchens elaborates on what he saw as the efforts of Kissinger to subvert the aspirations of independence on the part of the Bengalis.[192] Hitchens not only claims that the term genocide is appropriate to describe the results of the struggle, but also points to the efforts of Henry Kissinger in undermining others who condemned the then-ongoing atrocities as being a genocide. Hitchens concluded, "Kissinger was responsible for the killing of thousands of people, including Sheikh Mujibur Rahman".[193][194][195]
Some American politicians did speak out. SenatorTed Kennedy charged Pakistan with committing genocide, and called for a complete cut-off of American military and economic aid to Pakistan.[196][197][198][199]
Attempted trials for Pakistani war crimes
As early as 22 December 1971, the Indian Army was conducting investigations of senior Pakistani Army officers connected to the massacre of intellectuals in Dhaka, with the aim of collecting sufficient evidence to have them tried as war criminals. They produced a list of officers who were in positions of command at the time, or were connected to the Inter-Services Screening Committee.[200]
1972–1975
On 24 December 1971, Home minister of Bangladesh A. H. M. Qamaruzzaman said, "war criminals will not survive from the hands of law. Pakistani military personnel who were involved with killing and raping have to face tribunal." In a joint statement after a meeting between Sheikh Mujib and Indira Gandhi, the Indian government assured that it would give all necessary assistance for bringing war criminals into justice. In February 1972, the government of Bangladesh announced plans to put 100 senior Pakistani officers and officials on trial for crimes of genocide. The list included General A. K. Niazi and four other generals.[201]
After the war, the Indian Army held 92,000 Pakistani prisoners of war,[202] 195 of whom were suspected of committing war crimes. All 195 were released in April 1974 following the tripartite Delhi Agreement between Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, and repatriated to Pakistan, in return for Pakistan's recognition of Bangladesh.[203] Pakistan expressed interest in performing a trial against those 195 officials. Fearing for the fate of 400,000 Bengalis trapped in Pakistan, Bangladesh agreed to hand them over to Pakistani authorities.[114]
The Bangladeshi Collaborators (Special Tribunals) Order of 1972 was promulgated to bring to trial those Bangladeshis who collaborated with and aided the Pakistani Armed forces during the Liberation War of 1971.[204] There are conflicting accounts of the number of persons brought to trial under the 1972 Collaborators Order, ranging between 10,000 and 40,000.[205] At the time, the trials were considered problematic by local and external observers, because they appear to have been used for carrying out political vendettas. R. MacLennan, a British MP who was an observer at the trials stated that 'In the dock, the defendants are scarcely more pitiable than the succession of confused prosecution witnesses driven (by the 88-year-old defence counsel) to admit that they, too, served the Pakistani government but are now ready to swear blindly that their real loyalty was to the government of Bangladesh in exile.'[206] In May 1973, the Pakistani government detained Bengali civil servants stranded in Pakistan, as well as their family members, in response to Bangladesh's attempt to try POWs for genocide.[207] Pakistan unsuccessfully pleaded five times to the International Court of Justice to contest Bangladesh's application of the term "genocide".[207]
The government of Bangladesh issued a general amnesty on 30 November 1973, applying it to all persons except those who were punished or accused of rape, murder, attempted murder or arson.[205] The Collaborators Order of 1972 was revoked in 1975.[208]
The International Crimes (Tribunals) Act of 1973 was promulgated to prosecute any persons, irrespective of nationality, who were accused of committing crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes, "violations of any humanitarian rules applicable in armed conflicts laid out in the Geneva Conventions of 1949" and "any other crimes under international law".[209] Detainees held under the 1972 Collaborators Order who were not released by the general amnesty of 1973 were going to be tried under this Act. However, no trials were held, and all activities related to the Act ceased after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.[210]
There are no known instances of criminal investigations or trials outside Bangladesh of alleged perpetrators of war crimes during the 1971 war. Initial steps were taken by the Metropolitan Police to investigate individuals resident in the United Kingdom who were alleged to have committed war crimes according to a Channel 4 documentary film aired in 1995. To date, no charges have been brought against these individuals.[211]
1991–2006
Memorial of clay commemorating refugees from the Bangladesh genocide.
On 29 December 1991, Ghulam Azam, who was accused of being a collaborator with Pakistan in the war of 1971, became the chairman or Ameer of the political party Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangladesh, which caused controversy. This incident prompted the creation of a 'National Committee for Resisting the Killers and Collaborators of 1971', in the footsteps of a proposal by writer and political activist Jahanara Imam. A mock people's court was formed, which on 26 March 1992 found Ghulam Azam guilty in a widely criticised trial, which sentenced him to death; he ultimately died in prison in 2014.[212]
A case was filed in the Federal Court of Australia on 20 September 2006 for alleged crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during 1971 by the Pakistani Armed Forces and its collaborators. Raymond Solaiman & Associates, acting for the plaintiff Mr. Solaiman, released a press statement which among other things said:[213]
We are glad to announce that a case has been filed in the Federal Magistrate's Court of Australia today under the Genocide Conventions Act 1949 and War Crimes Act. This is the first time in history that someone is attending a court proceeding in relation to the [alleged] crimes of Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during 1971 by the Pakistani Armed Forces and its collaborators. The Proceeding number is SYG 2672 of 2006. On 25 October 2006, a direction hearing will take place in the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia, Sydney registry before Federal Magistrate His Honor Nicholls.
On 21 May 2007, at the request of the applicant leave was granted to the applicant to discontinue his application filed on 20 September 2006.[214]
2007–present
Demonstrators hold a candles for a commemoration of the Bangladesh genocide
On 30 July 2009, the Minister of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs of Bangladesh stated that no Pakistanis would be tried under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act of 1973.[215] This decision has drawn criticism from international jurists, because it effectively gives immunity to the commanders of the Pakistani Army who are generally considered to be ultimately responsible for the majority of the crimes that were committed in 1971.[215]
Demonstrators hold torches for a commemoration of the Bangladesh genocide
The government set up the tribunal after the Awami League won the general election in December 2008 with more than two-thirds majority in parliament. The War Crimes Fact Finding Committee, tasked to investigate and find evidence, completed its report in 2008, identifying 1600 suspects.[218][219] Prior to the formation of the ICT, the United Nations Development Programme offered assistance in 2009 on the tribunal's formation.[220] In 2009 the parliament amended the 1973 act that authorised such a tribunal to update it.[221]
Throughout the years, tens of thousands of mostly young demonstrators, including women, have called for the death penalty for those convicted of war crimes. Non-violent protests supporting this position have occurred in other cities as the country closely follows the trials. The first indictments were issued in 2010.[222]
By 2012, nine leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamist party in the nation, and two of the Bangladesh National Party, had been indicted as suspects in war crimes.[223] Three leaders of Jamaat were the first tried; each were convicted of several charges of war crimes. The first person convicted was Abul Kalam Azad, who was tried in absentia as he had left the country; he was sentenced to death in January 2013.[224]
2013 Shahbag protests demanding the death penalty for the war criminals of the 1971 war
While human rights groups[225] and various political entities[226][227] initially supported the establishment of the tribunal, they have since criticised it on issues of fairness and transparency, as well as reported harassment of lawyers and witnesses representing the accused.[225][228][229][230] Jamaat-e-Islami supporters and their student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, called a general strike nationwide on 4 December 2012 in protest against the tribunals. The protest leaders demanded that the tribunal be scrapped permanently and their leaders released immediately.[231][232][233]
One of the most high profile verdicts was of Abdul Quader Mollah, assistant secretary general of Jamaat, who was convicted in February 2013 and sentenced to life imprisonment, which culminated in the massive Shahbag protests. The government, although initially reluctant, eventually appealed the verdict in the Supreme Court, which then sentenced Mollah to death. Abdul Quader Mollah was subsequently executed on Thursday 12 December 2013, amidst controversies on the legitimacy of the war tribunal hearings, drawing wide criticisms from countries such as the US, UK and Turkey, as well as from the UN. A period of unrest ensued. The majority of the population, however, was found to be in favour of the execution.[234]
Delwar Hossain Sayeedi was convicted of war crimes due to his involvement in mass killings, rape, arson, looting and forced conversion of Hindus to Islam. He was sentenced to death by hanging;[235] his sentence, however, was later commuted to life imprisonment.[236]
On 3 December 2016, business tycoon Mir Quasem Ali, convicted of crimes against humanity for torturing and killing suspected Bangladeshi liberationists, was hanged at Kashimpur Prison.[240]
In 2016, a draft of the Digital Security Act was finalized and placed for cabinet approval. The law proposed to declare any propaganda against the War of Liberation as cognizable and non-bailable.[241][242][243]
The Hamoodur Rahman Commission set up by the Pakistani government following the war noted various atrocities committed by the Pakistani military, including: Widespread arson and killings in the countryside; killing of intellectuals and professionals; killing of Bengali military officers and soldiers on the pretence of mutiny; killing Bengali civilian officials, businessmen and industrialists; raping numerous Bengali women as a deliberate act of revenge, retaliation and torture; deliberate killing of members of the Bengali Hindu minority; and the creation of mass graves.[244] The Hamoodur Rahman Commission wrote: "[I]ndiscriminate killing and looting could only serve the cause of the enemies of Pakistan. In the harshness, we lost the support of the silent majority of the people of East Pakistan.... The Comilla Cantonment massacre (on 27th/28th of March, 1971) under the orders of CO 53 Field Regiment, Lt. Gen. Yakub Malik, in which 17 Bengali Officers and 915 men were just slain by a flick of one Officer's fingers should suffice as an example".[145] The commission's report and findings were suppressed by the Pakistani government for more than 30 years, but were leaked to the Indian and Pakistani media in 2000. However, the commission's lowly death toll of 26,000 was criticised as an attempt to whitewash the war.[82][245][246]
Several former West Pakistani Army officers who served in Bangladesh during the 1971 war have admitted to large-scale atrocities by their forces.[145][247][248]
The government of Pakistan explicitly denied that there was genocide. By their refusal to characterise the mass-killings as genocide or to condemn and restrain the Pakistani government, the US and Chinese governments implied that they did not consider it so.
The genocide is still too little known about in the West. It is, moreover, the subject of shocking degrees of denial among partisan polemicists and manipulative historians.
In the 1974 Delhi Agreement, Bangladesh called on Pakistan to prosecute 195 military officers for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide under relevant provisions of international law. Pakistan responded that it "deeply regretted any crimes that may have been committed".[252] It failed to bring the perpetrators to account on its own soil, as requested by Bangladesh. The position taken by Pakistan was reiterated by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1974, when he simply expressed "regret" for 1971, and former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in 2002, when he expressed regret for the "excesses" committed in 1971.[253]
The International Crimes Tribunal set up by Bangladesh in 2009 to prosecute surviving collaborators of the pro-Pakistani militias in 1971 has been the subject of strong criticism in Pakistani political and military circles. On 30 November 2015, the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif retreated from earlier positions and said that it denies any role by Pakistan in atrocities in Bangladesh.[254] A statement of the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, after summoning the Acting Bangladeshi High Commissioner, said that "Pakistan also rejected insinuation of complicity in committing crimes or war atrocities. Nothing could be further from the truth".[254][255] The statement marked a growing trend of genocide denial in Pakistan, which picked up pace after controversial Indian academic Sarmila Bose accused the Mukti Bahini of war crimes. Bose asserts that there is greater denial in Bangladesh of war crimes which were committed by Bengalis against Biharis.[82]
Many in Pakistan's civil society have called for an unconditional apology to Bangladesh and an acknowledgement of the genocide, including noted journalist Hamid Mir,[256] former Pakistani ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani,[257] human rights activist Asma Jahangir,[258] former Pakistan Air Force chief Asghar Khan,[259] cultural activist Salima Hashmi,[260] and defence analyst Muhammad Ali Ehsan.[261] Asma Jahangir has called for an independent United Nations inquiry to investigate the atrocities. Jahangir also described Pakistan's reluctance to acknowledge the genocide a result of the Pakistani Army's dominant influence on foreign policy.[258] She spoke of the need for closure on the 1971 genocide.[262] Pakistani historian Yaqoob Khan Bangash described the actions of the Pakistani Army during the Bangladesh Liberation war as a "rampage".[60]
Bangladesh Liberation War Library and Research Centre, a Digital Library, working to 'preserve and publicly distribute' the historical documents regarding the Liberation War of Bangladesh and Genocide of Innocent Bengali People in 1971.
July massacre, a mass killing in Bangladesh carried out by Sheikh Hasina's regime in 2024, which resulted in hundreds of deaths, often referred to as the "second Bangladesh genocide".
Notes
Related Research Articles
The Indo-Pakistani war of 1971, also known as the third India-Pakistan war, was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan from 3 December 1971 until the Pakistani capitulation in Dhaka on 16 December 1971. The war began with Pakistan's Operation Chengiz Khan, consisting of preemptive aerial strikes on eight Indian air stations. The strikes led to India declaring war on Pakistan, marking their entry into the war for East Pakistan's independence, on the side of Bengali nationalist forces. India's entry expanded the existing conflict with Indian and Pakistani forces engaging on both the eastern and western fronts. Thirteen days after the war started, India achieved a clear upper hand, and the Eastern Command of the Pakistan military signed the instrument of surrender on 16 December 1971 in Dhaka, marking the formation of East Pakistan as the new nation of Bangladesh. Approximately 93,000 Pakistani servicemen were taken prisoner by the Indian Army, which included 79,676 to 81,000 uniformed personnel of the Pakistan Armed Forces, including some Bengali soldiers who had remained loyal to Pakistan. The remaining 10,324 to 12,500 prisoners were civilians, either family members of the military personnel or collaborators (Razakars).
The Bangladesh Liberation War, also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence and known as the Liberation War in Bangladesh, was an armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which resulted in the independence of Bangladesh. The war began when the Pakistani military junta based in West Pakistan—under the orders of Yahya Khan—launched Operation Searchlight against the people of East Pakistan on the night of 25 March 1971, initiating the Bangladesh genocide.
Hinduism is the second largest religion in Bangladesh, as according to the 2022 Census of Bangladesh, approximately 13.1 million people responded that they were Hindus, constituting 7.95% out of the total population of 165.15 million people. In terms of population, Bangladesh is the third-largest Hindu populated country of the world, after the neighboring countries of India and Nepal. Hinduism is the second-largest religion in 61 out of 64 districts of Bangladesh, but there is no Hindu majority district in Bangladesh.
The Razakar was an East Pakistani paramilitary force organised by General Tikka Khan in then East Pakistan.
The Al-Badr was a paramilitary force composed mainly of Bihari Muslims, which operated in East Pakistan against the Bengali nationalist movement during the Bangladesh Liberation War, under the patronage of the Pakistani government.
The Al-Shams was an anti-Bangladesh paramilitary wing of several Islamist parties in East Pakistan composed of local Bengalis and Muhajirs that along with the Pakistan Army and the Al-Badr, is accused of conducting a mass killing campaign against Bengali nationalists, civilians, religious and ethnic minorities during 1971. The group was banned by the government of Bangladesh, but most of its members had fled the country during and after the Bangladesh Liberation War, which led to Bangladesh's independence.
Chuknagar massacre was a massacre of Bengali Hindus committed by the Pakistan Army and local Razakars during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. The massacre took place on 20 May 1971 at Dumuria in Khulna and it was one of the largest massacres during the war. According to local estimates, between 10,000 and 12,000 people were killed, though the exact number of persons killed in the massacre is not known. Academic Sarmila Bose, in her controversial book. dismisses claims that 10,000 were killed as "unhelpful", and argues that the reported number of attackers could have shot no more than several hundred people before running out of ammunition. The majority of people killed in the massacre were men, although an unknown number of women and children were murdered as well.
Bangladesh and Pakistan are both South Asian Muslim-majority countries. Following the end of British rule in India, the two countries formed a single state for 24 years. The Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Pakistan recognized Bangladesh in 1974. Today, bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Pakistan are considered to be cordial.
1971 Dhaka University massacre was the mass murder of students and faculty at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan by the Pakistan Army, at the beginning of what would become the Bangladesh Liberation War. In March 1971, the Pakistan Army Eastern Wing Commander Tikka Khan launched Operation Searchlight on the orders of dictator Yahya Khan to crush the Bengali nationalist movement. As part of the operation, the army launched an assault on the university campus. It is the deadliest university attack in history.
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, previously known as Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, is the largest Islamist political party in Bangladesh.
Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury was a Bangladeshi politician, minister and six-term member of Jatiya Sangsad and member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Standing Committee, who served as the adviser of parliamentary affairs to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in from 2001 to 2006. On 1 October 2013 he was convicted of 9 of 23 charges and sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh for crimes during the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence. However, limitations placed on his defense testimony were called "disturbing" and the trial was politically motivated.
The Golahat massacre was a massacre of 437 emigrating Hindu merchants and businessmen of Marwari ethnicity in Saidpur, East Pakistan on 13 June 1971, by the Urdu-speaking Muslim people of the area who had collaborated with the Pakistan army.
During the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, members of the Pakistani military and Razakar paramilitary force raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women and girls in a systematic campaign of genocidal rape. Hindu women were especially targeted for rape by the Pakistani Army and its allies. Some of these women died in captivity or committed suicide, while others moved from Bangladesh to India. Imams and Muslim religious leaders declared the women "war booty". The activists and leaders of Islamic parties are also accused to be involved in the rapes and abduction of women.
Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War is a controversial book on the Bangladesh Liberation War written by Sarmila Bose. The book has been accused of flawed and biased methodology, historical negationism and downplaying genocide.
The "Bihari" minority in Bangladesh were subject to persecution during and after the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, experiencing widespread discrimination. They largely maintained a pro-Pakistani stance, supported the Pakistan Armed Forces and opposed the independence of Bangladesh and the Bengali language movement of the Bengali Muslims. Biharis faced reprisals from Mukti Bahini and militias resulting in an estimated death toll ranging from 1,000 to 150,000.
The movement demanding trial of war criminals is a protest movement in Bangladesh, from 1972 to present demanding trial of the perpetrators of 1971 Bangladesh genocide during the Bangladesh Liberation War from Pakistan.
Genocide Remembrance Day is a national day of remembrance in Bangladesh observed on 25 March in commemoration of the victims of the Bangladesh genocide during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.
Santahar massacre was an alleged massacre of up to 1,000 men, women and children in the railway town of Santahar, in the present Naogaon District of Bangladesh.
Mujahid Bahini was an East Pakistani paramilitary force during the Bangladesh Liberation War, that fought against the Mukti Bahini and aided the Pakistan Army.
↑ Bass 2013a, p.198:"The Nixon administration had ample evidence not just of the scale of the massacres, but also of their ethnic targeting of the Hindu minority—what Blood had condemned as genocide. This was common knowledge throughout the Nixon administration."
↑ Mookherjee, Nayanika (2012). "Mass rape and the inscription of gendered and racial domination during the Bangladesh War of 1971". In Raphaelle Branche; Fabrice Virgili (eds.). Rape in Wartime. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN978-0-230-36399-1.
↑ MacDermot, Niall (June 1972). "The Review"(PDF). International Commission of Jurists. p.34. Archived(PDF) from the original on 27 March 2022. Retrieved 29 November 2023. As far as the other three groups are concerned, namely members of the Awami League, students and Hindus, only Hindus would seem to fall within the definition of ' a national, ethnical, racial or religious group '. There is overwhelming evidence that Hindus were slaughtered and their houses and villages destroyed simply because they were Hindus. The oft repeated phrase ' Hindus are enemies of the state ' as a justification for the killing does not gainsay the intent to commit genocide; rather does it confirm the intention. The Nazis regarded the Jews as enemies of the state and killed them as such. In our view there is a strong prima facie case that the crime of genocide was committed against the group comprising the Hindu population of East Bengal.
↑ Bass 2013a, p.119:"Despite ongoing reports of unprovoked killing by soldiers, Blood saw the army launching a military campaign to take control of the countryside. Still, he thought, genocide was the right description for what was happening to the Hindus. So the consulate "began to focus our 'genocidal' reporting on the Hindus." The military crackdown, he cabled, "fully meets criteria of term 'genocide.'"49 Over and over, Blood tried to alarm his superiors in Washington. "'Genocide' applies fully to naked, calculated and widespread selection of Hindus for special treatment," he wrote. "From outset various members of American community have witnessed either burning down of Hindu villages, Hindu enclaves in Dacca and shooting of Hindus attempting [to] escape carnage, or have witnessed after-effects which [are] visible throughout Dacca today. Gunning down of Professor Dev of Dacca University philosophy department is one graphic example."50 He explained that the Pakistani military evidently did not "make distinctions between Indians and Pakistan Hindus, treating both as enemies." Such anti-Hindu sentiments were lingering and widespread, Blood wrote. He and his staff tenaciously kept up their reporting of anti-Hindu atrocities, telling how the Pakistan army would move into a village, ask where the Hindus lived, and then kill the Hindu men."
↑ Bass 2013a, p.120:"Desaix Myers remembers, “We were aware the Hindu markets had been attacked. The villages that we visited were Hindu. We were aware that Hindus specically were being attacked.” In a letter at the time, he wrote, “The Army continues to check, lifting lungis [a kind of sarong worn by Bengalis], checking circumcision, demanding recitation of Muslim prayers. Hindus flee or are shot." He recalls that on one trip out of Dacca, "I was convinced I saw people wearing pieces of cloth identifying themselves as Hindus." Butcher says, “You heard stories of men having to pull down their lungis. If they were circumcised, they were let go. If they were not, they were killed. It was singling out the Hindus for especially bad treatment, burning Hindu villages, it was like a pogrom. It was ridding the province of these people.""
↑ Bass 2013a, p.302:"The CIA had a blunt explanation for this "incredible" migration: "many if not most of the Hindus fled for fear of their lives." Lieutenant General Tikka Khan, Yahya’s military governor, evidently thought he could quickly frighten the Bengalis into submission. The Pakistan army, the CIA noted, seemed to have singled out Hindus as targets. Although the CIA refrained from crying genocide, it did insist this was an ethnic campaign, with 80 percent—or possibly even 90 percent— of the refugees being Hindus. So far, out of eight million refugees, over six million were Hindus, and many more might follow—ending perhaps only when East Pakistan had no more Hindus left.... This was confirmed by Sydney Schanberg of the New York Times, who, interviewing refugees in India, found that almost all of them were Hindus, who said that they were still specially hounded by the Pakistan army."
↑ Siddiqi 1998, pp.208–209: "Sometime during the war, a fatwa originating in West Pakistan labeled Bengali freedom fighters 'Hindus' and declared that 'the wealth and women' to be secured by warfare with them could be treated as the booty of war. [Footnote, on p. 225:] S. A. Hossain, "Fatwa in Islam: Bangladesh Perspective," Daily Star (Dhaka), 28 December 1994, 7."
1 2 Islam 2019, p.175: "The Pakistani occupation army and its local collaborators targeted mostly the Hindu women and girls for rape and sexual violence. Many rape victims were killed in captivity while others migrated to India or committed suicide"
↑ Mahtab, Moyukh (23 December 2015). "The burden of remembrance". The Daily Star. Archived from the original on 28 December 2020. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
↑ Debnath, Angela (2012) [First published 2009]. "The Bangladesh Genocide: The Plight of Women". In Totten, Samuel (ed.). Plight and Fate of Women During and Following Genocide. Transaction Publishers. p.55. ISBN978-1-4128-4759-9. Archived from the original on 28 December 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2018. estimates of the death toll vary between 1-3 million victims.
↑ Bass, Gary J. (29 September 2013). "Nixon and Kissinger's Forgotten Shame". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 30 September 2013. Retrieved 18 June 2022. Midway through the bloodshed, both the C.I.A. and the State Department conservatively estimated that about 200,000 people had died (the Bangladeshi government figure is much higher, at three million).
1 2 3 4 Gerlach, Christian (20 July 2018). "East Pakistan/Bangladesh 1971–1972: How Many Victims, Who, and Why?". The Civilianization of War the Changing Civil–Military Divide, 1914–2014: 116–140. doi:10.1017/9781108643542.007. ISBN9781108643542.
↑ Many of the eyewitness accounts of relations that were picked up by "Al Badr" forces describe them as Bengali men. The only survivor of the Rayerbazar killings describes the captors and killers of Bengali professionals as fellow Bengalis. See 37 Dilawar Hossain, account reproduced in 'Ekattorer Ghatok-dalalera ke Kothay' (Muktijuddha Chetona Bikash Kendro, Dhaka, 1989)
↑ "125 Slain in Dacca Area, Believed Elite of Bengal". The New York Times. New York, NY, USA. 19 December 1971. p.1. Archived from the original on 28 March 2014. Retrieved 4 January 2008. At least 125 persons, believed to be physicians, professors, writers and teachers were found murdered today in a field outside Dacca. All the victims' hands were tied behind their backs and they had been bayoneted, garroted or shot. They were among an estimated 300 Bengali intellectuals who had been seized by West Pakistani soldiers and locally recruited
↑ Murshid, Tazeen M. (1997). "State, nation, identity: The quest for legitimacy in Bangladesh". South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies. 20 (2): 1–34. doi:10.1080/00856409708723294. ISSN1479-0270.
↑ Askari, Rashid (14 December 2005). "Our martyerd intellectuals". The Daily Star (Editorial). Archived from the original on 23 July 2017. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
↑ Dr. M.A. Hasan, Juddhaporadh, Gonohatya o bicharer anneshan, War Crimes Fact Finding Committee and Genocide archive & Human Studies Centre, Dhaka, 2001
↑ Siddiqi, Dina M. (1998). "Taslima Nasreen and Others: The Contest over Gender in Bangladesh". In Bodman, Herbert L.; Tohidi, Nayereh Esfahlani (eds.). Women in Muslim Societies: Diversity Within Unity. Lynne Rienner. pp.208–209. ISBN978-1-55587-578-7. Sometime during the war, a fatwa originating in West Pakistan labeled Bengali freedom fighters 'Hindus' and declared that 'the wealth and women' to be secured by warfare with them could be treated as the booty of war. [Footnote, on p. 225:] S. A. Hossain, "Fatwa in Islam: Bangladesh Perspective," Daily Star (Dhaka), 28 December 1994, 7.
↑ Mamoon, Muntassir (June 2000). The Vanquished Generals and the Liberation War of Bangladesh. Translated by Ibrahim, Kushal. Somoy Prokashon. p.30. ISBN978-984-458-210-1.
↑ "New impartial evidence debunks 1971 rape allegations against groups working for Pakistan and also some members of the Pakistani Army". Daily Times. 2 July 2005.
↑ Bose, Sarmila (2011). Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War. London: Hurst and Co. pp.73, 122.
↑ U.S. State Department, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume XI, "South Asia Crisis, 1971", page 165
↑ Kennedy, Senator Edward, "Crisis in South Asia – A report to the Subcommittee investigating the Problem of Refugees and Their Settlement, Submitted to U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee", 1 November 1971, U.S. Govt. Press, page 66. Sen. Kennedy wrote, "Field reports to the U.S. Government, countless eye-witness journalistic accounts, reports of International agencies such as World Bank and additional information available to the subcommittee document the reign of terror which grips East Bengal (East Pakistan). Hardest hit have been members of the Hindu community who have been robbed of their lands and shops, systematically slaughtered, and in some places, painted with yellow patches marked 'H'. All of this has been officially sanctioned, ordered and implemented under martial law from Islamabad."
↑ Mascarenhas, Anthony (13 June 1971). "Genocide". The Times. London. The Government's policy for East Bengal was spelled out to me in the Eastern Command headquarters at Dacca. It has three elements: 1. The Bengalis have proved themselves unreliable and must be ruled by West Pakistanis; 2. The Bengalis will have to be re-educated along proper Islamic lines. The – Islamization of the masses – this is the official jargon – is intended to eliminate secessionist tendencies and provide a strong religious bond with West Pakistan; 3. When the Hindus have been eliminated by death and flight, their property will be used as a golden carrot to win over the under privileged Muslim middle-class. This will provide the base for erecting administrative and political structures in the future.
1 2 Khan, Borhan Uddin; Rahman, Muhammad Mahbubur (2010). Hofmann, Rainer; Ugo, Caruso (eds.). Minority Rights in South Asia. Peter Lang. p.101. ISBN978-3631609163. Archived from the original on 8 August 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
↑ Stanhope, Henry (20 December 1971). "Mukti Bahini Bayonet Prisoners After Prayers". The Times. London. p.4. [Dateline: Dec 19] Four Razakar prisoners, who were bayoneted publicly after a rally yesterday ... The leader of the Mukti Bahini ... took part, casually beating the prisoners with has swagger stick before borrowing a bayonet to lunge at one of the trussed-up men. The leader, Mr Abdul Qader Siddiqui, the Mukti commander-in-chief for Dacca, Tangail, Mymensingh and Pusur, whose 'troops' are known as the Qaderi ... Mr Saddiqui's Mukti guards ... fixed bayonets and charged at the prisoners ... They stabed [sic] them through the neck, the chest, the stomach. One of the guards, dismayed at having no bayonet, shot one of the prisoners in the stomach with his sten gun. The crowd watched with interest and the photographers snapped away.
↑ International Commission of Jurists, the Events in Pakistan: A Legal Study by the Secretariat of the International Commission of Jurists 9 (1972)
↑ "World Population Prostpects 2017". Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat. Archived from the original on 6 May 2011. Retrieved 30 October 2011.
↑ Rabbee, N. (16 December 2005). "Remembering a Martyr". Star Weekend Magazine. Archived from the original on 27 October 2013. Retrieved 25 May 2009.
1 2 International Commission of Jurists, "The Events in Pakistan: A Legal Study By The Secretariat Of The International Commission Of Jurists" 9 (1972), p. 56–57., cited in S. Linton, "Completing the Circle: Accountability for the Crimes of the 1971 Bangladesh War of Liberation," Criminal Law Forum (2010) 21:191–311, p. 243.
↑ Rao, P. V. (1 January 2006). "The US Congress and the 1971 Crisis in East Pakistan". International Studies. 43 (1): 73–91. doi:10.1177/002088170504300104. S2CID154328910. The US government's continued shipping of arms to Pakistan, despite suspension, angered the Congress and India.
↑ Chowdhury, Shahid Kader (January–June 2021). "Age, Gender and Religion of the Victims of the Bangladesh Genocide: A Case Study"(PDF). Jagannath University Journal of Arts. 11 (1). Dhaka: Jagannath University. Archived(PDF) from the original on 10 August 2022. Retrieved 18 June 2022. The intensity of genocide, i.e. persecuting 3 million within just nine months on such a small geographical area, is unprecedented in history. The intensity is comparable to the Holocaust during World War II.
↑ Ahsan, Zayadul; Liton, Shakawat (14 December 2007). "Existing evidence enough to try killers". The Daily Star. Archived from the original on 18 June 2022. Retrieved 18 June 2022. To resume the trial process, the jurists said, the government could enact a new law, or revive the Bangladesh Collaborators (Special Tribunals) Order, 1972, which was revoked on December 31, 1975, burying the process of trial of the killers.
↑ Wierda, Marieke; Anthony Triolo (2012). Luc Reydams; Jan Wouters; Cedric Ryngaert (eds.). International Prosecutors. Oxford University Press. p.169. ISBN978-0199554294.
↑ Kibria, Nazli (2011). Muslims in Motion: Islam and National Identity in the Bangladeshi Diaspora. Rutgers University Press. p.19. ISBN978-0813550565. The landslide victory of the Awami League in the 2008 election included a manifesto pledge to prosecute the war criminals of 1971.
↑ Haq, M. Zahurul (2011). Schmitt, M. N.; Arimatsu, Louise; McCormack, T. (eds.). Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law – 2010 (1sted.). Springer. p.463. ISBN978-9067048101.
↑ Ullah, Ansar Ahmed (3 February 2012). "Vote of trust for war trial". The Daily Star. Archived from the original on 28 December 2020. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
↑ Karim, Bianca; Theunissen, Tirza (2011). Shelton, Dinah (ed.). International Law and Domestic Legal Systems: Incorporation, Transformation, and Persuasion. Oxford University Press. p.114. ISBN978-0199694907.
↑ Ghafour, Abdul (31 October 2012). "International community urged to stop 'summary executions' in Bangladesh". Arab News.
↑ Ahmed, Inam; Liton, Shakhawat (6 December 2015). "The blueprint for massacre". The Daily Star. Archived from the original on 28 December 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
↑ Ahmed, Inam; Liton, Shakhawat (7 December 2015). "Partners in the genocide". The Daily Star. Archived from the original on 28 December 2020. Retrieved 15 January 2016.
↑ Dummett, Mark (16 December 2011). "Bangladesh war: The article that changed history". BBC News. Archived from the original on 28 December 2020. Retrieved 27 December 2011. His article was – from Pakistan's point of view – a huge betrayal and he was accused of being an enemy agent. It still denies its forces were behind such atrocities as those described by Mascarenhas, and blames Indian propaganda.
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Further reading
Abul Barkat, An Inquiry into Causes and Consequences of Deprivation of Hindu Minorities in Bangladesh through the Vested Property Act: Framework for a Realistic Solution Publisher: PRIP Trust (2001) ASIN: B005PWD15O
Abul Barkat, Deprivation of Hindu Minority in Bangladesh: Living with Vested Property (Published English and Bengali languages 2008, 2009)
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