Name is Muslim, but is Hindu at heart… Saying this, Pakistani Army killed 7 thousand Bengalis in one night, Indian Army created Bangladesh in 13 days.

New Delhi: On April 6, 1971, Arthur Blood, the US Consul General in Dhaka, sent a secret telegram to the US State Department. In it he/she had mentioned the atrocities on Bengali Muslims and Hindus in East Pakistan under the Operation Searchlight of the Pakistani Army. his/her statement proved to be correct and after just 8 months, Pakistan broke into two parts, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Lieutenant Colonel (Retd) JS Sodhi shared some untold stories related to the Liberation War of Bangladesh. Know the whole story.

When Russian ambassador warned Pakistan

In August 1971, Alexey Alexievich Rodionov of the then Soviet Union was the ambassador to Pakistan. he/she sent a secret message to the then President of Pakistan Yahya Khan. This message came from the President of the Soviet Union. It was said that if a political solution is not found for the then East Pakistan i.e. today’s Bangladesh and the atrocities by Pakistani forces on the people of East Pakistan are not stopped, it will prove to be suicidal for Pakistan. This proved true after a few months. When East Pakistan became independent from Pakistan as Bangladesh.

What was Operation Searchlight, in which the barbaric massacre was carried out?

In March 1971, the Pakistani Army launched a secret military operation named Operation Searchlight to stop the Bengali nationalist movement in East Pakistan. The operation was planned on March 19, 1971 by Major General Khadim Hussain Raja and Major General Rao Farman Ali in Dhaka. The objective of this campaign was to control all the major cities of East Pakistan and eliminate all Bengali opposition within the next month.

Pak forces killed 7 thousand people in one night

The story of the brutality of Pakistani forces has been written in Anthony Mascarenhas’s book ‘The Rape of Bangladesh’ and Anwar Pasha’s book ‘Rifle, Roti, Aurat’. Quoting from this, Takbir Huda, researcher at Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), has written that on the fateful night of March 25, 1971, the Pakistani Army officially launched a campaign of genocide in the then East Pakistan, in which death squads were deployed. Went. These squads brutally killed 7,000 unarmed and innocent Bengalis in a single night.

When Yahya Khan said- kill 30 lakh people

In fact, in Pakistan’s national elections of December 1970, Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League received the majority of votes and won a landslide victory in the Bengal region. On February 22, 1971, military generals in West Pakistan decided to crush the Awami League and its supporters. The Pakistani leadership had believed from the beginning that a genocidal campaign would be necessary to eliminate the threat of Bengalis demanding basic democratic and human rights. Then in February 1971, President Yahya Khan, pointing towards East Pakistan, told the army to kill 30 lakh people among them. And the rest will be killed by our hands.

Dead bodies of youth were thrown in fields and rivers

According to Anthony Mascarenhas’ book ‘The Rape of Bangladesh’, the main target of Operation Searchlight were the teachers and students of Dhaka University, who were the backbone of the movement. They were killed in hundreds. The Pakistani military looked for people who were likely to join the resistance—such as young boys. The next morning, a large number of bodies of youth were found floating in fields, rivers or near army camps.

Those who survive will be the real Muslims.

Anthony Mascarenhas, a British journalist living in Pakistan, was the first to report the Bengali massacre in the international media. A Major of the Pakistani Army had told him/her – This is a war between the sacred and the profane… The people here may have Muslim names and they call themselves Muslims. But he/she is a Hindu at heart. We are now cutting them apart. Those who remain will be the real Muslims. We will also teach them Urdu.

Pakistani army hastily buried many alive

The Pakistani Army dug mass graves, where people, whether alive or dead, were hastily buried and later bulldozed. Anwar Pasha in his/her documentary novel ‘Rifle, Roti, Aurat’ saw the fingers of some buried people coming out from under the ground like small plants, struggling for life, but could not survive.

When slums were set on fire and roasted alive

The atrocities of Pakistani forces came to an end when they set fire to the houses of slum dwellers in Bangladesh. Then when those half-burnt people came out screaming and running through the streets, the army fired bullets at them for violating the curfew order. Survivors described how half-burnt bodies lay on the roads, footpaths and verandahs of houses as far as the eye could see.

To save his/her son, the father became a shield, but the machine guns pierced him/her.

According to Pasha, there is a story about the dead bodies of a son and a father on the roof of a building. In that, the father tried to protect his/her beloved son by spreading his/her body over his/her body. But, unfortunately, despite the father’s best efforts, the machine gun bullets hit both of them.

Pakistani forces had killed 3 million people

The Hamudur Rahman Commission, set up by the Government of Pakistan to investigate the secession of East Pakistan, reported on the brutality committed by the Pakistani Army, stating that an estimated one million to five million outsiders, West Pakistanis, and patriotic Bengalis were killed. . At the same time, according to the government data of Bangladesh, Pakistani army had killed 30 lakh people. The Pakistani army had committed genocide and sexual atrocities on women.

This is how India entered the Bangladesh Liberation War

Actually, India’s entry in the war between Bangladesh Mukti Bahini and Pakistani Army took place when on December 3, 1971, Pakistan carried out air strikes on 11 Indian air force bases. As a result, the then Indira Gandhi government took a major decision and approved the Indian Army to support Bengali nationalist groups in Bangladesh’s freedom struggle in East Pakistan.

Pakistan surrendered with 93 thousand soldiers

India-Pakistan war started on December 3, 1971 and this war lasted only for 13 days. The morale of Pakistani army was shattered. Lieutenant General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, the commander of Pakistani forces in East Pakistan, accepted defeat by signing the surrender document before Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Arora of the Indian Army on 16 December. This is how Bangladesh was created. Pakistan Army surrendered to India with about 93,000 soldiers. This is considered the biggest victory till date. Since then 16th December is celebrated as Victory Day.

Operation Trident and Pakistani submarine sunk in the sea of ​​Karachi

Operation Trident began on December 4, 1971. In this war, the Indian Army defeated the Pakistani Army and liberated Bangladesh. In this war, the Indian Navy had destroyed the Pakistani submarine Ghazi. India recognized Bangladesh as an independent country on December 6, 1971.