REMEMBERING THE LIBERATION WAR ON ITS GOLDEN JUBILEE

Today, on 16 December 2021, we commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Vijay Divas—the Liberation War. This is also a time to introspect and remember all those who fought for freedom and pay homage to those who laid down their lives and who were wounded in action in this war.

The perfidy of the West Pakistan dominated ruling elite in refusing to hand over power to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after he had won the elections in 1970 was the final straw that led him to declare independence. And to suppress the surge in Bengali nationalism, the Pakistan military began the infamous ‘Operation Searchlight’ at the stroke of midnight on 25 March 1971, resulting in the worst genocide in modern times. Over the next nine months, the Pakistan military killed over three million Bengalis and raped over two million women.

Brutality, unfortunately, has been the lexicon of the Pakistan army, ever since Pakistan came into existence. It started with the rape and killing of innocents in Kashmir in October 1947 and then continued with the murder, abduction and rape of  civilians in Balochistan during the first, second and third Baluch resistance movements in 1948, 1958 and 1962-1969 respectively. The US and the West maintained a quiescent silence, overlooking the barbarity of the Pakistan military, simply because Pakistan was, to them, a frontline state in the Cold War against the Soviet Union. The genocide of the hapless Bengalis was thus a continuation of Pakistan military brutality which was ingrained in their psyche. They knew that they could get away and the world would remain a silent spectator, sacrificing human rights and dignity on the altar of political expediency. It is a sad fact of history that even after the defeat of the Pakistan military in 1971, the perpetrators of genocide were not tried for crimes against humanity. That is why Pakistan continues to remain a troubled state and is embroiled with myriad insurgencies. The Pakistan military has never been held accountable for  its actions.

Over ten million people crossed over to India as refugees and from among their ranks were formed the Multi Bahini, which was raised and trained in India and from which rose a resistance movement. The Multi Bahini constantly harassed the Pakistan military, leaving them no respite and forcing their units to disperse. By mid November, the Indian Army was fighting alongside the Mukti Bahini, after receiving orders to capture weakly held BOPs and secure lodgement areas to establish the Bangladesh government on its soil to gain political credibility and mileage.

The Mukti Bahini's initial operations along the border set the stage for the offensive operations of the Indian Armed Forces, which began on the night of 3-4 December 1971. Moving on four thrust lines against the Pakistani defence network which comprised three infantry divisions plus a large number of Wings of East Pakistan Rifles and West Pakistan Rangers, the operations culminated in 13 days with the surrender of the Pakistan military in Dhaka.

It was however the Eastern thrust from India’s IV Corps commanded by General Sagat Singh that made spectacular progress and broke the back of Pakistani resistance. On 9 December, 4 Guards had been lifted by MI-4 helicopters and dropped across the mighty Meghna River, South-West of Bhairab Bazar. Next day, as 4 Guards had secured the bridgehead across the Meghna, 19 Punjab and a battalion of the East Bengal Rifles, commanded by Lt Col Shafiullah, who later rose to be the Chief of the Bangladesh Army were ferried across the River. By 11 December, two more battalions, 18 Rajput and 10 Bihar had been airlifted by helicopters to Narsingdi. The road to Dhaka now lay open.

On 11 December, 2 Para Battalion Group, taking off from the Dum Dum and Kalaikonda airfields, was para-dropped into Tangail, 70 miles North-West of Dhaka. The battalion captured Poongli Bridge and later that night set an ambush for the retreating Pakistani troops from Jamalpur, causing heavy casualties to the enemy. By 12th evening, a link up had been established by 95 Mountain Brigade of 101 Communication Zone Force (CZF), thus opening another axis to Dhaka. On 14 December, the Indian Air Force mounted an attack on the Governor’s house, after Indian intelligence intercepted a message about a high-level meeting of the civil leadership, taking place there. While the meeting was in progress, four MiG 21 aircraft of 28 Squadron based in Guwahati fired their rockets which ripped through the massive roof of the main hall. The Governor, Mr AH Malik was shell-shocked and tendered his resignation with immediate effect. This proved to be the proverbial last straw that broke the camel’s back. On 15 December, 311 Brigade was close to Gulshan Model Town next to Dhaka Cantonment and 301 Brigade was in the area of Adamji Jute Mills in Narayanganj. 101 CZF was at Mirpur Bridge over the Bhuriganga River and early next morning was at Kurmitola. The Pakistani Army in Dhaka was now hemmed in from all sides and it was simply a matter of time and form, on how they would surrender.

The initial plans of Army Headquarters and of the Eastern Command did not envisage Dhaka as the terminal objective. It was General Sagat’s brilliance and strategic foresight which made him turn the direction of his thrust towards Dhaka as against his orders to advance towards Chittagong. His crossing of the Meghna on 9  December was a master stroke, and could well have led to the end of the war at that stage itself. Gavin Young, a British correspondent reported that General Niazi, soon after getting information of the crossing of the Meghna, informed Army HQ in Rawalpindi that he was no longer in a position to stop the Indian advance and asked them to arrange for a ceasefire. He was prepared to surrender on the 10th itself, but was given false hopes of American and Chinese intervention held out by Yahya Khan, and so he desisted.

Recently, two books on the Liberation War have been published, one by Mr Jairam Ramesh, a politician and the other by Mr Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, a retired diplomat, both questioning the narrative put forth by Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw that the then Prime Minister, Smt Indira Gandhi, delayed the start of the war from April-May to December, based on his advice. It is likely that Indira Gandhi had received advice on the timing of the war from many quarters, and not only from the Army Chief. But it was the Chief’s advice which would have been binding. Politicians do not set the date for military operations without military advice as that is a sure recipe for disaster and Indira Gandhi was much too shrewd a person to fight a war which could be lost. She would have listened to advice from her Chief. A needless controversy really to undermine an iconic Army Chief, but such barbs cannot dent the image of the Field Marshal. 

In the final analysis, the Liberation War was a victory for humanity, won by the combined efforts of the Indian Armed Forces, the Mukti Bahini and the people of Bangladesh. With the surrender of the Pakistan armed forces, an era of unprecedented brutality committed by the Pakistan military came to an end. Today, as we commemorate the Golden Jubilee of the Liberation War, let us also build on this spirit of cooperation to make the region a safer and better place for the people of the two countries and also for the region.

The War, The Surrender and a Rescue Mission

The War

It had taken just under a fortnight to vanquish the Pakistani military which saw the surrender of 93,000 Pakistani soldiers. The Liberation War of 1971 had officially begun soon after the Pakistan Air Force carried out a preemptive raid on Indian air bases on the evening of 3 December, but the Mukti Bahini had been active for the past many months inside East Pakistan, harassing and attacking the Pakistani security forces, forcing them to cover their flanks and rear and allowing them no rest or respite. Eastern Command had initially set up eight training camps for the Mukti Bahini and these were later increased to eleven, of which one camp was purely for officers. The Indian army had been accorded approval to attack Pakistani positions within 10 miles of the border and these attacks had commenced by end October. Fierce battles were fought in Dhalai, Atgram, Garibpur, Shamshernagar and Hilli amongst others. On 21 November, two Pakistani F-86 Sabre jets were shot down by Indian MiG 21 Fighters when they intruded into Indian air space and their pilots were taken prisoner, marking the first aerial combat between India and Pakistan since the 1965 war.

With the official outbreak of war, the Indian Army went on an offensive on four thrust lines. From the West, the newly raised II Corps under General Raina made a thrust towards Jessore. In the North-Western sector, XXXIII Corps under General Thapan moved along the Hilli-Gaibanda axis to cut the area into two. In the North-Eastern sector, 101 Communication Zone moved along the Jamalpur-Tangail axis towards Dhaka and in the South-Eastern Sector, IV Corps under the indomitable General Sagat Singh was tasked to contain Sylhet and then move to capture Chittagong.

The main offensive commencing in the early hours of 4 December went as per plan, with the Indian forces bypassing cities and moving swiftly towards their objectives. It was however left to the genius of General Sagat Singh to bring the Pakistani forces to their knees. Sensing an opportunity, he used the helicopters under his command, to make a brilliant crossing of the Meghna River, which altered the course of the war. The para drop of 2 Parachute Battalion at Tangail on 11 December was the Indian Army’s first airborne assault and it shook the military leadership of the Pakistanis. The battalion thereafter, laid an ambush at Poongli bridge and cut off the Pakistani forces retreating from Jamalpur, inflicting heavy losses on them. 1 Maratha of 95 Brigade linked up with this force the next day. 

On 14 December, the IAF carried out a precision attack on the Governors house, just at the moment when the Governor was holding a high level meeting. The Governor in a panic resigned and thereafter took shelter in the Intercontinental Hotel, which had been declared a peace zone by the UN. That was the end of the government. That evening, Lieutenant General Niazi and Major General Farman Ali, who was a senior military advisor to the government, went to see the American Consul General, Mr Spivack, with a ceasefire proposal which broadly entailed a ceasefire under UN, handover the government to UN, withdrawal under UN, no trials and no mention of India. This of course was rejected by India.

By the evening of December 15, the noose had further tightened around Dhaka. 95 Brigade was at the Mirpur Bridge over the Bhuriganga River and early next morning was at Kurmitola. IV Corps was also knocking at the gates of Dhaka, with 311 Brigade close to area of Gulshan Model Town next to Dhaka Cantonment and 301 Brigade in the area of Adamji Jute Mills in Narayanganj. The Pakistani Army in Dhaka was now hemmed in.

The Surrender

From the early part of the morning of 16 December, the atmosphere all across the war zone in East Pakistan was electric, in anticipation of the surrender of the Pakistan Armed Forces. A ceasefire had come into effect by midday and at 2 pm, the Army Commander, Lt Gen JS Aurora along with Air Marshal HC Dewan of Eastern Air Command and Vice Admiral Krishnan of the Eastern Fleet landed at the Agartala airfield. They were received by GOC IV Corps, Lt Gen Sagat Singh and thereafter, the group accompanied by a bevy of reporters moved in ten helicopters—five Alouettes and five MI 4—to Dhaka airfield.

Earlier in the day, Maj Gen JFR Jacob, the Chief of Staff, Eastern Command, had met Lt Gen Niazi at his headquarter and given him the terms of surrender. The meeting had been arranged by Maj Gen Nagra, the commander of Eastern Command’s 101 Communication Zone Force. He had contacted Gen Niazi a day earlier and also met him in the morning of the 16th. His two brigades, 95 and 167 Mountain Brigades, had moved up to the Dhaka cantonment and this force had been further strengthened by a squadron of PT 76 tanks. The tanks had been moved forward by General Sagat Singh as an additional precaution, to ensure enough physical evidence of the military strength of the Indian forces in Dhaka.

The helicopters with the Indian commanders and a bevy of reporters landed at Dhaka airfield and were received by their Pakistani counterparts—Lt Gen AAK Niazi, Rear Admiral Mohammad Shariff and Air Commodore Inamul Haq. The victors and the vanquished then drove to the Ramna Racecourse, five km from the Tezgaon Airfield. for the surrender ceremony. Bangladeshi flags fluttered atop all the rooftops and the streets swarmed with millions of people waving flags and cheering to the cries of ‘Joi Bangla’. 

A table and two chairs had been procured from Gen Niazi’s office. General Aurora was given a Guard of Honour by a hurriedly arranged mix of available Pakistani troops, with Gen Niazi’s ADC, commanding the motley contingent. The two commanders sat down and the surrender document was placed before Niazi. He read the same and then signed all the five copies. General Aurora then signed the documents. He asked Niazi for his pistol and the same was handed over. Then General Niazi’s badges of rank were removed which marked the end of the surrender proceedings. The crowd in the Ramna ground was delirious with joy. Dhaka was now the free capital of a free country.

The Rescue

While the Pakistani forces had surrendered, the family of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was still under the custody of the Pakistani forces. At nine in the morning of 17 December, Maj Ashok Tara of 14 Guards was summoned by his Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel VN Channa. He was told that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s family is under house arrest and his wife and children were being guarded by a contingent of Pakistani troops. “Your job”, the CO told Maj Tara, “is to get them back safely”.

Moving quickly to the area with his troops, Maj Tara found the house guarded by trigger happy sentries who were blissfully unaware of the surrender that had taken place a day earlier. A direct assault could have caused bloodshed inside the house, so Maj Tara walked up to the gate alone and unarmed. The sentry had his finger on the trigger but he held his fire. Over the next half an hour or so, Maj Tara convinced the captors to surrender their arms and a great deal of bloodshed was avoided. Most importantly, Mrs Mujibur Rahman and her daughters Hasina and Rehana, along with some other relatives were safely rescued. That was indeed most fortunate as Sheikh Hasina is now the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. 

Post Script

The valour of the Indian Armed Forces has never been in doubt, but an account by Sydney Schanberg, the Pulitzer winning American journalist as published by the New York Times post the Liberation War is a great tribute to the Army. This is what he wrote:

“I don’t like sitting around praising armies. I don’t like armies because armies mean wars. But this (Indian) army was something. They were great all the way. There never was a black mark…I lived with the officers and I walked, rode with the jawans-and they were all great. Sure, some of them were scared at first-they wouldn’t be human if they weren’t. But I never saw a man flinch because he was scared. There was tremendous spirit in the Indian Army and it did one good to experience it. I have seen our boys in Vietnam-and this army was different. Their arms and equipment aren’t as good-but what they had was used with effect and boy! could they improvise. I saw heavy recoilless guns carried on shoulders, big guns pushed across marshes like ox-carts, by jawans, villagers, officers, everybody was in it together and they were perfect gentlemen. I never saw them do a thing wrong not even when they saw just how bestial the enemy had been.”

Published in Chintan: 16 December 2020

REMEMBERING THE LIBERATION WAR

On the evening of 3 December 1971, at about 1730 hours, the Pakistani Air Force carried out a series of preemptive strikes on the forward airbases and radar installations of the Indian Air Force in an operation codenamed “Chengiz Khan”. The air strikes were followed by a massive ground offensive against Indian positions in the Chhamb sector. India’s Prime Minister, Shrimati Indira Gandhi was in Kolkatta at that time, addressing a rally at the Calcutta Brigade Grounds. The message of the attack, as received by Eastern Command, was relayed to the Governor of West Bengal, who directed his ADC, Capt DO David to convey the same to the Prime Minister. As the sun was setting, a young aide walked up to the podium and handed her a slip of paper, while she was delivering her address. She quickly wound up the rally, and soon thereafter, flew back to Delhi. She was received by the Defence Minister when the plane landed at 10.45 pm, and drove straight to Army Headquarters, where the Army Chief, Gen Sam Manekshaw briefed her. She then met her cabinet colleagues and a decision was taken to declare hostilities with Pakistan and to recognise Bangladesh. The Indian Air Force responded that very night against targets in Pakistan. The War for the Liberation of Bangladesh had begun.

Background

The strain in relations between the two wings of Pakistan had their roots in policies which consistently favoured the West Wing at the expense of the East. Matters came to a head following the elections held in Pakistan in December 1970. The Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which went to the elections campaigning for regional autonomy for the Eastern Wing, won all but two seats in East Pakistan, which gave the Awami League a decisive majority in Pakistan’s National Assembly. But General Yahya Khan refused to hand over power to Mujib, as a result of which the Awami League launched a massive civil disobedience movement in East Pakistan.  

To crush political dissent, General Yahya Khan, Pakistan’s military dictator, launched Operation Searchlight on 25 March 1971, the code name for the military crackdown on the Eastern Wing. In a conference held a month earlier, President Yahya Khan reportedly said, “Kill three million of them and the rest will eat out of your hands” and that is what the Pakistan army set out to do. Homes were looted and burned, women were raped and innocents in their thousands were slaughtered mercilessly. Anyone suspected of dissidence was hounded down and killed, and the list included students, university lecturers, writers, journalists, professionals and intellectuals. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman too was arrested and flown to prison in West Pakistan. But the slaughter and the inhumanity of the Pakistan army was resisted and the pushback gave birth to the Mukti Bahini.

On 31 March, six days after Yahya unleashed his reign of terror, Indira Gandhi stood up in the Lok Sabha and delivered an impassioned resolution:

This House expresses its profound sympathy for and solidarity with the people of East Bengal in their struggle for a democratic way of life. Bearing in mind the permanent interests which India has in peace, committed as we are to uphold and defend human rights, this House demands immediate cessation of the use of force and the massacre of defenceless people. This House calls upon all peoples and Governments of the world to take urgent and constructive steps to prevail upon the government of Pakistan to put an end immediately to the systematic decimation of the people which amounts to genocide. This House records its profound conviction that the historic upsurge of the 75 million people of East Bengal will triumph. The House wishes to assure them that their struggle and sacrifices will receive the whole-hearted sympathy and support of the people of India.

The next nine months would however witness a genocide which the world’s democracies would largely ignore. A concert held in Madison Avenue in the United States, organised by Pandit Ravi Shankar, the world renowned Sitarist and the Beatle, George Harrison—The Concert for Bangladesh—a pair of benefit concerts organised on Sunday 1 August 1971, at 2.30 and 8.30 pm, which figured some of the biggest names of the times—George Harrison, fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Leon Russell and the band Badfinger, did much to raise the consciousness of the world on the genocide taking place in East Pakistan. But by then a lot of damage had already taken place.

Millions of people fled the country and moved into India where they were put in refugee camps. By the time the Indian Armed Forces moved into Pakistan in support of the Liberation Movement, over three million people had been slaughtered by the Pakistan military. On 4 December, Indira Gandhi told a packed Lok Sabha:

“For over nine months, the military regime of West Pakistan has barbarously trampled upon the freedom and basic human rights in Bangladesh. The army of occupation has committed heinous crimes unmatched for their vindictive ferocity. Many millions have been uprooted, ten million have been pushed into our country. We repeatedly drew the attention of the world to this annihilation of a whole people, to this menace to our security. Everywhere, the people showed sympathy and understanding for the economic and other burdens and danger to India. But governments seemed morally and politically paralysed…West Pakistan has escalated and enlarged the aggression against Bangladesh into full war against India…We should be prepared for a long struggle”.

The Indian Armed Forces and the Mukti Bahini brought the war to a swift end in under two weeks, culminating in the surrender of the Pakistan Army on 16 December 1971 and heralding the birth of a new nation. But what must never be forgotten is the genocide that took place during the nine brutal months of repression. A passage from the work of journalist and researcher Afsan Choudhary is especially poignant. 

“I came out and saw the army. They wanted to go inside. I put my hands up like this and said there was no one inside. They flung me away into the yard and dragged my husband and son outside. They shot them both right there, there. They killed every male in the village, every male. When the army was gone, there was not a single man left to bury the dead. We had to drag the bodies ourselves and bury them.” 

The bestiality of the Pakistan Army crossed all bounds when they used rape as an instrument of coercion. As per Susan Brownmiller: 

“Between two to four million women were raped over a period of nine months. Eighty percent of the raped women were Muslims, reflecting the population of Bangladesh, but Hindu and Christian women were not exempt. … Hit-and-run rape of large numbers of Bengali women was brutally simple in terms of logistics as the Pakistani regulars swept through and occupied the tiny, populous land. Girls of eight and grandmothers of seventy-five had been sexually assaulted … Pakistani soldiers had not only violated Bengali women on the spot; they abducted tens of hundreds and held them by force in their military barracks for nightly use. Some women may have been raped as many as eighty times in a night”.

The nine months preceding the war, from the time of the infamous crackdown to the launching of operations by the Indian Armed Forces on 4 December 2020, witnessed hectic political activity, with the Indian Prime Minister meeting world leaders across the globe to sensitise them to the carnage taking place in East Pakistan. Her 21 day tour of Europe and America, beginning on 24 October, achieved little more than sympathy from the leaders of Europe. In Britain, Indira Gandhi addressed an audience at the India League and told them that she felt as though she were ‘sitting on top of a volcano, and I honestly do not know when it will erupt’. The US however remained intransigent. The meeting with Nixon took place on 4 and 5 November in the White House Oval Office, but achieved little and the chill in the office was freezing. For Indira Gandhi, war as an option was never ruled out, but it was the option of last resort. That option was exercised on 4 December 1971. And the rest is history. (To be concluded)

Published in Chintan: 3 December 2020