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Mujib's confusion on Bangladeshi deaths

BanglaBhoot

RETIRED TTA
Apr 8, 2007
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Ian Jack (21 May) mentions the controversy about death figures in Bangladesh's liberation war. On 8 January 1972 I was the first Bangladeshi to meet independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after his release from Pakistan. He was brought from Heathrow to Claridge's by the Indian high commissioner Apa Bhai Panth, and I arrived there almost immediately.

Mujib was puzzled to be addressed as "your excellency" by Mr Panth. He was surprised, almost shocked, when I explained to him that Bangladesh had been liberated and he was elected president in his absence. Apparently he arrived in London under the impression that East Pakistanis had been granted the full regional autonomy for which he had been campaigning. During the day I and others gave him the full picture of the war. I explained that no accurate figure of the casualties was available but our estimate, based on information from various sources, was that up to "three lakh" (300,000) died in the conflict.

To my surprise and horror he told David Frost later that "three millions of my people" were killed by the Pakistanis. Whether he mistranslated "lakh" as "million" or his confused state of mind was responsible I don't know, but many Bangladeshis still believe a figure of three million is unrealistic and incredible.

Serajur Rahman

Retired deputy head, BBC Bengali Service

Letter: Mujib's confusion on Bangladeshi deaths | World news | The Guardian
 
It is true, the 3 million figure is outrageously exaggerated. I don't know why people nowadays keep believing it as true.
 
I knew it, 3 million seemed impossible but 300'000 is certainly believable.
Hmm this news seems pretty confusing.. it is very reluctant this news, I have no idea.
 
I knew it, 3 million seemed impossible but 300'000 is certainly believable.
Hmm this news seems pretty confusing.. it is very reluctant this news, I have no idea.


Bangladeshi media still say that 3 million died. Even a reputed daily such as The Daily Star. And there is no debate about the figure.

I guess some people just want to keep it that way.
 
Ian Jack (21 May) mentions the controversy about death figures in Bangladesh's liberation war. On 8 January 1972 I was the first Bangladeshi to meet independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after his release from Pakistan. He was brought from Heathrow to Claridge's by the Indian high commissioner Apa Bhai Panth, and I arrived there almost immediately.

Mujib was puzzled to be addressed as "your excellency" by Mr Panth. He was surprised, almost shocked, when I explained to him that Bangladesh had been liberated and he was elected president in his absence. Apparently he arrived in London under the impression that East Pakistanis had been granted the full regional autonomy for which he had been campaigning. During the day I and others gave him the full picture of the war. I explained that no accurate figure of the casualties was available but our estimate, based on information from various sources, was that up to "three lakh" (300,000) died in the conflict.

To my surprise and horror he told David Frost later that "three millions of my people" were killed by the Pakistanis. Whether he mistranslated "lakh" as "million" or his confused state of mind was responsible I don't know, but many Bangladeshis still believe a figure of three million is unrealistic and incredible.

Serajur Rahman

Retired deputy head, BBC Bengali Service

Letter: Mujib's confusion on Bangladeshi deaths | World news | The Guardian

3 lac or 3 million was just a speculation just within a month of liberation. Mujib quoted from Western media which estimated as many as 3 million. He did not head count.

But after the war there were a statistics and were done by no governmental western NGOs which estimated 1.5 to 1.8 million. They used field data to come up with the figure.

SOD.TAB8.2.GIF



http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB8.2.GIF

STATISTICS OF PAKISTAN'S DEMOCIDE
 
I think Bangladesh should move on now, its been 40 years! People who were responsible for the killings(whatever number) are long gone.
 
I knew it, 3 million seemed impossible but 300'000 is certainly believable.
Hmm this news seems pretty confusing.. it is very reluctant this news, I have no idea.

Brother, Only in Putuakhali they head counted 29000 with specific names. Now you can guess.
 
Does it make any difference?
Does it make anyone happy or sad?

But, history must be based on truth. A lie that makes us look coward or weak in front of others should be replaced with the truth. Sk. Mujib certainly confused the figure. Even 3 lakh is also too large a figure when compared to the real number of deaths which was even far less than 100,000.

Our feedom struggle without a falsified number of deaths will remain as great as it was today. But, why the GoB has not surveyed the death figures immediately after the war or do not do it even now? We do not find a single person with wounds. Then, how come there were 3 million killings?
 
Even 3 lakh is also too large a figure when compared to the real number of deaths which was even far less than 100,000.

10 years down the line :

it was actually a false allegation by sell out Indian Agent Mujib .in relity it was just a brotherly fight b/w two bros. in which a few amy be injured so :cheers:
 
Behind the Myth of 3 Million

8.1. Why The Myth-Making?So far I have examined the myth of ‘three million killed and three hundred thousand raped’, including the history of its fabrication and recycling. I have also given the reader a glimpse of the factual truth about the total number of people who could have lost their lives. The scale of exaggeration is stupendous. However, in order to put it in its proper perspective, it is necessary to look at the mind and the motive of the myth-makers.

8.2. The Mind and Motive of the Myth-MakersPointing to the Indian habit of exaggeration, Robert Fick, the 19th century German orientalist, had once remarked that in making up numbers the Indians have always been very liberal with 'zero'.[1] In setting up the fiction, the Indian policy planners seem to have remembered that at least some people in the world could be aware of their habitual liberality in matters of number and they have therefore made sufficient allowances for such people. Western world's ingrained prejudice against Muslim Pakistan was another reason which might have emboldened the Indian policy makers in thinking that their exaggeration would escape the scrutiny of such prejudiced Western minds. Looking back one will have to concede that in 1971 they hugely succeeded in making the world, especially the Western world, believe in their concoction about genocide in East Pakistan.

It was not the first time that the Indians have successfully duped the world with charges of wanton killing against the Muslims. For such instance, one has only to open a history book on Muslim Bengal. The Muslim conquerors of Bengal have been blamed for the destruction of the Buddhist university of Nalanda and with it the Buddhist faith in North-East India. They have been suavely condemned as blood thirsty barbarians whose sole mission was to destroy the culture and religion of the land. The indignation behind such condemnation could not be any stronger. Let me give an example from the renowned Bengali scholar and a National Professor of India, Suniti Kumar Chatterjee

“The conquest of Bengal by these ruthless foreigners was like a terrible hurricane which swept over the country, when a peace-loving people were subjected to all imaginable terrors and torments - wholesale massacres, pillages, abduction and enslavement of men and women, destruction of temples, palaces, images and libraries, and forcible conversion. The Muslim Turks, like the Spanish Catholic conquistadores in Mexico and Peru and elsewhere in America sought to destroy the culture and religion of the land as the handiwork of Satan.” [2]

Yet, the Buddhist, whom the Muslims had supposedly driven out of the area after destroying their monasteries and educational institutions, had welcomed the Muslims as avatar-like liberator: from the oppressive Brahmanical rule, as was testified by the Sunnyo Puran. [3] Their scholars have also given eye witness account that Nalanda was fully functioning decades after it: supposed destruction [4] and the Muslim attack on the nearby Uddandapur monastery was brought about by the Bengal's Hindu king's agent provocateurs' feigned plea for help. [5]

But, in spite of these indubitable evidence, the allegations were still treated as true. To give an example, a follower of Dr Ambedkar who has just written a scholarly book exposing all manner of Brahman chicanery in distorting ancient Indian history for the subjugation of the native population. Yet, the same author has allowed himself to be duped by the Brahmanical historians of Muslim Bengal in restating their contrived charges against the Muslims of committing atrocities towards the Buddhists without any hints of skepticism, far less disbelief. For, it has been artfully handed down to him through their so-called historical works. [6]

With such tangible proof of the efficacy of their well orchestrated accusations of the past, it is but natural for the Indian policy planners to have confidence in raising the cry of genocide against the Muslim Army of Pakistan. It is in the tradition of their 'Itihas-Puran' and is part of Kautilya's prescription, which, by the admission of Indian scholars, 'his South Asian descendants have adopted [7] in modern time with success. Irony is that a few people have the required understanding of the Indian mind to identify and counter the Indian subversion.

Moving from the Indian mind to Indian motive in creating the myth, one is bound to ask this question: Why was there such a mala fide propaganda? What did they expect to achieve out of this chicanery?

8.3. A Western Journalist’s Explanation
William Drummond, the British journalist, did also raise similar question: ‘Why then has Mujib propagated this genocide claim?’ The answer he found was:
"The first and most obvious reason is to galvanise Bengali opinion against the Pakistanis. A second reason is to lay the blame for Bangladesh's economic ills at Pakistan's door. If you are unemployed or if your wages have been cut, it is because the barbarous Pakistan Army has looted, raped and killed. A third and perhaps the most important reason, is that Mujib is using this claim as a bargaining tool with the Indian's to get captured Pakistanis turned over to Bangladesh." [8]

8.4. Why Galvanise Public Opinion Against Pakistan?
Why was it still necessary to continue to galvanise public opinion in Bangladesh against Pakistan, particularly when East Pakistan stood separated from West Pakistan? Was it simply to lay the blame for Bangladesh's economic ills at Pakistan's door or to use it as a bargaining tool to get the Pakistani prisoners of war for trial in Bangladesh? In this respect although William Drummond did put his finger on the pulse, he has not been able to read the rhythm properly.

The history bears testimony that Mujib and his Awami League had always indulged in the cheap politics of blaming their opponents - right or wrong. It is equally true that they have never shown any moral qualm when it came to blaming Pakistan. Before 1971 they blamed West Pakistan for the every conceivable ills taking place in East Pakistan [9] and, to a large extent, they succeeded in making a section of East Pakistanis believe in their lies. After the creation of Bangladesh, they tried the same tactic. In an effort to explain away the piteous state they themselves have brought their countrymen into, Mujib and his cohorts resorted to all kinds of spacious arguments for making Pakistan their scapegoat. But this became worn out in no time. Faced with damning criticism [10] and open ridicule, they soon gave it up. Likewise, the puerile move to bring back a number of Pakistani prisoners of war for trial in Dhaka for the alleged war crime had to be quickly abandoned by them.

Were these the primary motives behind their propagation of the myth, then with them its paddling should have also stopped. It did not stop. This clearly shows that despite their short term instrumental value these were not the primary reasons for propounding and recycling the fiction. Moreover, if they were the real reasons, Mujib and his Awami League would have had a part in its invention. Yet, as we have seen, the history of the creation of the myth and its tell-tale provides a different picture. The ‘foundries’ from which the myth was produced in stages; and the quarters which carried its dissemination did not belong to Mujib or his Awami League. In this whole saga Mujib and his Government were more of a ‘his master's voice’. Of course, they did not stop propagating the fiction even after discovering that it was a brazen lie. But that is a different matter. As I shall show later, Mujib was not in a position to stop but to act as a puppet on the string.

All Mujib really wanted was power and position for himself. As united Pakistan was an obstacle for him in gaining power, he resorted to acts which would undermine Pakistan, even if it meant inviting India's aggression for the destruction of Pakistan. Once he had his Bangladesh with himself as its 'ile Duce', he had no more reasons for abusing Pakistan. On the other hand, not only for the benefit of the people of Bangladesh, but also for his own benefits Mujib should have brought Bangladesh into the fold of Islamic world and re-cultivate mutual interests with Pakistan. His journey to Lahore for taking up Bangladesh's seat in the Islamic Conference was an indication of his recognition of this indubitable fact.

If either Mujib or his Awami League had no particular fear from Pakistan, why did he and the Awami Leaguers continued paddling the myth? To put it differently, in whose interest was this propagation of the myth being carried out?

8.5. Indian Stalking HandsTo unravel this mystery we may begin with the traffickers of the myth such as Abul Hasanat and Jyoti Sen Gupta. By his own admission Abul Hasanat was an atheist. His hate for ‘Islamic’ Pakistan and its Muslim inhabitants on the one hand, and his love for 'secular' India and its 'marvelous' Hindus on the other, were undisguised in his book. Because he had inner disquiet about Mujib, he had taken upon himself the task of advising Mujib to keep away from Pakistan. However self-motivated, Abul Hasanat was not speaking for himself only. In order to find out what he was really upto, one has only to know about his publisher, Babu Chittaranjan Shaha of Muktadhara. By his own confession, Shaha has been financed by the Indian Government. What is more, Shaha is on record admitting that it has been a policy of Muktadhara to 'alter and amend' all their publications in order to 'tune' them in line with the Indian policy objectives. [11]

Jyoti Sen Gupta was a self-confessed organiser of the 'Freedom movement in Bangladesh' on behalf of India since 1954. It was he who, in conjunction with the Deputy High Commissioner of India in Dhaka, had brokerred the 'secret pact' between Mujib and the leaders of the then East Pakistan Congress for 'secularising Pakistan' as a preparatory step towards its eventual destruction. After escaping arrest in Dhaka, with the help of some of his helpers’ within the Civil Service of Pakistan such as A.K.M.Ahsan (Deputy Secretary Home), Shamsur Rahman Khan (Joint Secretary) and Sanaul Haque (Deputy Commissioner, Sylhet), Gupta remained actively involved in advancing the secessionist cause, including finding arms for them in 1968 while the Agartala Conspiracy trial was going on and liaising with the Soviet Superpower on their behalf. Gupta was intensely active in undoing the foundation on which Pakistan was created and preserved. It was within this framework of repudiating the very logic of having any separate Muslim homeland in the subcontinent that he portrayed the members of Pakistan Armed Forces as incorrigible brutes. In several places of his book, a hypocritical Gupta even made claims that Mujib had announced that the Pakistan Army had killed three and a half million Bengalis. [12] Why was he so keen to raise the stake by giving currency to a more extravagant casualty figure even by falsely quoting Mujib? Given Jyoti Sen Gupta's background in Indian intelligence, should we not see him as an Indian stalking hand?

Likewise, it is not difficult to discern the same Indian unseen hands behind Ehtesham Haider Choudhury's invention. He was a communist 'sleeper' working in the Purbadesh, owned by Hamidul Haque Choudhury, a former Foreign Minister of Pakistan and an outspoken upholder of united Pakistan. The pro-Moscow Communists [13], like the East Pakistan Congress [14], never had loyalty to Pakistan and they were working for its dismemberment since its creation. Both the groups were supported by the Indian intelligence. With the conversion of East Pakistan into Bangladesh, and his employer Hamidul Haque Choudhury sheltering in West Pakistan, Ehtesham Haider had no difficulty in coming out of his closet and please his 'handlers'. It was possible that the old 'station chief' Jyoti Sen Gupta, who arrived in Dhaka along with some of his old secessionist associates within the civil service three days before the appearance of Ehtesham Haider's concoction [15], and had close links with the Russians [16], had played a part in setting up the whole thing. The timing of the appearance of the editorial was also significant, for it was the day on which the Bangladesh Government in exile came from Calcutta to take charge of the new state.

8.6. Indian Ploy in Getting the Genocide Charge Stick
While although India floated the fiction of three million killed from behind the scene, India's senior most generals had put forward the 'moderate' figure of one million killed. This she did almost silently without ceremonial. As I have shown earlier, the Indian figure is absurd as much it is impossible. The figure has no factual basis. Why did Indian conspirators then advance the lower figure in this stealthy manner? The ploy is not that difficult to comprehend. In questioning the preposterous claim of three million killed, sceptics will quote, and by implication accept, this 'moderate' Indian figure. An example of how this tactic worked could be found in Oriana Fallaci's implicit acceptance of it in the same stride as her rejection of the three million figure vaunted by Mujib. [17] Yet, the end result remained the same. The Pakistan Army remained accused of genocide! And this was what counted most.

8.7. India Wanted Bloodshed
Many people, unaware of Indian stratagem, failed to see India in its true colour in 1971. They thought that the conflict between Mujib and Yahya was wholly of Pakistan origin and it came to a head because of the unwillingness of the country's military regime to hand over power to the elected majority represented by the Awami League. A reluctant India, moved by humanitarian motive, came out in support of the 'democratic forces' and helped 'liberate' Bangladesh. Little they realised that Mujib was under the 'patronage' of India for a long time, and through him India was engaged in dismembering Pakistan. With the Indians now openly priding in their success and describing Bangladesh as 'the only case of a patronised insurgency in South Asia whose objectives were successfully achieved' [18] some of those uninformed impressions have changed. However, still some people have been left with the perception that the Yahya regime's refusal to accommodate the wishes of the people of East Pakistan and their resorting to Army action against the Awami League were responsible for the bloodshed. Hardly they realise that the actual facts surrounding Yahya's military action were wholly the opposite. From behind the scene it was India who instigated Mujib to create the political disagreement and then pushed him to transform it into a bloody armed conflict. The failure to recognise this hard fact is responsible for all manner of confusions, including the inability to detect the Indian design behind the clamour about genocide.

8.8. Indian Stalking Hands in Six-Points to SecessionMujib had been in receipt of Indian patronage since mid-50s, if not earlier. When he begun campaigning for his Six Points, it was prima facie aimed at removing economic disparity between East and West Pakistan and for achieving provincial autonomy for East Pakistan. It could be argued that whatever was the ground for his demand, if the interest of the people of East Pakistan was his real concern, then he would have dropped them immediately once in 1969 the ‘principle of one man one vote’ was established and West Pakistan itself was broken into four provinces. For, these gave East Pakistan a firm control over the whole of Pakistan, opening up opportunities not only for redressing all her 'grievances', but also for steering the future course of Pakistan's development in consonant with East Pakistan's interest.

It was later claimed by Mujib and his associates that he did not avail the opportunity to lead Pakistan because his ambition was Bangladesh, without which the 'Bengali nation' could not have a sense of self-fulfilment! It was all bunkum. But, even if that was his aim, he had the opportunity to achieve Bangladesh, and that too, without bloodshed.

This side of the history is unfortunately not widely known. Let me give it in the words of some one who had reason to know about it. This was Abdur Razzak who said:

"Yahya gave such an offer that a compromise was reached. The offer was, Bangabandhu would become Prime Minister and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. Yahya also agreed to all of Bangabandhu's Six Points demands except the one stipulating two separate currencies for East and West Pakistan. On the Awami League High Command's advice Bangabandhu accepted the compromise. We were greatly disheartened by this. Hanif got the news first and passed this to (Mrs) Sheikh Mujib. This proposal was given to Bangabandhu and his High Command on 22 March 1971 and they accepted it. It was to be finalised on the 23rd, and both the sides were due to issue a joint declaration. Begum Mujib sent the news to me through Hanif. Then I took Brother Sheikh Moni, Tufail and Sirajul Alam Khan with me and together we went to the residence of Bangabandhu. I am talking about the evening of the 22nd March. Like a mad person Bhabi (Mrs Mujib) said, ‘It is a catastrophe, you dissuade your leader’. She was a great woman. We stayed put in her drawing room. At nine in the evening Bangabandhu came. Seeing five of us he straight went to his up-stair bedroom without saying a word ... Before we left, he advised us to stay away from our home during the night. I spent the night at the residence of Anwar Hussain Manju. Next morning again I went. On reaching his residence, I came to learn that for the whole night Bangabandhu did not sleep. Bhabi said, you have set the fire on and for the whole night he did not come to bed.

He spent the night spacing on the veranda. After a little while Bangabandhu called me up-stair. I sat close by. He said, ‘You must not tell anyone, not even to your friends, what I am going to tell you.’ I nodded. He said, ‘You are right. I have thought about it for the whole of last night. No risk, no gain. Would you be able to carry the first stage? Be careful, don't tell anyone. I have decided what am I going to say to Yahya Khan.’ I told him, ‘We shall be able to carry through the first stage. It will be better if you can also arrange Indian help.’ Afterwards we had breakfast. Together we came down. Bangabandhu called Mr Nazrul Islam, Brother Tajuddin and Mr Mushtaque and took them to the library room. They all came out dark faced. I took Bangabandhu to the President House. Their he recanted from yesterday's agreement and demanded for the handing over of power to the East Pakistan Assembly. The world does not know the contribution of Begum Mujib in this. But we know.’ [19]

Abdur Razzak, the narrator of the above piece, and his friends were all actively linked with the RAW, the Indian foreign intelligence agency. [20] It was not the first time that Mrs Mujib had intervened with her husband decisively at a critical point [21], and it would not be surprising if the RAW had also spoken through her. What seems to have influenced Mujib in recanting the agreement that was reached on 22 March 1971 was the Indian wish passed through these RAW' link -persons' rather than their own power of persuasion.

Faced with Mujib's volte face and demand for independence, Yahya Khan still remained conciliatory and offered to hold referendum to ascertain the wishes of the people of East Pakistan. Instead of taking advantage of Yahya's offer, Mujib insisted on immediate independence. This hardly left any scope for a peaceful resolution of the political crisis. Moreover, preparations for a rebellion by certain pro-Awami League officers in uniform [22] led to the hasty and ill prepared Army crack-down. Some of the leading lights among these officers had been working for the RAW since 1962 [23] and it was clear that their preparation for the rebellion was instigated by India.

At that time, the public did not know the machinations. But at least a few foreign governments, other than India and Pakistan, had the knowledge of the dark side of the conflict. Thus, in his statement to the House of Commons, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, the then British Foreign Secretary, disclosed:

"The President of Pakistan, as we understand it, was faced with a situation in which his country might have been divided in half. We must allow the Pakistan authorities to deal with this matter without our intervention …The ironic
aspect of this situation was that for the first time [sic] it was possible for an East Pakistani to be Prime Minister of a united Pakistan, and this opportunity has slipped. [24]

Very few people in the world took notice of Sir Alec's statement, thanks to the Indian hype about the 'macabre tragedy being enacted so close to our border' [25] But now we can say without any shadow of doubt that the 'macabre tragedy' was, in the first place, of Indian making, and it was deceptively hidden from the world with the help of the feigned allegation against the Pakistan Army.

8.9. Why India Created the Macabre Tragedy?
India needed to write the separation of East and West Pakistan in the boldest 'letters of blood'. There were a number of reasons for that - both immediate and long term. A peaceful political settlement within the framework of a united Pakistan would have deprived India of her chance of dismembering Pakistan through bitterness. To create bitterness and hatred among the Muslims of East and West Pakistan was the cherished desire of Hindu India, as this was the only method through which the separation of East and West Pakistan could be made durable and perhaps permanent. Moreover, agreed settlement could have made two Pakistans in the subcontinent: independent East Pakistan and independent West Pakistan. Peaceful division would not have envisaged alteration of East Pakistan's name to Bangladesh. This was not acceptable to India. India's attack was on the Islamic name of Pakistan and its Islamic identity. Her own strategical analysts had no misgiving on this.

Although, a peaceful transition of East Pakistan to independent Bangladesh would have weakened Pakistan, it would have deprived India of the chance of creating a flaccid pro-Indian state on the soil of East Pakistan, which was urgently needed for the defence of North-East India. [26] Nor would it have left enough bitterness in the minds of the people of the new state to foreclose the possibility of their wanting to realigning themselves again, in some form or other, with Pakistan. India knew fully that the alleged 'Pakistani economic exploitation' was a hoax and once separated the people of Bangladesh would discover it in shortest possible time.[27] To remove these possibilities and to take the initiative directly in her own hand, she needed the ‘macabre tragedy’. It was the only means through which she could create a state out of her own clone and still hoodwink an unsuspecting East Pakistan and the world at large.

8.10. Mujib’s Last Minute Second Thought
Mujib wanted to be an ‘ile Duce’ by hook or by crook. This unqualified thirst for supreme power drove him to seek Indian patronage in the first place. But, like any client, his own goal and that of his patron's were not wholly the same. Mujib was not that unintelligent as to be unable to read the meaning behind the Indian push for a bloody separation between East and West Pakistan. But, having travelled to the brink at the behest of the Indians and their fellow travellers in East Pakistan, he had few option left either to defy them or to step-back. Still he had a second thought and hence his last minute decision to stay out of India's absolute control by 'courting arrest' and then the gentlemen's agreement with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto to keep Bangladesh within a confederated Pakistan. [28] That Mujib was genuine in his assessment that a loose federation between East and West Pakistan within the framework of a united Pakistan was still his and his peoples best route for escaping 'total destruction' at the hands of India, was confirmed by his discussion of the subject with Anthony Mascarenhas at the Claridges Hotel in London. [29]

8.11. Mujib’s Predicament and Indian Unease with Him
Mujib's second thought was too belated to be of any practical use. Of course, this could not be taken kindly either by India or by his own pro-Indian associates, even though out of necessity they all had to pursue the secessionist cause in his name and later crown, him as the ‘Father of the Nation’. It has been reported that on meeting Tajuddin Ahmed, an irate Mrs Gandhi retorted: ‘Where in the world has a general surrendered to the enemy leaving his soldiers standing in the battle field?’ Some of his pro-Indian associates would also continue wondering loudly: ‘What understanding he has had with Bhutto before he finally left Pakistan?’

Mujib's telephone call from the Claridges to Mrs Gandhi and the Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abdus Samad in New Delhi said to have finally 'persuaded' Mujib in publicly saying 'there could be no question of Bangladesh remaining a part of Pakistan.' [30] Despite his public utterance, it was doubtful whether Mujib gave up the hope of eventually realigning Bangladesh with Pakistan as a means of escape from India's stifling embrace. However, one does not have to be a clairvoyant to anticipate that the horrendous tales of genocide was a useful antidote to Mujib's belated second thought. After all his old friend Anthony Mascarenhas also warned him off on the same line. [31]

Mujib had an unease in him due to his absence during the ‘liberation struggle’. [32] His willingness to join the drive to ‘make Pakistan look more brutish’ was partly due to this unease. Besides, ‘shrewd and calculating and yet easily disarmed by flattery into a sense of power and ability that never really existed’, Mujib was given to playing different lobbies ‘using one against the other, as it suited him at moments of fast changing political developments’, in which he was not averse to falsification ‘to create new legends and myths’. [33] He was not morally discerning. Nor was he situationally placed to accept the factual truth, which his MCAs and the Inquiry Committee have found. It would have amounted to challenging the myth of one million which the Indians were circulating.

8.12. The Ultimate Function of the MythThus, the accusation of genocide against the Pakistan Army remained officially unquestioned in Bangladesh, giving Indian proxies within the country the sanction they needed to propagate it to the new generations through text books and other means. Col. Akbar Hussain's snipe at the myth and the scholarly revision of it by the Senior Researcher of the Bangladesh International Institute of Strategical Studies were the limits up to which a Bangladesh Government could dare to go in repudiating the make believe genocide claim.

Since the myth has been left alive and kept in circulation by India and her proxies in Bangladesh, one is bound to conclude that as far as India is concerned the fiction has not out lived its utility. One should therefore ask oneself, what further use the genocide story has for India?

It is a useful device for fomenting the ‘injured psychology’ which a section of Muslims of Bangladesh came to have in 1971 because of the wild propaganda about the alleged genocide. Over and above, it is also a good means for spreading the same injured psychology among the new generations. It is pursued with a view to inculcate in all of them a deep seated emotional revulsion against what is left of Pakistan. India is hoping that through this process she will be able to create a permanent emotional and psychological breach between Bangladesh and Pakistan, and at the same time produce a kind of splintered Muslim self-view among the majority population of Bangladesh. With such splintered self-view, they will have neither the urge, nor the confidence for breaking out of the Indian embrace. Besides, those who will not succumb to any of this, and will dare to raise their voice, can be silenced in the name of the ‘three million killed and three hundred thousand raped’. While all this will go on, India and her Bangladeshi proxies will have a conducive ground and the necessary time for precipitating Bangladesh's ‘collapse and eventual merger with India to realise part of the Brahmanic dream about Akhanda Bharat’ [34] for which they were and still are working conjointly.

In this connection, one should not forget that some of the strategical considerations which made India more determined to seek the destruction of East Pakistan has remained unfulfilled even after the creation of Bangladesh. [35] On top of those, some new compulsions have also arisen [36] Besides, there is no basis to think that with the creation of Bangladesh the central foreign policy objective of India, i.e. a reunified India, which her founding fathers had set before her [37], has changed. The very title of Jyoti Sen Gupta's book - History of Freedom Movement in Bangladesh, 1943 - 1973 - says volume about this continued Indian aspiration.

If the Muslims of Bangladesh really want to save themselves from utter destruction that is awaiting them, the threat about which even Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had his inner concern [38], then my fellow countrymen must look for the ways and means of ‘defeating’ the Indian thrust. A vigorous rejection of the myth of ‘three million killed and three hundred thousand raped’ would be a step in that direction.
 
3 lac or 3 million was just a speculation just within a month of liberation. Mujib quoted from Western media which estimated as many as 3 million. He did not head count.

But after the war there were a statistics and were done by no governmental western NGOs which estimated 1.5 to 1.8 million. They used field data to come up with the figure.

SOD.TAB8.2.GIF



http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.TAB8.2.GIF

STATISTICS OF PAKISTAN'S DEMOCIDE

People living 12,000km away from our country and also from the reality of our war cannot write history that has not been attested by genuine and proved data. These guys followed only the Indian and BD govt-in-exile propaganda machines to compile their own story. The table above have also used interpolation in order to reach a conlusion, which is just absurd.

Rather, we should find out ourselves the truth. First thing is to ask how many people of someone's own family or of a nearby family have died in that war of 1971. Note that to kill 3 million PA had to kill more than 3% of the then population. It was not possible by the German gestapo. We claim ridiculous thing and other people ridicule us.

The 3 million figure was more propaganda to make people around the world that we deserve a separate country. Any way, it worked in 1971, we have our country.

Mr. Md Akmal has posted an integrated report on the matter of finding out the death number in 1972 by the GoB, which is more near to the truth. We should not keep on saying false propaganda that only work as a bumerang to hit us back and demean us.
 

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