The war between East and West Pakistan in 1971 lasted only nine months. But the atrocities were cowering – an estimated three million people dead, 400,000 women raped, 600,000 children killed, and scores of targeted intellectuals slaughtered in an attempt to cripple East Pakistan’s social and cultural backbone.
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Besides politics, atrocities against the people of East Pakistan by the West Pakistani army stemmed from ethnic hatred. In his book, Death by Government, R. J. Rummel wrote, “Bengalis were often compared with monkeys and chickens.” It was a statement West Pakistani General Niazi once made about how he viewed the people of East Pakistan. The dead are long gone. But many of the rape victims still bear scars from shame and loss of their dignity. The government of Pakistan has not yet apologized for its crime against humanity, much less has it shown any remorse for the rape victims. Former Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf came close to apologizing for the atrocities of 1971.
During his visit to the National War Memorial in Savar, a city 50 km from Dhaka, in 2002, he merely expressed his regrets for the “excesses committed” by the West Pakistan army. That was about as close as the Pakistani government came to offering penitence for the horrific acts of 1971.
Soon after the war, West Pakistan published a report on the 1971 war. While the report acknowledged that the West Pakistan army took part in “senseless” and “deliberate” killings of the civilians, businessmen, intellectuals, and Hindus and “raping” of a “large number” of East Pakistani women as an act of “revenge,” it deliberately justified their acts. It also blamed Awami League, the political party that advocated for an independent East Pakistan, for the “provocation” of the West Pakistan army to commit these “alleged” acts.
The report cites: “Some of the incidents alleged by those authorities did not take place at all, and on others, fanciful interpretations have been deliberately placed for the purpose of maligning the Pakistan army and gaining world sympathy. We have also found that the strong provocation was offered to the army owing to the misdeeds of the Awami League. It has also been stated that the use of force was undoubtedly inherent in the military action required to restore the authority of the Federal Government.”
The rancor between Bangladesh and Pakistan over the bitterly fought war and the subsequent division of the two countries cannot be denied. Moreover, the citizens of both countries struggle to find solace from their own struggles for democracy. Pakistan is embroiled in a chaotic political mess with the U.S. over Afghanistan and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Bangladesh, on the other hand, continues to manumit from its weak governance and corruption.