The Betrayal of East Pakistan in 1971 War by Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal

Spread the love

There was a huge betrayal of East Pakistan in 1971. It is a shame that the Pakistan Army -built with the money from both of its eastern and western wings worked only to protect West Pakistan. East Pakistan was left as a sitting duck only to be engulfed by a hungry wolf like India in collaboration with the separatist Bengali nationalists. Since the dismemberment of Pakistan was not mandated by any plebiscite, it was an obligation of the federal government to defend its eastern wing. But the government in Islamabad deliberately refused to discharge the duty. There are sound reasons to believe that betrayal. In fact the ground was created with the full perfection for an easy surrender of the Pakistan Army in East Pakistan to the invading Indian Army. The fighters of Gaza strip could encounter the Israeli carpet bombing for more than 50 days in 2008 Israeli war but the Pakistan Army collapsed in 13 days. What cowardice! The dismemberment of Pakistan was indeed planned in Islamabad and India worked only as a midwife. 

Lt. Gen. A.A.K. Niazi – the commander of the eastern wing of the Pakistan Army who surrendered to the Indian Army writes in his book “The Betrayal of East Pakistan’” that the Pakistan Army in March 1971 had only 14 thousands soldiers in a land of 75 million of East Pakistan. Later on it was increased to only 45 thousand to face an Indian Army of about a half million and more than a hundred thousand Bengali insurgents. The Pakistan Air Force had only one squadron of outdated US Sabre jets to face the most advanced version of the Soviet fighter jets. On the first day of the war, the Pakistan Air Force in East Pakistan was fully destroyed.

 

One can look at Indian preparation for the defence of the occupied territory of Kashmir. India has deployed six hundreds thousands of troops in Kashmir – a land of only 8 million. Therefore, what Pakistan did in 1971 is a sheer neglect of the defence of East Pakistan by its central government .The East Pakistani Muslim will never forgive the West Pakistanis for this criminal betrayal. In the creation of Pakistan, the Bengali Muslims were in the frontline. Bengal was the birthplace as well as the bastion of Muslim League. But they were betrayed in a bad way. Allah Subhana Wa Ta’ala will never forgive the West Pakistanis for such a disservice to Muslims and Islam. They already suffered the historic disgrace of being defeated by the Hindutva Hindus and by the shameful captivity of 97 thousand West Pakistanis in Indian prisons as POWs. Probably much more remains for the punishment of the great betrayal.

The Hindus could never get such a victory against Muslims in thousands years of their history if there was no such blatant betrayal by the Pakistan government against its own people. Muslims never met such a disgraceful defeat at the hands of idolaters in their entire history. A retired Indian Lt. General (Retd.) H.S. Panag wrote on December 02, 2021 in the Print –an online Indian newspaper to explain how easily the Indian Army got the victory in 1971. Gen. Panag claims that by all yardsticks, the 1971 Bangladesh war was India’s greatest feat of arms and ranks high among the all-time great military campaigns in the annals of history. He says that it was the continuation of nine years of military reforms in leadership, training and equipment after the catastrophic defeat in 1962 war against China. In 1971, India started war preparation after the political turmoil in East Pakistan in early March. India supported the insurgents since then and started the full war on December 3.     

It appears that India’s intense war preparation remained out of Pakistan Army’s radar. The poor war preparation of the Pakistan Army reveals that. The alcoholic and womanising generals were not in a mood to defend Pakistan. Moreover the central government in Islamabad was not interested in defending East Pakistan from the day one of the creation of Pakistan. Their only worry was to defend West Pakistan. So the military enforcement, the cantonment building initiatives and the modern weapon installation were based only in West Pakistan. In his interview with the Indian American journal the India Abroad on February 4, 2004 Lt. General (Retd.) Niazi said: “I was given a clear order from Gen. Yahya Khan –the President of Pakistan to surrender, because West Pakistan was in danger.” The poor war preparation in East Pakistan with mere 45 thousands soldiers and one squadron fighter jet indeed ratifies Lt. Gen. Niazi’s claim.      

Pakistan thus could add the most shameful and the ugliest chapter in Muslims’ history of more than 14 hundreds year. So the disgraceful defeat in 1971 owes not only to the betrayal of the Indian agent like Shaikh Mujibur Rahman but also to the betrayal of the West Pakistani civil and military leaders. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s wicked advice to Shaikh Mujibur Rahman “odhar tum, idhar ham” in a public meeting tells a lot about his evil intention of dismemberment of Pakistan. Bhutto claimed the ownership of West Pakistan and was ready to give ownership of East Pakistan to Shaikh Mujib.

Moreover all the military icons of Pakistan Army like General Ayyub Khan, General Yahya Khan, General Tikka Khan and many others joined the Army not to serve Muslims and Islam but to serve the enemies like the British colonial power. They continued with the same evil intention even after the departure of their British master from South Asia. After 1947, these proven slaves of the enemies hijacked the statecraft of Pakistan. As a result, Pakistan proved to be a country of betrayal against Islam and its Muslim population. The Pakistan Army showed its skill only to repeatedly occupy its own country and kill its own people. Whereas Pakistan is the only country in the world that was created in the name of Islam and to protect Muslims’ lives and honour. It was the name of not only a country but of an Islamic vision, philosophy, and aspiration of the South Asian Muslims. But Pakistan now survives only as a melting pot of those lofty ideals. 12/12/2021

Post Disclaimer

Disclaimer: The Betrayal of East Pakistan in 1971 War by Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal - Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Latheefarook.com point-of-view

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *