On 16 December 1971 in Dhaka, the Pakistani military signed the instrument of surrender marking the freeing of East Pakistan to become the new nation of Bangladesh. It was of course India that made this history possible when it defeated Pakistan yet again.
Pakistan, in what became known as ‘Operation Chengiz Khan’ attacked Indian air stations with aerial strikes. The provocation by Pakistan fired the shot that started the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.
In thirteen days, the Indian armed forces destroyed the very foundations of the Pakistani military operations. Imagine, the Pakistani army was actually attacking its own citizens in East Pakistan.
The Pakistani army and its supporters used rape as a weapon. It is estimated some 400000 women and young girls were systematically raped. Australian doctor, Geoffrey Davis (International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the United Nations) came to Dhaka and witnessed the aftermath of the horror. Alarmingly, Dr Davis intimated that these numbers might be an underestimate. There are accounts of women being tied to trees and gang raped, breasts hacked off, bodies dumped in mass graves, and thousands being held in Pakistani rape camps.
Indian intervention saved the lives of millions of Bangladeshis. It captured more than 93000 Pakistani prisoners to mark another humiliating defeat for Pakistan. In thirteen days, Pakistan lost the whole of East Pakistan.
We have witnessed this pattern of grotesque barbaric behaviour before. Time and again, Pakistani sponsored terrorists have attacked India in Jammu and Kashmir. In 1991 we all remember the blood curdling cries of attackers, Ralive, Tsaliv ya Galive (convert to Islam, leave or perish). The Islamists used rape as a weapon. It was a genocide of Hindus in Kashmir (though some like Nadav Lapid, a fellow of IFFI jurors appear to be deniers of truth), but also a genocide of women by using rape as a weapon. In the history of India, we have seen the same pattern repeated time and again. Each time, rape used by Islamists as a weapon of mass subjugation.
We have seen this with other groups of women. The Hazara community in Afghanistan and Pakistan faced the same ordeal. Add to that how ISIS fighters enslaved Yazidis. They transformed Yazidi women into a commodity, forced to be wives, turned into prostitutes, and the raped became human incubators.
The title of this piece is, ‘Indian Sacrifices for Bangladeshi Freedom’. It would be wrong not to mention the sacrifices of the Indian army that also suffered losses. The sacrifices of the Bangladeshi people, for the hundreds of thousands that died in that conflict, and the women who paid the ultimate price. Had it not been for India, let us not be in any doubt, the Pakistani armed forces and their ‘friends’ would have massacred millions of Bangladeshis.
We also remember the role of the USA, and other western nations who sided with Pakistan. The USA having travelled halfway around the world to interfere by entering the Bay of Bengal with its naval presence. At the same time, UK dispatched its aircraft carrier HMS Eagle to the Arabian Sea. The aim was to corner India from the West, and the East. It’s therefore also right that we remember how Russia, a constant friend of India, entered the arena as an independent observer with real power. Russia docked its naval might in the Bay of Bengal and stopped western interference in its track.
Western nations will always be shamed since they were happy to stand by and watch the massacre of millions of Bangladeshis by Pakistani forces. The only force willing to save them was India.
Thirty-one years on, I remind our Bangladeshi friends, in your time of need, it was India that came to your rescue and freed the nation. There is a massive responsibility on the Government of Bangladesh, and the people of Bangladesh, that they do not allow the Islamists in their country to attack Hindus and other minorities. A nation born from the inhumanity of Pakistan cannot, and should not, ever allow itself to become like Pakistan.
