Genocide by Pakistan Army and Government - Bangladesh

[drona]

According to Hamoodur Rahman Commission - instituted by Pakistan government there were "only" 26,000 civilian casualties. However, Independent sources claimed that anywhere between 200,000 & 3,000,000 civilians died. Furthermore about 10-15,000,000 refugees from E.Pakistan fled to India.

The only reason, the world chose to ignore the massacre and *not* call it genocide was because Nixon and Kissinger were great pals of Yahya Khan, and hated Indra Gandhi's guts.

Indira Gandhi:
YouTube - indira

Yahya Khan:
YouTube - President Yahya Khan On East Pakistan

Bhutto:
YouTube - Zulfiqar ali bhutto's speech

Regards,
Drona

[roadrunner]

Why are all sources that say 3,000,000 died independent, yet if a source says 30,000, or 100,000, or some figure that is too low for liking, it is a biased source?

Indian and Bangladeshi souces are likely to be just as biased as Pakistani ones.

[BLS_1919v2.0]

Roadrunner how am I being biased? You picked one occasion and someone already mentioned (I believe it was toranama wror) about a counter genocide that occurred against the biharis there. Actually you are the only one being biased. You are essentially saying a genocide didn't occur.

[drona]

Road runner,

The author of that article Ms. Sarmila Bose has been thoroughly discredited.
Read it here

[drona]

Why are all sources that say 3,000,000 died independent, yet if a source says 30,000, or 100,000, or some figure that is too low for liking, it is a biased source?

Indian and Bangladeshi souces are likely to be just as biased as Pakistani ones.

The extent of the killing was so large, that nobody today knows how many were actually killed. There are only estimates available. Even 27 years after the genocide, Mass graves were still being discovered in fields.

Source here

[roadrunner]

Roadrunner how am I being biased? You picked one occasion and someone already mentioned (I believe it was toranama wror) about a counter genocide that occurred against the biharis there. Actually you are the only one being biased. You are essentially saying a genocide didn't occur.

It is one example of how things were twisted. I can give more reports. These are mainly from Sarmilla Bose's research on the war.

Anyone who claims it was a genocide I think is being biased, because it clearly was not one. Even Archer Blood, the man many pro-genocide campaigners like to quote in the genocide argument, wrote in his memoirs many years after the war, that he was wrong when he said a genocide was taking place in Bangladesh. This is a quote from those memoirs

"… as Bengali resistance increased in the countryside, and a situation of civil war was approached, we realised that the term “genocide” was not appropriate to characterise all killings of Muslim Bengalis. Atrocities were being committed on both sides…It seemed to us that Army violence was increasingly being used for military purposes, i e, to secure control of the countryside. "

I do strongly dispute it was genocide. It was a messy war.

[roadrunner]

Road runner,

The author of that article Ms. Sarmila Bose has been thoroughly discredited.
Read it here

Rubbish.

Why has she been discredited? Because she says something you don't agree with? Or that you don't like?

I even heard she was biased because she loves Muslim men.

She is a recognized academic, and she has presented all her research at high level conferences.

[drona]

Roadrunner,

Are you actually reading the sources that I have given you ?

1. The link that I have given you regarding the *independent* estimates, clearly mentions that the estimates were made by neither Indian, nor Bengladeshi sources. So your claim that these estimates are "biased" is clearly flawed.

2. I request you to read the critique of Ms. Sarmila Bose's article. It is written by a respected female academician who doesn't make any bogus sexist claim that you are alleging. Read it properly.

I also advice you to read more about Historical Negationism. The Bengali genocide was tacitly supported by the US government as Mr. Yahya Khan was Mr. Nixon's "boy" whilst Mrs. Gandhi was perceived to be in the Soviet camp. So it is in US interest to gloss over the facts of Bengali genocide as it is a glaring flaw in their narrative about being the "protectors" of democracy and freedom. Ms. Bose, a US citizen who has received grants from US State Department, does an admirable job of protecting her country's "honor".

Here, read another critique of Ms. Bose. In this article also, there is no mention for her "love" for Muslim men.

http://www.epw.org.in/uploads/articles/11334.pdf

Regards,
Drona

[roadrunner]

Roadrunner,

Are you actually reading the sources that I have given you ?

1. The link that I have given you regarding the *independent* estimates, clearly mentions that the estimates were made by neither Indian, nor Bengladeshi sources. So your claim that these estimates are "biased" is clearly flawed.

2. I request you to read the critique of Ms. Sarmila Bose's article. It is written by a respected female academician who doesn't make any bogus sexist claim that you are alleging. Read it properly.

I also advice you to read more about Historical Negationism. The Bengali genocide was tacitly supported by the US government as Mr. Yahya Khan was Mr. Nixon's "boy" whilst Mrs. Gandhi was perceived to be in the Soviet camp. So it is in US interest to gloss over the facts of Bengali genocide as it is a glaring flaw in their narrative about being the "protectors" of democracy and freedom. Ms. Bose, a US citizen who has received grants from US State Department, does an admirable job of protecting her country's "honor".

Here, read another critique of Ms. Bose. In this article also, there is no mention for her "love" for Muslim men.
http://www.epw.org.in/uploads/articles/11334.pdf

Regards,
Drona

I've been through this many times with many Indians, and it's all the same.

This is your link: http://www.tribuneindia.com/1999/99aug08/world.htm#7

In your link it says skulls have been found by the War Museum director of Bangladesh that are thought to be Bangladeshis slain by the Pakistani Army.

These questions come up. Do answer them.

1) How is an Indian source, or a Bangladeshi source neutral over the war of liberation? You realize India supported Mujib Rahman and the splintering of the then Pakistani State (which you may support or not, it is irrelevant), and proceeded to invade it? This is not a neutral source.

2) How do you or the people that found these skulls know that they were not those of Biharis killed by the Muktihi Bahini? Because the Bangladeshi War Museum director says so? We've seen the Bangladeshi War Museum continue to peddle lies that 3 million Bengalis were killed in that war, which is a mathematical impossibility.

3) What has Sarmilla Bose to gain from her work? She already was a professor in the US, and did not need any funding or grants as an established researcher.

[drona]

Roadrunner,

I've been through this many times with many Indians, and it's all the sa

I am constantly amazed by how even seemingly intelligent Pakistanis unabashedly defend an institution that has not only destroyed their own country but has also created trouble for their neighbors: India and Afghanistan.

How is an Indian source, or a Bangladeshi source neutral over the war of liberation? This is not a neutral source.

Since you can't be bothered to go through the links that I have posted, I will paste here the content of neutral sources that I was talking about:

WHPSI: 307,013 deaths by pol.viol. in Pakistan, 1971.
D.Smith says 500,000
S&S: 500,000 (Civil War, Mar.-Dec. 1971)
1984 World Almanac: up to 1,000,000 civilians were killed.
Hartman: 1,000,000 Bengalis
B&J: 1,000,000 Bengalis
Kuper cites a study by Chaudhuri which counted 1,247,000 dead, and mentions the possibility that it may be as many as 3,000,000.
MEDIAN: 1,000,000-1,250,000
Porter: 1M-2M
Rummel: 1,500,000.
Eckhardt: 1,000,000 civ. + 500,000 mil. = 1,500,000 (Bangladesh)
Harff & Gurr: 1,250,000 to 3,000,000
The official estimate in Bangladesh is 3 million dead. [AP 30 Dec. 2000; Agence France Presse 3 Oct. 2000;
Rounaq Johan: 3,000,000 (in Century of Genocide: Eyewitness Accounts and Critical Views, Samuel Totten, ed., (1997))
Compton's Encyclopedia, "Genocide": 3,000,000
Encyclopedia Americana (2003), "Bangladesh": 3,000,000

Source: Twentieth Century Atlas - Death Tolls
Are these sources Indian ? Bangladeshi ?

You realize India supported Mujib Rahman and the splintering of the then Pakistani State (which you may support or not, it is irrelevant), and proceeded to invade it?

India didn't invade Pakistan. Pakistan started the war by launching a pre-emptive strike on Indian air-bases. India, of course, retaliated.

How do you or the people that found these skulls know that they were not those of Biharis killed by the Muktihi Bahini? Because the Bangladeshi War Museum director says so? We've seen the Bangladeshi War Museum continue to peddle lies that 3 million Bengalis were killed in that war, which is a mathematical impossibility.

Why is that a mathematical impossibility? The genocide was committed not only by the regular Pak Army (90,000 "soldiers") but also involved the voluntary participation of paramilitary razakars like Al-Badr and Al-Shams whose members numbered about 3000-4000.

Operation Searchlight whose objective was to suppress all opposition to Pak rule lasted for 3 months. If only 3000 razakars and 30000 "soldiers" were involved in "teaching Bengalis a lesson", and each of them killed only 1 Bengali per day that means:
33,000*30*3=2,970,000 Bengalis !

And it's not like they stopped committing atrocities after the Operation ended !

I am sure Mukti Bahini also killed some Bihari collaborators, but they would only begin to play a significant role during the Operation Searchlight, when about 10-15,000,000 Bengali refugees fled to India.

) What has Sarmilla Bose to gain from her work? She already was a professor in the US, and did not need any funding or grants as an established researcher.

LoL. Do you know that the personnel of CIA, NSA, State Department as well as members of policy framing think-tanks are recruited from amongst these "established" and "reputed" researchers ? Ms. Bose is simply being more loyal than the king in projecting her country's interests and probably has an eye on a seat in one of these institutions.

Anyways do you have any other credible researcher who can support her hypothesis ? I can give you names of dozens of sources and news reports that more or less support Bangladesh govt's claim, but I don't think I will be able to shake your blind faith in glorious and pious Pakistan Army.

~Drona

[Shayesta]

Roadrunner is a Pakistani? :/

PS: The Bengalis dont seem that much bothered by us,

Of course they are not! You only killed just a few million of them and only raped a few hundred thousand of them, why should they be bothered? An absolute corrupt person on their side comes and has a tea with you guys and it's hurray hurray. Like, duh!

[roadrunner]

Roadrunner,
I am constantly amazed by how even seemingly intelligent Pakistanis unabashedly defend an institution that has not only destroyed their own country but has also created trouble for their neighbors: India and Afghanistan.

I think Indo-Pak problems come from the problem with Kashmir.

Some of it is manufactured.

But I do think India is responsible for the problems in Kashmir, since it has staged a land grab instead of allowing them a plebiscite that they were promised during partition.

I put it to you that if India had not staged this land grab, then the region would not have any tension.

Since you can't be bothered to go through the links that I have posted, I will paste here the content of neutral sources that I was talking about:

Source: Twentieth Century Atlas - Death Tolls
Are these sources Indian ? Bangladeshi ?

Quite a few of those sources are Indian or Bangladeshi. I'll explain why later.

However, I have a question for you.

Have you heard of the mathematical concept of margin of error?

I will use the exact same figures you have quoted.

The average of your figures are: 1,714,285.71429 (1 million 700 thousand Bangladeshi dead during the war)

The margin for error is: 1,027,773.65277 (1 million Bangladeshis).

So according to your figures Bangladeshi war dead during the war are 1 million 700 thousand +/- 1 million.

This means that your figures mean that if 1 poor Bangladeshi died during the war, it would be entirely consistent with those figures. At the same time your figures mean that 5 million might have died during the war.

So what does this tell us about your figures? It suggests they are completely wild and inaccurate figures that are meaningless.

If your figures were accurate you would be able to create reasonable bounds.

Some of your sources are very much based on Indian and Bangladeshi reports.

For example, Rummel: 1,500,000 suggests that 1,500,000 is the figure. I believe it's a lower bound if i recall.

If you look at his methodology, he claims to have calculated it in the same manner as I did, and then he puts his sources... which... are.... oh dear, Indian and Bangladeshi newspaper reports.

So in other words Rummels hasn't a clue. If he had used Pakistani newspaper reports he would have got an entirely different answer.

What does his figure tell us then? Nothing much except that Indian and Bangladeshi newspaper reports tended to give much higher estimates of the war casualties than Pakistani ones.

Do you believe that propaganda might have had something to do with this?

Why is that a mathematical impossibility? The genocide was committed not only by the regular Pak Army (90,000 "soldiers") but also involved the voluntary participation of paramilitary razakars like Al-Badr and Al-Shams whose members numbered about 3000-4000.

To kill 3 million Bangladeshis, would require the Pakistan Army and associates to be killing 11,764 Bangladeshis each day of the war for around 5 or 6 months.

Human nature will tell you that even the most evil of armies in the world can only kill so many civilians before all their humanity is lost and they turn their guns on themselves. This did not happen, and neither would the United States have been able to keep a lid on nearly 12,000 Bangladeshis being killed each day.

Notice that most of your "neutral" links say that 3 million Bangladeshis were killed.

So let's see what the Bangladeshis now say.

It's written here on the "Story of Bangladesh" webpage.

"Many myths have been formed around the creation of Bangladesh. Among them is the fiction that the defeated Pakistan Army savagely killed three million people and raped three hundred thousand women during their less than nine months unsuccessful fight to preserve the integrity of a united Pakistan."
http://storyofbangladesh.com/ebooks/...3-million.html

The Bangladeshis themselves are refuting your links now.

The conclusion is that those numbers were highly inaccurate and probably politically motivated or based on newspaper reports from India and Bangladesh.

Sarmilla Bose however, is not a Muslim, she is a Bengali, and she is a professor, not a journalist looking to make a name. She has carried out extensive research and spoken about this at high level conferences.

Operation Searchlight whose objective was to suppress all opposition to Pak rule lasted for 3 months. If only 3000 razakars and 30000 "soldiers" were involved in "teaching Bengalis a lesson", and each of them killed only 1 Bengali per day that means:
33,000*30*3=2,970,000 Bengalis !

So you believe the Pakistani Army killed 33,000 Bangladeshis per day without question?

Isn't this an unbelievably ridiculous scenario?

Can you name me any other war in the history of human kind where an army has committed the same?

And it's not like they stopped committing atrocities after the Operation ended !

It was 2 months to be precise

I am sure Mukti Bahini also killed some Bihari collaborators, but they would only begin to play a significant role during the Operation Searchlight, when about 10-15,000,000 Bengali refugees fled to India.

The refugee figure was inflated in order to give the Indians a reason to join in the war on Bangladeshi territory.

LoL. Do you know that the personnel of CIA, NSA, State Department as well as members of policy framing think-tanks are recruited from amongst these "established" and "reputed" researchers ? Ms. Bose is simply being more loyal than the king in projecting her country's interests and probably has an eye on a seat in one of these institutions.

Aren't you being a bit cynical here?

Perhaps she's just a decent person that wanted some honest research done?

So tell me what prestigious position has she been promoted to?

Anyways do you have any other credible researcher who can support her hypothesis ? I can give you names of dozens of sources and news reports that more or less support Bangladesh govt's claim, but I don't think I will be able to shake your blind faith in glorious and pious Pakistan Army.

~Drona

Your sources aren't valid. Even your figures are being disputed by the Bangladeshis. They make no sense.

[roadrunner]

Roadrunner is a Pakistani? :/

I pledge allegiance to the 4 winds of the North.

[drona]

Roadrunner,
I am saddened by the fact that you continue to defend the indefensible.

But I do think India is responsible for the problems in Kashmir, since it has staged a land grab instead of allowing them a plebiscite that they were promised during partition.
I put it to you that if India had not staged this land grab, then the region would not have any tension.

Let's not muddy the water by dragging in the "Kashmir issue". It was Pakistan Army that started the 1947-48 land grab, thus forcing the J&K monarch to accede to India. Pakistan government has *never* supported the idea of J&K independence. If you really think Kashmir issue is relevant in PF than kindly open a new thread and we can discuss it in detail.

Have you heard of the mathematical concept of margin of error?
<snip>
The margin for error is: 1,027,773.65277 (1 million Bangladeshis).

LoL. Yes I know the statistical phenomenon of margin of error. But it always varies between 5-10%. You are claiming a moe of more of 60%. In your own words, this is complete rubbish.

So what does this tell us about your figures? It suggests they are completely wild and inaccurate figures that are meaningless.

Why? Because the estimates were made on the basis of oppressed Bengalis officials ? Do you expect Swedes and Martians to be present during the genocide to give "neutral" claims.

Some of your sources are very much based on Indian and Bangladeshi reports.

At the end of this post I will give some neutral news reports.

Human nature will tell you that even the most evil of armies in the world can only kill so many civilians before all their humanity is lost and they turn their guns on themselves. This did not happen, and neither would the United States have been able to keep a lid on nearly 12,000 Bangladeshis being killed each day.

You are clearly ignorant (or pretending to be) about human history, and to the atrocities it is capable of committing. Read more about the genocide committed by Nazis, Polpot regime, Stalin regime, Darfur crisis, Bosnian genocide, Mao's PRC , etc.

So you believe the Pakistani Army killed 33,000 Bangladeshis per day without question?
Isn't this an unbelievably ridiculous scenario?

At the end of this post I will also give you some posts clearly outlining the mentality of the Pakistani Army and their defenders like you who continue to defend that inhuman institution.

The refugee figure was inflated in order to give the Indians a reason to join in the war on Bangladeshi territory.

Er.. how deep does the indoctrination go? Are a fan of Generalismo Yahya Khan ?

So tell me what prestigious position has she been promoted to?

You inadvertently answer you own questions. Let me quote you here:

d she is a professor, She has carried out extensive (motivated) research and spoken about this at high level conferences.(in five star hotels)

Anyways don't be surprised if she starts appearing a "prestigious South Asian expert" in "neutral" channels like CNN.

The Bangladeshis themselves are refuting your links now.

So I am supposed to believe a Bengali living comfortably in London 30 years after the genocide rather than those Bengalis who were themselves the victims of genocide ?

One request. Kindly stop parroting the official line of Pakistan that it was a "war". War only lasted for 13 days. Before that it was a genocide that lasted for 9 months . Pure and simple !

[drona]

This article written by an expat Bangladeshi clearly explains the mindsets of those who committed the genocide as well as those who continue to defend it. Frankly Pakistan army is the worst thing that ever happened to Islam.

Mindset of Pakistanis favouring 1971 Genocide

By Abul Kasem

This re-count starts when I was in Thailand in 1973 to do my post graduate studies in Engineering. The Institution was AIT and being an international institution for post graduate study there were students from many parts of the world, though the majority were from the Asian countries. There was sizable number of Bangladeshi as well as Pakistani and Indian students. Bangladesh was just liberated and most of us still had the fresh memories of the holocaust and never expected the Pakistanis to be friendly with us. But to our surprise, we found that most Pakistanis were quite nice a bunch of friendly helpful people. They were extremely curious about what had happened in Bangladesh during that turbulent nine-month period. (Just like roadrunner here)

Many a time we used to have lengthy chat sessions with them. These Pakistanis were extremely religious. And they used to preach on us on all aspects of the last revelations of God, that is Islam. They used to think that our knowledge of Islam was incomplete, erroneous and filled with Hindu practices. They used to preach on us like a priest gives sermons on the followers. Their devotion to Islam was so strong that they forced the canteen manager to open counter for Muslim students so that they (the Muslims) can eat the food sanctioned by Islam. Naturally, many Bangalees who are religious minded were greatly impressed by their words and practices. But a sinner like me was very skeptical about their words and actions right from the very beginning.

Then came the topic of creation of Bangladesh. Naturally, they sided with the Pak army although they expressed sorrow for the lives lost. When they heard that 3 million people were massacred and that the action of Pak army cannot be dismissed simply as an act of restoration of peace and order they simply laughed. The reason was that they did not believe what had happened to our people in occupied Bangladesh. When we asked them how many Bangalees were killed, they quoted a figure of 3,000 or to that order. They also insisted that those killed were mostly Hindus so we should not bother too much about the massacre. That was to say that the killing of Hindus was all right. We pointed out that the figure of 3 million was not invented by the Government of Bangladesh but the figure was from reliable foreign sources such as AFP, Reuters, Time magazine, etc. We also told them that a Pakistani journalist by the name of Anthony Mascarenhas has written a book titled ‘The Rape of Bangladesh’ where he had quoted a similar figure. The Pakistanis simply dismissed those facts and said that the foreign journalists were bribed by India to write these figures. When we asked them how did they get the figure of 3,000, they said that that figure was released by the military authorities. And how about the 200, 000 rape cases? They were adamant that not a single woman was raped. Such is the power of Pak oligarchy and Pak military to condition peoples’ mind. ( Oh wow, did this guy meet roadrunner here!)

Now, the interesting point was that whenever the atrocities of the Pak army were mentioned to them, they were all adamant that we (the Bangalees) are to blame for that. Why? Simply because we were not good Muslims. How? If we were good Muslims, we should not have voted for the Awami League. They told us that the right parties to vote were Pakistan Muslim League or Jamat-i-Islami. It was no secret to guess that most Pakistanis considered us (Bangalees) as non Muslims as almost all of us voted for Awami League. Therefore they opined that the genocide was not really a genocide! It was getting rid of the non-Muslims. After all, they (the non-Muslims) were not really human beings.

Everyone knows that Thailand and especially Bangkok has plenty of seedy joints to have fun and frolic with young women. I shall admit that I went to one of those joints along with a couple of friends of mine. Being a sinner I did not have serious problem with those things. However, one day we got the shock of our lives when we found these Pakistani Islamists sitting comfortably and blithely at the massage parlour and ogling at the scantily dressed amorous Thai sex kittens. Then they saw us. To our surprise, they expressed no shame or they even did not try to hide their faces. They openly welcomed us and shook hands with us as per Islamic style. We were simply stunned and lost for any word. The Pakistanis even told us which girls were good and sexually attractive, etc. etc. They were not ashamed or afraid to admit that they visited those joints quite frequently. Most of them had their favourite girls with whom they had plenty of erotic fun. Those things were unbelievable to me and I thought that I must have been in Mars or another planet or that God has changed his mind on sins and virtues.

After a few weeks, an opportunity came for me to ask one of these Islamists as to what would happen to them since they have committed the sin of zina. They were very surprised at me for this impertinence. He told me that they have committed no sin. What? No sin! My brain must have failed to work! I simply could not hold my breath any longer to listen to what they had to say. He told me that Thais were not Muslims; so having fun with their girls were all right. In fact, he told me that that had been the practice in Islam for centuries. Whenever the Muslims defeated the non-Muslims, they could do whatever they (the Muslims) wanted with the non-Muslims. The Muslims can use the non-Muslim women as sex slaves and please themselves as they wished. A Muslim even had the right to kill the women if he wished. In simple language the non-Muslims were not really human beings. They (the non-Muslims) were inferior even to cattle and animals. Moreover, the Pakistani told me that the Prophet had allowed to have sex if a man is living overseas. I could not believe of what I was hearing! He then quoted me from his memory many verses from Koran and Hadith to support his views. Then I reminded my Pakistani friend that there was quite a small minority of Muslims in Thailand. So, if by accident he had sex with one of the Thai Muslim prostitutes what will befall him. He answered glibly, “No problem.” When I return to Pakistan I shall have a Milad Mehfil and ask for forgiveness. Finally, the Hajj is there for him to receive the forgiveness. But he said that that might not be necessary because he was very sure that none of the girls he had sex with were Muslims.

If a Pakistani reads this re-count he/she may be greatly offended, no doubt about it. Many Pakistanis will defend that the view by one person does not mean any thing. No apology will be sought. Any Pakistani can form whatever opinion he thinks is suitable. It is up to him/her. Let us look at the wider implications of what my Pakistani Islamists had said. Was it an individual’s wrong interpretations of the holy books of Islam? Was it the mindset of a mentally sick person? Do not be fooled by these thoughts. For when we look back, we see that that was the mindset of Pakistani army recruits who unleashed a reign of terror leading into massacring millions of Bangalees. Pakistanis may differ on many matters but when the question of Islamic superiority comes, they are unanimous. This was the work of the Oligarchy, the army and the clerics of Pakistan. These groups have rigidly programmed the vast majority of Pakistanis with the thought that they (the Pakistanis) have the absolute superiority in Islamic matters. And this thinking got a further boost with the detonation of Islamic bomb in 1998. We Bangalees have no problem with their superior thinking. The only trouble is that these dangerous thoughts have cost 3 million dear lives of Bangalees.

So, to put everything in a simple language, the Pakistani army did not kill any human being in Bangladesh. They only cleared the field from pest; just like a farmer spreads insecticide to free his crops from devastation. So, is the case of the Pak army. They simply eliminated the non-Muslims and the not so good Muslims to protect the good Muslims those who would follow them. The question of remorse or guilt feeling does not arise at all. You see, the Pak army did not rape any women. They simply enjoyed the flesh of non-Muslims. Even if there were some excessive force being applied, there is no need to feel guilty about that. The ubiquitous Milad is there; the Hajj is there too to remove even the slightest trace of culpability. A serial killer is a psychologically sick person. He gets pleasure in seeing the suffering of a dying person in his hands. But deep down, the serial killer knows that what he is doing is wrong. He is surely aware of the eventual punishment if he is caught. That is why, most serial killers readily admit their crime and on many occasions regret of their actions when he recovers from his sickness. How about the perpetrators of a genocide? They are perfectly normal. Most of them are really very nice, polite, and soft spoken (like the Islamic Circle of North America’s leader Ashrafuzzaman Khan). But there is one trait that separates them from the rest of us and that is, the uncompromising faith in the supremacy of what they belief and their inability to accept the existence of others if they do not follow them. Any means is justified to advance their belief even if that means the annihilation of an entire race. That is why no Pakistani has ever condemned the genocide of the Bangalees. That is why they will do that again if an opportunity lends itself. Since no crime has been committed, the question of trial of the perpetrators of genocide does not arise at all. Isn’t it so?

This is the mindset of the planners and executioners of Bangladesh genocide. This is the mindset of Yahya Khan, Tikka Khan, Golam Azam, Ayatollah, Ashrafuzzaman -------. This why we have Auswitcz, Kosovo,, Bosnia, Palestine, East Timor -----.

Is Islam the only religion responsible for the genocide? Surely not. Every organised religion on earth has sanctioned murder, rape loot, plunder --- etc, as long as that is directed towards the non-believers. Religion has a cousin to go with it. That is racism. Religion and racism go hand in hand. That is why we have Hitler, Radovan Karadzic, Slobodan Milosevic, Ratko Mladic and so on.

Karl Marx said, “Religion is the opium of the masses.” In today’s world that is a very understatement. If people take opium they become addicted and ruin their health. There should not be any problem for humanity on that. Today, religion has become a vermin (read pest) for humanity. This cancerous virus has spread in every human being on this planet. I am not sure if we will find an antidote for this disease in our life time or not.

Why did I write this essay after all these years? It can be summed up by a quotation from Shakespeare. The famous bard wrote,
“A little fire is quickly trodden out;
Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench.”
( Shakespeare, ‘Henry VI, Part Three,’ IV, viii,7. (A fire ‘suffered’ is one permitted to burn.).

The fire is still burning inside me although the events of 1971 may be more like some specks of dust in the minds of Bangalees who till this day would not admit that Pakistanis have done excess all in the name of religion.

Abul Kasem is an academic and writes from Australia