[Genocide/1971] Sarmila Vose: "Anatomy of Violence: An Analysis of Civil War in East Pakistan in 1971"

Dr. Sarmila Bose
Assistant Editor, Ananda Bazar Patrika, India
& Visiting Scholar, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University

I. Introduction: The Many Conflicts of 1971

"This must be the only country in the world where there are two views on the independence of the country." (Iqbal, former Muktijoddha, Dhaka)

1971 in South Asia usually denotes the third major war between India and Pakistan, in the context of a civil war in Pakistan which led to the secession of East Pakistan to become a new country, Bangladesh. The Cold War served as the international backdrop to this regional conflict.

However, the conflicts of 1971 were more numerous and ran deeper. The civil war was not merely between the two wings of Pakistan, but also within the territory of East Pakistan, between Bengalis and non-Bengalis, and among Bengalis themselves, who were bitterly divided between those who favoured independence for Bangladesh and those who supported the unity and integrity of Pakistan. The middle-ground of federation and autonomy was increasingly squeezed between these two highly polarized positions.

Pro-liberation Bengalis assumed non-Bengalis to be in favour of united Pakistan. The profound polarization of politics reached even into individual Bengali families, dividing some of them horizontally - for example with the father, who had experienced the creation of Pakistan, supporting united Pakistan, while the son, swayed by the oratory of Sheikh Mujib, joined the fight for an independent Bangladesh. The internal battles among Bengalis in East Pakistan in 1971 are still playing out in the current politics of Bangladesh. While 1971 evokes strong emotion in both parts of the severed wings of Pakistan, there has been little systematic study of the violent conflicts during the nine months long civil war.[1] Popular attention has focused on the Pakistani armed force's action against the civilian Bengali population, or the India-Pakistan war. However, East Pakistan in 1971 was simultaneously a battleground for many different kinds of violent conflict- militant rebellion, mob violence, military crackdown on a civilian population, mutiny within the armed forces, urban terrorism, guerilla warfare, conventional battles, death squads, civil war within Pakistan and between Bengalis, and full-scale war between Pakistan and India.

Based on in-depth case studies of several specific incidents of violence in 1971, this paper presents a systematic analysis of the context and nature of violence in that conflict. The analysis uses data collected during 2003-2005 in Pakistan and Bangladesh from site visits, interviews with survivors, eye-witnesses and participants, and related material such as images and memoirs (many in the Bengali language). The case studies are from different districts, different moments of the time-line of the conflict, and involve different groups of perpetrators and victims. They are drawn from my ongoing project '1971: Images, Memory, Reconciliation', and provide the basis for an analytical approach that challenges both the silence and the unsubstantiated rhetoric that have obscured the study of the conflict of 1971 to date.

This paper is organized in the following way. Section II sets out the parameters that govern the larger project and this paper. Section III elaborates on the chronology and typology of violence in the conflict of 1971 with illustrative examples from the case studies. Finally, Section IV discusses some of the preliminary findings on the patterns that emerge.

II. Rules of Engagement

The fundamental approach in the project, and in this paper, is 'reconciliation'. This refers partly to reconciliation among people. In the absence of any institutional 'truth and reconciliation' effort, participants in the 1971 conflict remain bitterly divided and in denial to a significant degree. However, it also refers to the reconciliation of fact with fiction, using a non-partisan, evidence-based approach towards a conflict whose accounts are still driven by bitter emotional partisanship.

The project's focus is on the civil war, rather than the war between India and Pakistan, though India's involvement in the conflict blurs that distinction to an extent.

The project examines particular incidents of conflict in-depth at the micro-level, rather than macro-policy. Each case-study uses multiple sources of testimony by individuals present and other documentary evidence to build as complete a picture as possible. All parties to the conflict are included.

As the project is on-going, the illustrative examples are only taken from completed parts of the case-studies, and the findings must necessarily be termed preliminary until the work is completed.

III. Chronology and Typology of Violence in East Pakistan, 1971

"The real question is whether anybody can run the god-damn place." (President Nixon, phone conversation with Kissinger, 29 March 1971)[2]

1. Call to Arms: the Bengali Nationalist Rebellion Prior to Military Action

"There are two basic problems here", wrote Henry Kissinger in a secret memo to President Nixon on 13 March, 1971, "1) Rahman has embarked on a Gandhian-type non-violent non-cooperation campaign which makes it harder to justify repression; and 2) the West Pakistanis lack the military capacity to put down a full scale revolt over a long period."[3] Kissinger was right about the second point, but dead wrong about the first. The rebel movement in East Pakistan led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman bore no resemblance to the path of non-violence advocated by Gandhi against British rule in India. Despite some rhetorical calls for restraint, the movement was openly, and proudly, armed and militant. Personal memoirs of the time recount large public meetings in Dhaka since 1 March, with the crowds carrying bamboo sticks and iron rods, calls to 'take up arms', incidents of bomb-throwing and shooting, and military-style parades carrying weapons both real and dummy. Images of such gatherings and parades are displayed in the Liberation War Museum in Dhaka. Some aspects of the movement are similar to the violent revolutionary movement in Bengal against the British in early 20th century and the 1930s, not Gandhian non-violence.[4] Kaliranjan Shil, a Communist Party activist who survived the army's assault on Jagannath Hall in Dhaka University on 25-26 March, has written about the training for armed revolt, (using dummy rifles, according to him), that started on the university gymnasium field as soon as the parliament session was postponed on 1st March. Each trained batch would then train arriving recruits, while 'normal' students left the halls as the university was closed. He had trained as usual on 25 March.[5]

2. Mob violence by Bengalis on non-Bengalis Prior to Military Action

The postponement of the national assembly followed by the call to observe 'hartal' given by Sheikh Mujib led to widespread lawlessness during March, when the Pakistan government effectively lost control of much of the territory of East Pakistan. Many accounts, both Bangladeshi and Pakistani, have recorded the parallel government run on Sheikh Mujib's decrees.

Apart from sporadic incidents of violence in Dhaka, there was arson, looting and attacks by Bengali mobs on non-Bengali people and property in many parts of the province, some with casualties. The White Paper published by the Pakistan government in August 1971 lists such incidents, of which the worst loss of life appears to have occurred in Khulna and Chittagong in the first week of March. That "the government's writ had ceased to function in most parts of the province" and that there were attacks upon non-Bengalis by Bengalis on the rampage, is acknowledged by critics of the government too.[6] Most of these attacks were on civilians and commercial properties, but some were directly on the army, which remained curiously unresponsive under orders. Mostly the army suffered from the refusal of Bengalis to sell them food and fuel, being jeered and spat at, and the widespread disregard of curfew orders, but some encounters were more deadly. "The murder of army personnel, caught in ones and twos, became an everyday occurrence," writes Maj. Gen. H. A. Qureishi, "In our area we lost Lt. Abbas of 29 Cavalry. With an escort of Bengali soldiers, he had ventured out of the unit lines to buy fresh vegetables for the troops. The escort was "rushed" by the militants, the officer was killed, weapons were 'confiscated' and the Bengali members of the guard sent back unharmed."[7] "It speaks volumes for the discipline of the West Pakistan army," wrote Mascarenhas, "that its officers were able to keep the soldiers in check during what was to them a nightmare of 25 days."[8]

3. Military Action: Operation Searchlight, 25-26 March

The extraordinary restraint of the army under provocation was totally reversed with the launch of military action with 'Operation Searchlight' during the night of 25-26 March. The operation was aimed at both Dhaka and the rest of the province and included the arrest of political leaders, disarming of potentially disloyal Bengali personnel in the police and army, and crushing the militant rebellion by force. Two target areas in Dhaka were Dhaka University, considered by the government to be the hotbed of militants, and parts of old Dhaka. In the action in the university, I draw a distinction between the attack on student halls and that on faculty quarters.

a. Attack on Dhaka University student halls

In the usual Bangladeshi depiction, the army is accused of attacking the student halls and killing unarmed students residing there. For instance, Kaliranjan Shil, the survivor from Jagannath Hall, describes the residents as 'nirastra' - unarmed.[9] However, a recording of army communications during the attack made by a Bengali and made available to me by the Liberation War Museum in Dhaka, supports the army version of a two-way battle, but reveals it to have been a very unequal one, with .303 rifle fire from the halls, and no evidence of automatic weapons or grenades.[10]

A vivid description of the attack on Jagannath Hall given to me by an eye-witness, Rabindra Mohan Das, who lived in the staff quarters on the grounds, corroborates the massive use of force by the army, and also the killing of unarmed staff. According to Lt. Gen. Kamal Matinuddin's account, the officer in overall command of this attack - then Brigadier Jehanzeb Arbab - admitted "over-reaction and over-kill by the troops under his command."[11]

The military action under 'Operation Searchlight', undertaken on 25-26 March by the newly arrived governor General Tikka Khan, was condemned by Lt. Gen. A. A. K. Niazi, who arrived in April as commander of the Eastern Command, as a violation of the mission and equivalent to the Jallianwalabagh massacre in the Punjab by the British in 1919, which made his task of regaining control of the province infinitely harder by provoking widespread mutiny among Bengali officers and men and turning virtually the entire population hostile.[12]

In another evidence of a difference of opinion within the army about the execution of this operation, Nazrul Islam, then a student at the Art College, has written about how a group of soldiers shot him and two others in their hostel next to the EPR camp on 26 March, only to be followed by a second group of soldiers who expressed shock that they had been shot, gave them water and encouraged the two of them still alive to seek help and live.[13]

b. Killing of Dhaka University faculty

During the attack on the university, several faculty members and adult male members of their family were dragged out of their apartments and shot. This must necessarily be placed in a different category from the battle at the student halls. Eye-witness accounts of the case of one of the victims, Professor Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta, is provided by Professor Guhathakurta himself - as he lived for four days before succumbing to his injuries, as well as the memoirs of his wife and the testimony of his daughter to me.

In a confusing pattern, while soldiers attempted to break down the doors to all apartments, two out of the five faculty members then residing in the same building were killed while the other three were not.[14] In response to my question whether the army had a specific list of faculty members they were looking for, the then Secretary of the National Security Council, Maj. Gen. Ghulam Umar, expressed his view that there was no specific list.[15] However, the Guhathakurta family testifies to the officer asking for a specific person by name. Professor Guhathakurta said that he was asked his name and religion before being shot. The other faculty killed was Professor Maniruzzaman, along with his son, nephew and another young man from his apartment.[16]

c. Attack on areas of old Dhaka

The attack on 26 March on areas of old Dhaka like Shankharipara, a single narrow lane specializing in the 'shankha' (conchshell) business, has yet to yield a clear reason for its targeting, unless the fact of it being a Hindu business area was the sole reason. US Consul-General in Dhaka, Archer Blood, sent a situation report on 27 March, citing the Indian Deputy High Commissioner's view of a "large number of casualties" in this area. Mascarenhas has written, without citing any source, that "In Shankaripatti an estimated 8000 men, women and children were killed when the army, having blocked both ends of the winding street, hunted them down house by house."[17] This description is entirely false.

Eye-witnesses and survivors of the attack on Shankharipara on 26 March testify that about 14 men and one child (being carried by his father) were killed inside a single house that day. The father and child who were killed - Chandan and Buddhadev Sur - are one of my case-studies. The soldiers did not go house to house. Other residents who remained inside their homes survived and within a couple of days everyone fled the area, mostly to go to India, returning only after the independence of Bangladesh.[18]

4. Mutiny

The military action on 25-26 March was followed by a wave of mutiny of Bengali officers and men in the army and police forces.[19] The pattern of violence during the mutiny varied from place to place. With regard to the mutiny at the EPR cantonment at Mymensingh on 27 March, local Bengalis testified to this author of fierce fighting in which a very large number of West Pakistani officers and men were killed, and women raped and abducted. Anyone trying to escape was lynched by the assembled population.[20] The then Major (later President) Ziaur Rahman was the first Bengali officer to declare the independence of Bangladesh over the radio. His commanding officer at 8 East Bengal Regiment was killed. Major Khaled Musharraf (who briefly took power during the coup and counter-coup in 1975) of 4 East Bengal placed his West Pakistani superior officers under arrest and handed them over to India.[21] Bengali officers who defected to the cause of liberation appear to have had a clearer idea of the gravity and risk of what they were undertaking than many civilian volunteers who joined the 'Muktibahini'. For instance, Maj. Gen. K. M. Safiullah, then second-in-command of 2 East Bengal Regiment, writes, "We had taken the oath of a soldier. The one and only punishment for breaking that oath and rebelling was to face the firing squad, i.e., death. There had to be an appropriate reason for rebelling, and we did it because there was one."[22] In contrast, many accounts of civilians who took up arms express shock and indignation at the prospect of execution on capture.

5. Mob attacks by Bengalis on Biharis/West Pakistanis Post-Military Action

The launching of army action was also followed by another wave of mob violence, in which Bengali mobs slaughtered 'Bihari' or West Pakistani civilians wherever they had the upper hand, until army units arrived and secured the area. One such slaughter of hundreds of 'Bihari' men, women and children occurred at the Crescent Jute Mills in Khulna on 27 March. According to the testimony of local Bengali workers at the mill, at the time both Bengali and Bihari workers and their families were barricaded inside the mill compound, to prevent the army from entering. Sporadic violence had occurred between the two communities throughout March, and Awami League supporters among the Bengalis had been training and holding parades. A 'truce' agreement had been made, but did not hold. Two Bengali policemen who had come by river with their weapons and a few locals who had guns first shot at the Biharis and then the Bengali mob massacred the fleeing Biharis with 'da's and other weapons. The bodies were dumped in the river.[23] Similar killings of non-Bengalis by Bengalis from late March to late April are also reported in many other parts of the province.[24]

6. First battles between army and rebels

As the army moved to secure the territory of East Pakistan and re-establish the writ of the government, initial resistance by Bengali rebels was disorganized and amateurish. In an incident described by local villagers as the first battle between rebel forces and the army outside Dhaka, for instance, a group of Bengali ex-army and police personnel attempted to resist the army as it moved north from Dhaka to Tangail. They set up their position at a small village called Satiarchora. According to a villager who possessed a gun and took part, only a few villagers were involved and the Bengali side was caught unprepared and by surprise in the early hours of 3 April by a substantial convoy of the Pakistan army rolling their way. Though the army is said to have taken some casualties, the rebel ambush was crushed by its mightily superior force, with the army shooting "anything that moved" and torching the village in response.[25]

7. Mass killings during 'pacification'

Throughout April and into May, the army continued to bring rebel-held territories back under the writ of the government. The pattern of 'pacification' continued to have common features, yet differ startlingly from case to case. An example is the army operation to regain control of two security forces installations that had been taken over by rebel forces in the district of Rajshahi, in an area at the border with India. As the army closed in on the first installation, the rebels vacated it and mingled with the villagers in the adjoining village, which is located by a river at the border with India. For reasons unfathomable, however, a couple of them took potshots at the advancing units in the bazaar. This triggered an overwhelming reaction from the army, which not only killed the two who had shot at them, but rounded up all the villagers, along with the outsiders among them, who had collected by the river bank.

In what appears to be a pattern during this phase of army operations, a junior officer was in charge on the ground, while remaining in communication with superior officers elsewhere. Women and children were separated from adult men and sent back to the village. The men were then questioned in an attempt to identify ex-police, armed rebels, or Indian infiltrators, and anyone so suspected was summarily executed. However, at some point the officer appeared to receive an order from superior officers to kill all the men present, including, in this case, villagers who were entirely uninvolved in the fighting. The bodies were then stacked and set on fire. In contrast to this grisly outcome, another unit which went along the river to the second installation, secured it without any mass killing.[26]

8. Hounding of Hindus

The minority Hindus, perceived by many in government, in the armed forces and the majority population as pro-India and a traitorous force within the country, were in a particularly vulnerable position during the civil war. Many Hindu villagers in Khulna, for instance, spoke of their harassment at the hands of local Muslims, which got serious enough for them to decide to seek refuge in India. Thousands of them collected what belongings they could and went by boat to a village called Chuknagar, from where they went by road towards the Indian border. At Chuknagar they were relieved of their boats and many of their belongings by local Muslims there, usually for a pittance or nothing.

The harassment, hounding out, and dispossession of the Hindu refugees in this area took a turn for the worse on 20 May. On that day, according to numerous eye-witnesses and survivors, a small unit, comprising only 20-25 men, arrived from the direction of Jessore and killed a very large number of adult male Hindu refugees among the thousands thronging the river bank and bazaar of Chuknagar. Once again, women and children were not harmed. Upon the departure of the unit, large scale looting of the refugees' belongings, cash and jewelry, appears to have been conducted by the locals, who disposed of the bodies by throwing them into the river.[27]

9. Urban terrorism

As monsoon passed into fall, groups of young Bengali men trained in camps in India returned to East Pakistan on a program of sabotage. A number of them were involved in urban terrorism in Dhaka. Their stories are reminiscent in part of the underground militant movement in Bengal directed against symbols of British rule, though the targets of sabotage and opportunistic killings of army or police personnel are also reminiscent of the more contemporary urban terror of extreme Leftist militants called 'Naxalites' across the border in Indian Bengal. Many were captured, killed or disappeared, but many also survived to tell their stories. They reveal idealistic, but highly amateur activities, with a high degree of division and betrayal.[28]

10. Collective punishment

In the absence of any political dialogue, the war dragged on at multiple levels - guerilla war and sabotage by Bengali rebels trained and equipped by India, as well as increasing direct involvement of Indian armed forces. In this context, in an incident on 13 October at Boroitola near Kishoreganj town in Mymensingh district, Pakistan army units arrived by train, rounded up adult men from neighbouring villages and, for reasons yet unclear, lined them up in two queues and gunned them down with what appears to have been light machine guns on stands. Villagers from one particular village were allowed to leave, following a conversation between their (loyalist) leader and the officer in charge.

The trigger for the army's arrival may have been the blowing up of a bridge nearby the previous day, or information provided by an informant in the village, or the fact that the area was the home village of Syed Nazrul Islam, the president of Bangladesh's government-in-exile in India. There is some evidence that the army may have initially come for a different purpose which changed upon receiving local information on the spot. Whatever it was, the manner of the killing suggests a public example of collective punishment.[29]

11. Death squads

In the final days before the end of the war in December 1971, several well-known professionals - professors, doctors, writers, and so on - were picked up from their homes in Dhaka by bands of Bengali youth identified by eye-witnesses as members of the 'Al Badr', a group for Bengali loyalists organized by the Pakistan army. Some of those picked up were never seen again. The bodies of many others were found dumped at a brick kiln at Rayerbazar in Dhaka. All had their eyes blind-folded and hands tied behind their backs.

One such case, whose body was found in Rayerbazar, was Dr. Aleem Chowdhury, an eye specialist, who used to help the rebels by raising funds, and providing medical supplies and professional care. By a bizarre coincidence, he had given refuge in the clinic downstairs in his house to Moulana Abdul Mannan, who turned out to be a member of the 'Al Badr'. Dr. Chowdhury was picked up on 15 December. The Moulana declined to intervene despite the pleadings of Mrs. Chowdhury. The war in East Pakistan ended on 16 December and Bangladesh came into being. Dr. Chowdhury's body was found on 18 December. He had been shot, and had multiple injuries thought to be inflicted by a bayonet. He is believed to have been killed during the night of 15-16 December.

Many Bangladeshis hold Maj. Gen. Rao Farman Ali of the Pakistan army responsible for this hit-squad style execution of Bengali professionals, at least in part because a list of intellectuals in his hand-writing was found after the war. All the eye-witness accounts by relatives, however, describe the victims being picked up and taken away in a micro-bus by fellow Bengalis - members of the 'Al Badr'. Dr. Aleem Chowdhury's family holds Moulana Mannan responsible for his killing.[30] The account of the only known survivor of the Rayerbazar killings also speaks of only Bengalis as the captors and killers of fellow Bengali professionals of the opposing political viewpoint on the eve of the creation of Bangladesh.[31]

12. Attacks on non-Bengalis and 'loyalist' Bengalis after 16 December 1971

"We did 'revenge killings'" said a former muktijoddha in Mymensingh, with a sense of exacting justice, about the immediate aftermath following the end of the war in East Pakistan on 16 December. Likewise, attacks on non-Bengalis and loyalist Bengalis by pro-liberation Bengalis occurred all over the new country, including public lynching in some cases even in front of the camera.

IV. Patterns of Violence: Some Preliminary Findings

1.. Multiple parties in the conflict, each both perpetrator and victim of violence

Popular perceptions as well as "victor's history" following India's political, military and diplomatic triumph over Pakistan in 1971 and the emergence of Bangladesh have tended to portray the civil war in East Pakistan simply as the armed suppression by a military regime of the civilian population of a rebel province. Certainly the military regime of Pakistan at the time attempted to impose a military solution to a seemingly intractable political problem, with disastrous consequences for itself. However, a closer look at the conflicts on the ground reveals a more complex reality, in which there were multiple parties in the conflict and each were both perpetrators and victims of violence in 1971.

This was not a simple 'West versus East' contest, nor was violence the means adopted by only one side. Once the political contest polarized into support for a united Pakistan versus secession of Bangladesh, West Pakistanis, non-Bengali East Pakistanis ('Biharis') and loyalist Bengalis were broadly ranged on the side of a united Pakistan, against pro-liberation Bengalis and their Indian allies. In the course of the civil war, members of each group used violence as the means to their ends and were also victims of violence.

2.. Hatred fanned by attribution of "treason" to the 'other' by both sides

Due to the successful emergence of Bangladesh as an independent country, it is sometimes overlooked that in 1971, the defense of the unity and integrity of Pakistan - espoused for example by 'loyalist' Bengalis including members of Islamic parties - was a legitimate political position, indeed the "patriotic" political position, as opposed to the secession proposed by pro-liberation Bengalis. The alliance of the latter with arch-enemy India was particularly 'traitorous'. To pro-liberation Bengalis, however, West Pakistan became a 'foreign occupier', and 'Biharis' and loyalist Bengalis who cooperated with the government were considered 'traitors' to the Bengali cause. Civilian political activists were also critical of Bengali military officers, whom they accused of being opportunists, joining the independence struggle only after the military action endangered their own lives. They showed little understanding of the difficult position Bengali members of the armed forces found themselves in, or that it was it was quite reasonable for many of them to have remained cautious and apolitical as professionals until events overtook their oath of loyalty. Both political positions were legitimate political positions, but each side was entirely intolerant of the other's perspective. The intolerance was particularly bitter between loyalist and secessionist Bengalis. The hatred fanned by the civil war was considerably heightened by the attribution of 'treason' by each side upon the 'other'.

3.. Brutality and humanity evenly distributed among warring parties

While the excessive force used by the Pakistan army in the course of putting down the rebellion in East Pakistan, along with allegations of atrocities, has received greater public attention, the examination of incidents of violence at the ground level bear out Sisson and Rose's conclusion that "One thing is clear - the atrocities did not just go one way, though Bengali Muslims and Hindus were certainly the main victims."[32] Many of the Bengali Muslim and Hindu victims are also found to have suffered at the hands of other Bengalis.

The case studies show that brutalities were committed by all parties in the conflict - West Pakistanis, Biharis, loyalist Bengalis and pro-liberation Bengalis - and no party is in a position to occupy the moral high ground on this question. Indeed, it is this reality that makes the conflict in East Pakistan in 1971 suitable to a 'reconciliatory' approach, rather than a recriminatory one.

It is likely that, even after discounting exaggerations, the armed forces and loyalist Bengalis would be responsible for a greater proportion of brutalities, due to greater fire power and a longer period of holding the 'upper hand', following military action on 25 March. However, as the lower incidence of brutalities by pro-liberation Bengalis appears to be determined more by fewer opportunities rather than a principled stand, both sides are equal in terms of the nature of the crime. Equally, acts of humanity in the midst of a bitter conflict are found on all sides.

4.. Contradictory evidence on targeting of Hindus

To the West Pakistani authorities as well as many Bengali Muslims, Bengali Hindus were a suspect population on the basis of their religious affinity to India. In a civil war in which the secessionists were allied with India, the Hindus of East Pakistan were in a very vulnerable position.[33]

However, the case studies reveal contradictory evidence on the targeting of Hindus. The attack on old Dhaka during 'Operation Searchlight' appears to have been on the basis of religion. While Hindu professors were accused of fomenting trouble at Dhaka University, and Professor Guhathakurta (a Hindu) was asked his religion before being shot, the other faculty member killed with him was Professor Maniruzzaman (a Muslim). In fact, as three relatives were killed with Professor Maniruzzaman, four Muslims and one Hindu were killed at that particular building that night.

The villagers of Khulna who were fleeing to India via Chuknagar in May say they were doing so due to harassment - but by local Bengali Muslims, not the West Pakistani military. Local Bengali Muslims also appear to have gained the most materially by the distress sales of the Hindu refugees, as also from the loot from the dead at Chuknagar.

One male Hindu refugee, Nitai Gayen, who survived the shooting at Chuknagar, offered this as explanation of why he was targeted: "I don't think they targeted us (male refugees) because we were Hindus. I think they targeted us because they considered us the 'enemy'. We were going to India. Some of us would return, and we would not return empty-handed."[34] In the end, in spite of the vulnerability of the Hindu population, the conflict involving West Pakistanis, Biharis, loyalist Bengalis and pro-liberation Bengalis remained predominantly a war of Muslims against other Muslims.

5.. Ethnicization of 'enemy' and 'ally'

The case studies show a striking tendency to 'ethnicize' the 'enemy' or the 'ally' in terms of regional ethnic identity. Pro-liberation Bengalis defined their identity in terms of language, hence the non-Bengali speaking people of East Pakistan, collectively referred to as 'Biharis', became marked as the 'enemy' along with West Pakistanis, who were often collectively referred to as 'Punjabis' regardless of whether they were from Punjab or not.

However, in the case studies, when Bengalis did make a distinction among West Pakistanis, a noticeable number identified 'better' or 'more humane' members of the West Pakistani armed forces as "Beluchi" - ethnic Baloch people. People in Dhaka and the countryside, men and women, with different experiences of violent conflict, mentioned "Beluchis" as a better sort among West Pakistanis. Small kindnesses, such as someone slipping some food to prisoners under interrogation, or an officer who rescued a boy from forced labour - were attributed to the person being a "Beluchi". This is intriguing, as the proportion of ethnic Balochis is low in the Pakistan army, regiments named 'Baloch' are not exclusive to ethnic Balochis, and most Bengalis were not in a position to distinguish among West Pakistanis on the basis of appearance. The characterization may be due to a feeling of solidarity towards Balochi people as another oppressed group. General Tikka Khan, who was sent as governor to East Pakistan in 1971 and launched the military action, was also known as the 'butcher of Balochistan'. Some of the feeling may be retrospective, given the Baloch uprising of 1973 which was crushed with great force by the regime of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. The second group identified as 'better' by Bengalis was 'Pathans'. Not all seem aware, though, that General Yahya Khan was a Pathan, and some Pathans were attacked and killed by Bengali mobs too. As an ethnic group, "Punjabis" come in for an almost complete vilification, with only the rare acknowledgment of the possibility that there might be some 'good' Punjabis as well.

6.. Pakistan army's actions marked by a pattern of targeting of adult males while sparing women and children

The case studies show a clear pattern by the Pakistan army of targeting adult males and sparing women and children as they re-captured control of the territory after 25 March. The officer at the faculty quarters in Dhaka University during 'Operation Searchlight' assured Mrs. Guhathakurta that there was no danger to her and her daughter; all the young men at Professor Maniruzzaman's apartment were killed with him. In the village in Rajshahi women and children were separated and sent away before the men were interrogated and killed. At Chuknagar, even amidst the melee of refugees, adult men were shot while women and children all around them remained unhurt. Only men were assembled and killed at Boroitola in Mymensingh.

7.. Mob violence involved indiscriminate killing of men, women and children, accompanied by sexual attacks on women

Mob violence, such as the slaughter of Biharis by Bengalis at Crescent Jute Mills in Khulna, involved indiscriminate killing of men, women and children. Killing was also indiscriminate in large-scale incidents of violence like the mutiny at Mymensingh, accompanied by rape and abduction of women.

8.. No rape of women by Pakistan army found in any of the cases of conflict

In all of the incidents involving the Pakistan army in the case-studies, the armed forces were found not to have raped women. While this cannot be extrapolated beyond the specific incidents in this study, it is significant, as in many cases the allegation of rape was made along with allegations of killing in prior verbal discussions or in some cases even in written form in the Bengali literature. However, when Bengali eye-witnesses, participants and survivors of the incidents were interviewed they testified to the violence and killings, but also testified that no rape had taken place.

Published Works Cited

Blood, Archer, The Cruel Birth of Bangladesh: Memoirs of an American Diplomat, The University Press Limited, Dhaka, 2002
Chowdhury, Shamsher Mobin, 'Chhoybar mrityudanda', in Haider, ed., (1996)
Guhathakurta, Basanti, Ekattorer Smriti, University Press, Dhaka, 2000
Haider, Rashid, ed., Smriti: 1971, Bangla Academy, Dhaka, vol. 1-13, 1988-2000
Haider, Rashid, ed., 1971: Bhayabaha Abhignata, Sahitya Prakash, Dhaka, 1996
Imam, Jahanara, Ekattorer Deenguli, Sandhani Prakashani, Dhaka, 1986
Islam, Nazrul, 'Shorirbhedi bullet', in Haider ed., (1996) Liberation War Museum, Documents on crimes against humanity committed by Pakistan army and their agents in Bangladesh during 1971, Dhaka, (no date given)
Mascarenhas, Anthony, The Rape of Bangladesh, Vikas Publications, Delhi, 1971
Matinuddin, Lt. Gen. Kamal, Tragedy of Errors: East Pakistan Crisis 1968-71, Services Book Club, Lahore, 1993
Niazi, Lt. Gen. A. A. K., The Betrayal of East Pakistan, Oxford University Press, 1998
Pakistan, Government of, White Paper on the Crisis in East Pakistan, 5 August, 1971
Qureishi, Maj. Gen. Hakeem Arshad, The 1971 Indo-Pak War: A Soldier's Narrative, Oxford University Press, 2002
Rahman, Muhammad Anisur, My Story of 1971, Liberation War Museum, Dhaka, 2001
Safiullah, Maj. Gen. K. M., 'Aloukik jibanlabh', in Haider, ed., (1996)
Shil, Kaliranjan, 'Jagannath Hall-ei chhilam', in Rashid Haider, ed., (1996)
Sisson, Richard and Leo Rose, War and Secession: Pakistan, India and the Creation of Bangladesh, University of California Press, 1990
Ula, Nurul, 'Gonohatyar chhobi', in Haider, ed., (1996) U
nited States Department of State, South Asia Crisis, 1971, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, Volume XI, 2005

Notes:

[1] The only comprehensive scholarly study of the 1971 conflict remains Richard Sisson and Leo Rose's impressive work, War and Secession (1990). Some military officers of all three countries have written memoirs. In Bangladesh there is a virtual cottage industry of literature on 1971 in the Bengali language, mostly of a very poor quality, both due to a lack of a systematic approach and the use of dubious and unreliable information. The best primary material is the series of short accounts by participants or eye-witnesses edited by Rashid Haider, published by the Bangla Academy, and a few personal memoirs.

[2] FRUS, vol. XI, p. 36-37. In another phone conversation with Kissinger the next day, President Nixon says, "The main thing to do is to keep cool and not do anything. There is nothing in it for us either way."

[3] Memorandum from the President's Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger) to President Nixon, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, vol. XI, 'South Asia Crisis, 1971', 2005, p. 17-20.

[4] For example, Jahanara Imam, Ekattorer Dinguli (1986), who also found bomb-making material in her own son's room; Archer Blood, The Cruel Birth of Bangladesh (2002). Anthony Mascarenhas, best known for his condemnatory reporting of the military action in the Sunday Times, mentions "shot guns, swords, home-made spears, bamboo poles and iron rods" as some of the weapons people brought as they gathered to hear Mujib (Mascarenhas, The Rape of Bangladesh (1971), p. 99).

[5] Kaliranjan Shil, 'Jagannath Hall-ei chhilam', in Rashid Haider, ed., 1971: bhayabaha abhigyata (1996).

[6] Mascarenhas (1971), '25 Days to Remember'. Some Bengalis privately acknowledged to this author that there were attacks upon non-Bengalis during this period.

[7] Maj. Gen. H. A. Qureishi, The 1971 Indo-Pak War, (2003), p. 16-17.

[8] Mascarenhas (1971), p. 105.

[9] Shil in Haider, ed. (1996).

[10] Tape recording of communications among Pakistan army units on the night of 25 March, 1971, made by Dr. M. M. Hussain, Atomic Energy Centre, Dhaka, recorded at Khilgaon Chowdhury Para, Dhaka. Archives of the Liberation War Museum, Dhaka.

[11] Author's interview, Rabindra Mohan Das, Dhaka University, 2005. Lt. Gen. Kamal Matinuddin, Tragedy of Errors: East Pakistan Crisis 1968-1971 (1993), p. 250. Film footage of apparent executions in the games field outside the student halls taken by Professor Nurul Ula appears not to have been preserved in any relevant museum in Bangladesh. Prof. Ula's account, 'Gonohatyar chhobi', is in Haider, ed. (1996).

[12] Author's interview with Lt. Gen. A. A. K. Niazi, Lahore, 2003. See also his book The Betrayal of East Pakistan (2002).

[13] Nazrul Islam, 'Shorir-bhedi bullet', in Rashid Haider, ed. (1996).

[14] In a meeting held at San Clemente, California, on 31 March, Kissinger enquires, "Did they kill Professor Razak? He was one of my students." David Blee of the CIA replies, "I think so. They killed a lot of people at the university." (FRUS, vol. XI, p. 42). Actually, Prof. Razak lived in the same building as Professor Guhathakurta, but was not killed. Dhaka University sources opine that he was likely a 'fellow student', not a student, of Kissinger.

[15] Author's interview with Maj. Gen. Ghulam Umar, Karachi, 2005.

[16] Basanti Guhathakurta, Ekattorer Smriti (2000); author's interview with Professor Meghna Guhathakurta, daughter of Professor Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta, Dhaka University, 2005. One of the other faculty residents recounts his experience in Md. Anisur Rahman, My Story of 1971, Liberation War Museum, Dhaka, 2001.

[17] Blood (2002), p. 198; Mascarenhas (1971), p. 114.

[18] Author interviews at Shankharipara, Dhaka, 2004-2005. Photographs of the dead body of the father and child have later been mis-displayed in a Liberation War Museum publication as more than one incident, and Mr. Sur's body, dressed in the traditional 'lungi', even mis-identified as a woman allegedly raped and killed with her child.

[19] Government of Pakistan's official position is that plans for the mutiny were already in place and that theirs was a pre-emptive action.

[20] Author's interviews, Mymensingh. The mutiny in Mymensingh is cited also in the Government of Pakistan's White Paper of August, 1971.

[21] The adjutant to Major Zia, later wounded and captured by Pakistani forces and decorated by Bangladesh for his role in the liberation war, is currently Bangladesh's ambassador to Washington, Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury. His account, 'Chhoybar mrityudanda', is in Haider, ed. (1996).

[22] Maj. Gen. K. M. Safiullah, 'Aloukik jibanlabh', in Haider ed., (1996). Author's translation from Bengali.

[23] Author interviews, Khulna, 2004. There is also testimony of death-squad type killings of Bengalis by Biharis in the following months, when they, as supporters of the government had the upper hand, and again revenge killings by Bengalis of Biharis following Bangladesh's independence.

[24] Many are listed in the government White Paper of August. Some are recounted in memoirs of army officers. Inexplicably, the Pakistan government did not publicize the alleged killings at the time, reducing the credibility of the White Paper later in the year.

[25] Author's interviews, Satiarchora, 2004. Later in the year, the rebels were better organized in the Tangail area under Kader Siddiqi, whom General Niazi mentions as well as the one well-organized rebel force (Niazi (2002), p. 216).

[26] Author's interviews with villagers who were eye-witnesses and survivors, including one man whose life was spared by the officer in charge and another who survived multiple bullet injuries and crawled out of the stack of burning dead bodies, Rajshahi, 2004.

[27] Author's interviews at Chuknagar and surrounding villages of widows and mothers of victims, male survivors, eye witnesses and those who disposed of the bodies, 2004-5. The trigger for the army action on that particular day is yet unclear, but is believed to be based on information provided by local Bengali loyalists.

[28] Author's interviews, including with Abul Barak Alvi, a member of the underground group. Many individual memoirs are published in Bengali, e.g., Haider, ed. (1996). One moving human account is Ekattorer Dinguli by Jahanara Imam, whose son Rumi was one of these young men, presumed executed after his capture.

[29] Author's interviews with a survivor of the shooting and local rebel fighters, 2004.

[30] Interview with Mrs. Shyamoli Nasreen Chowdhury, Dr. Chowdhury's widow, his daughter and brother. Mrs. Chowdhury's account of what happened and those of the relatives or friends of many of the other victims, are published in the series Smriti 1971 (Bangla Academy) and also Haider, ed., (1996). I requested a meeting with Moulana Mannan, to be told that a stroke had left him bed-ridden and without the power of speech. Mannan had later become a minister in the Bangladeshi government and is the proprietor of a major newspaper there.

[31] Dilawar Hossain, account reproduced in 'Ekattorer Ghatok-dalalera ke kothay' Muktijuddha Chetona Bikash Kendro, Dhaka, 1989. [32] Sisson and Rose (1990), p. 306. [

33] US Consul-General Archer Blood revised his initial assessment as civil war ensued: ". we realized that the term 'genocide' was not appropriate to characterize 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." However, Blood still felt the term 'genocide' could be applied to the targeting of Hindus. (Blood, (2002), p. 216-217).

[34] Interview with author, 2004.