by Dr. Jaipal Singh
Bangladesh's Troubled History since Partition
Bangladesh (post-partition East-Pakistan till 1971) had a troubled history of religion-based discrimination and large-scale disturbances and violence even during the pre-partition British era. The Direct Action Day (16 August 1946) alias Kolkata Killings organized by the All-India Muslim League using violence against non-Muslims (Hindus) to press for a separate homeland for Muslims and the Noakhali Riots (October-November 1946) indulging in massacres, rapes and abductions, combined with looting and arson of Hindu properties are cases in point just a year before the partition of India. The methods adopted by one community during these riots to achieve their objectives were massacre, pogrom, forced conversion, arson, abduction and mass rape leading to the death and injuries of thousands of people besides large-scale displacement of families when village after village was being converted to Islam while the state administration under the Chief Minister of Bengal, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy did not take any effective action against the wrongdoers.
Partition of India in 1947 led to the creation of the Muslims homeland in two parts: The West Pakistan comprising of the states of Punjab (large portion of undivided Punjab), Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Baluchistan; and the East Pakistan, carved out of the major portion of the greater undivided Bengal). Although a new nation was created based on religion but the sharp differences in culture, language and several other socio-economic factors of the two parts could never unite them in true sense. The political control was exercised from the hawks sitting in West Pakistan while the maximum resources of agriculture, trade and industries were based in East Pakistan, rich in natural resources, including minerals, arable land, timber, and so on. The people in East Pakistan were never offered their due recognition in terms of place and value they deserved with a prolonged history of socio-cultural, economic and political exploitation and discrimination by the unstable civil and military leadership based in the West Pakistan for the decades. Then came the Pakistani National Elections of 1970 wherein the Bangladesh Awami League won a landslide victory securing a clear majority in the Majlis-e-Shoora (Pakistan National Assembly) and the constitutional right to form a government under the prime minister-ship of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
However, President General Yahya Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the leader of the second largest Pakistan People's Party, refused to allow Sheikh Mujib hailing from the East Pakistan to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan. This denial of the transfer of power to the democratically elected party forced the Awami League resorting to the protest and agitation. Consequently, Yahya Khan deployed the Pakistan Army headed by General Tikka Khan to curb and crush the popular uprisings in the East Pakistan with effect from 25 March 1971 under the codename ‘Operation Searchlight'. With a view to take control of all the major cities and eliminate opposition, the Pakistani army indulged in a ruthless and widespread arson, loot, murder and rape (later termed as genocide against the Bengalis) to suppress the uprisings, more particularly against the minority Hindu population. They were actively supported and supplemented by the local razakars (private militia) raised from the communal parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh. Although all Awami League supporters were affected but pre-dominantly Hindu areas and Hindus were targeted during the operation. Their houses were burnt, property looted, men were killed in masses, and women abducted, enslaved and raped. Pakistan's imams proclaimed the Bengali Hindu women to be “war booty”, and fatwas were issued from West Pakistan legitimizing Bengali Hindu women as spoils of the war. Thousands of women thus targeted either died in Pakistani army and razakar's captivity after prolonged atrocity and mass exploitation or committed suicide, while many others fled to India.
All this led to approximately 10 million refugees, majority Hindus, fleeing East Pakistan to take shelter in the neighbouring Indian states. The Time magazine had reported in August 1971 that the Hindus accounted for about three-fourths of the refugees and a majority of the dead, had borne the brunt of the Pakistani military hatred. The members of the Pakistani military and supporting Islamist militias from Jamaat-e-Islami and other groups were involved in rape, abduction and keeping women as sex-slaves in Dhaka and other places. Such heinous crimes and atrocities ended only after the fall of Dhaka and surrender of Pakistan Army regulars including some paramilitary and civilians (about 93 thousand) before the joint command of the Indian Army and Bangladesh Mukti Bahini on 16 December 1971 after a thirteen days full-fledged Indo-Pak war. As per various accounts and estimates of the international media and reference books/articles, approximately 35,000 people were killed in Dhaka alone while two to three million were killed all over the East Pakistan in this genocidal war, that especially targeted Hindu women, intelligentsia and students.
Following the liberation of the East Pakistan, it was rechristened as Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujibur Rehman formally assumed power to continue as the president, and then prime minister from January 1972 to 15 August 1975, when he was assassinated in a coup by the army. During this period, he had to strenuously focus and work for the reconstruction of the badly damaged Bangladesh infrastructure and economy by the Pakistani army, and razakars supporting them. According to estimates, besides the aforesaid human casualties and sufferings, nearly sixty lakh houses were destroyed, fourteen lakh farm families rendered without tools and animals, and transportation and communication systems were almost totally disrupted with roads and bridges damaged and inland waterways blocked. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated by renegade army officers along with most of his family members including his wife, brother, three sons, two daughters-in-law, many other relatives, personal staff, police officers, a brigadier general of the Bangladesh Army. The only survivors of the Sheikh family were his two daughters Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, former's husband and children who were visiting Europe when the stated coup occurred. Four key confidante and allies of Sheikh were also captured and executed.
This coup was staged by the lower rung military officers apparently linked with Khandakar Mushtaq Ahmed, a minister in Sheikh Mujibur Rehman ministry. Khandaker assumed the presidency of Bangladesh following the assassination of Sheikh, who reportedly praised the assassins as “sons of the sun”. He, however, was himself deposed in yet another coup in less than three months on 3 November 1975 led by Major General Khaled Mosharraf, who declared himself as the Chief of Military Staff of the Bangladesh Army, forcing the then Army chief General Ziaur Rahman to resign and put under the house arrest. Sheikh Mujib's assassins included some fifteen officers of the rank of colonel and below, who were convicted and punished at various stages. One of the key conspirators Khandaker Abdur Rashid was convicted and sentenced to death in absentia, however, he had already escaped to USA and, according to reports, still lives there. This is yet another face of the US which treats democratically Sheikh Hasina as an autocratic, corrupt and undemocratic leader while it welcomed in US and protected the key conspirator and assassin of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman.
Following the assassination of Sheikh Mujib, the chain of command in the army had already broken. After just a few days, another counter-coup took place organized by pro-Ziaur Rehman officers killing Khaled Mosharraf. The country was already under the Martial law imposed by the Mushtaq government, Ziaur Rehman now became de facto head of the government although for the namesake Justice Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem was made chief martial law administrator with the former, air and naval chiefs as his deputies. On 6 November 1975, Justice Sayem was elevated to the presidency and Ziaur Rehman became the chief martial law administrator. Later, he became the president of Bangladesh on 21 April 1977 and served as such till he was also assassinated by a group of army officers on 30 May 1981. According to reports, Ziaur Rehman had faced as many as twenty-one attempts on his life, including one by the air force, until he was assassinated in a coup. During this period, he had constituted his own political party known as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in 1978. Rehman was succeeded by Abdus Sattar who was deposed by Hussain Muhammad Ershad, another military head, in a bloodless coup imposing the martial law and suspending the Constitution. He ruled as a military dictator from 1982 to 1983 and then declared himself as the president, raised his own Jatiyo Party, made Islam as the official religion of Bangladesh in 1988, and was toppled in 1990 Mass Uprisings.
Thus, the first two decades after the creation of Bangladesh present only gory events and ignominious history, with continuous events of violence, bloodshed and persecution of minorities, mainly Hindus. By now, three influential political parties viz. the National Awami League, Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jatiyo Party had been formed each with a reasonable electoral base, apart from some extant communal and Islamic parties and organizations like Jamaat-e-Islami. The 1990 uprisings after a long de facto military rule paved the way for a parliamentary democracy allowing a popular general election in 1991. Ever since, the Awami Leage led by Sheikh Hasina (elder daughter of former President Sheikh Mujib) and the BNP under Begum Khaleda Zia (Widow of former President Ziaur Rehman) have ruled Bangladesh for the maximum period with the support of other smaller parties; the now deposed Sheikh Hasina was ruling for the last fifteen years, who won the fourth successive general elections held in January 2024.
Even during the last twenty-five years, security of Hindu minority and political turmoil has remained a constant feature in Bangladesh, particularly during the BNP rule under Begum Khalida Zia with widespread political unrest and terror attacks by Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). There have been unsuccessful attempts by splinter military groups to overthrow civilian governments at occasions and the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami have very often engaged in violent protests to overthrow the Sheikh Hasina government. According to reports, students and other members belonging to the radical Jamaat-e-Islami have played crucial role during the recent turmoil leading to the ouster of Sheikh Hasina government. Although Bangladesh achieved more political stability and economic growth in Bangladesh during the secular Sheikh Hasina regime, the radical Islamist groups have constantly been active with a mission to achieve absolute ethnic cleansing even during her regime too. This can be surmised from a report of the Bangladesh human rights group Ain-o-Salish Kendra which suggests as many as 3,679 attacks on Hindu community between January 2013 to September 2021, including targeted vandalism, arson, violence, and sexual offences against women. Now the whole world will eagerly wait what miracles 84 years old Mohammad Yunus and his chosen team would do to tame radical Islamists, bring political stability with sustained economic growth.
Continued
(This Article is reproduced in three episodes from www.boloji.com for fair information of our readers)
The Author is a retired civil servant of GoI; His core areas of specialization have been public administration, finance, information technology, human resource development, budget and planning, and legal matters. Currently, he is engaged in an Advisor capacity with one illustrious Central Autonomous Body; He has own literary website and his works are also availableon https://www.myhummingword.com/)
