The mass killing during the Liberation War of Bangladesh was the worst genocide since World War II.  The Pakistan Army and its local auxiliary forces killed three million people and raped more than 200,000 women in nine months in 1971. Shaky over recent initiatives by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to try war criminals, Islamabad has reached out to Dhaka urging to leave past aside, and build a future where economic ties could become cornerstone of bilateral relations. 

Pakistan does not feel the need to apologise for the war crimes. Islamabad believes that President Pervez Musharraf had atoned for the crimes by saying ‘sorry’ during his visit to Dhaka under Zia regime. So, it is insisting on strengthening business ties instead of looking backwards. Bilateral trade could swell to US $ Five billion with some fine tuning of trade practices and therefore Islamabad is willing to discuss the trade potential at the upcoming Foreign Secretary level talks. The Gilani government is willing to share its expertise with Bangladesh in building its maiden nuclear plant. It has also expressed willingness to share expertise in agricultural and cement sectors. Dhaka is not impressed with Hasina aides holding the view that none of these gestures can compensate the crimes against humanity committed by Pakistani Army. 

Last year, ahead of BDR mutiny, within two months of Sheikh Hasina’s re-election, Pakistan sent its Special Envoy Pervez Ispahani to Dhaka and to persuade the Awami League Prime Minister and, her Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni to bury the past. He did not succeed in his mission.  Ispahani returned home after meeting BNP Chairperson and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, and some Jamaat-e-Islami leaders most of whom had collaborated with Pakistan in 1971. War crimes are a highly emotional issue to Bangladeshis. And the Awami League won a landslide victory in December 2008 promising to bring the perpetrators to book.

So, it does defy logic why Pakistan government had sent a Special Envoy and why he had met the opposition leaders, who are not reconciled to the BNP defeat at the hustings.

The Hasina government did not waste much time in fulfilling its poll promise. It has created a probe agency, tribunal and appointed a team of prosecutors to launch the trial process. As the prosecution gets cracking on the case, names of several Pakistani Army officers will appear in the Hall of Guilty. 

For the large majority of Bangladeshis including the post 1971 and 1975 generations, the carnage of the liberation war is still a raw wound. A closure to this tragedy demands punishment also to those Bangladeshi war criminals and collaborators who are still around – people like former Amir of the Jamaat Gulam Azam, current Amir of Jamaat Motiur Reheman Nizami and Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mujadid (both behind bars now), Khaleda Zia’s advisors Salauddin Qader Choudhury and Harris Choudhury and a host of others.

In 1995 a panel of eminent citizens, coordinated by Shafique Ahmed, (Law Minister now) compiled “evidence” on war crimes. The list includes many of the most senior figures in Jamaat who were then Razakars of Pakistani Army. Jamaat leaders collaborated with Pakistan army not only to advance their ideal of Pakistan as an Islamic state, but also to wreak vengeance on their enemies. The Razakars were officially created by the Pakistani military and trained and paid by the government of Pakistan.

Bangladesh Sector Commanders Forum (a group of freedom fighters who were active in the Mukti Bahini) also prepared a list of war criminals. It features names of 12 Pakistani army senior officers directly involved in the killings and rape. That would explain the Pakistan’s uneasiness. This has apparently rattled the ISI.

Conviction of the war criminals could create an anti-Pakistani wave in Bangladesh and severely impact the ISI’s allies — BNP and the Jamaat. Cleansing of the Bangladesh Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), ISI’s facilitator, already set in motion by Hasina government could seriously impact the Pakistani army’s prestige and open up human rights issues. Kampuchea’s (Cambodia’s) war criminals are being tried and sentenced even today. Even Nazi Germany’s perpetrators of the holocaust have been tracked down and dealt with. Serbian war criminals are being accounted for.

If the UN and US Congress can recognize events in Bosnia as genocide, the war crimes perpetuated by the Pakistan Army too deserve similar reprimand as the horrors of 1971 still haunt many families in Bangladesh as they wait for justice. While efforts have been made to bring architects of Bosnian genocide to justice, Pak Army generals remain at large. Slobodan Milosevic, the former President of Serbia, was charged with having committed genocide, either alon
e or in concert with other named members of a joint criminal enterprise. The indictment accused him of planning, preparing and executing the destruction, in whole or in part, of the Bosnian Muslim national, ethnical, racial or religious groups. Karadzic too could not escape the long arm of law and was arrested in Belgrade on 21 July 2008. An estimated 200,000 Bosnian Muslims were murdered in pursuit of a "Greater Serbia" during civil war (1992-1995). In one particularly shocking incident, over 8,000 Muslim men and boys were rounded-up killed execution-style by the Serbian army in Srebrenica in July 1995.

No less shocking is the act perpetrated by Pakistan Army. It killed 50,000 Bangladeshis in Dhaka alone in just two days, 25 and 26 March, 1971 under operation code named “operation searchlight”. It is said to be the biggest such military operation anywhere in the world. Nowhere in the world has any Army been involved in preplanned killing of intellectuals and professionals like doctors, engineers, civil servants, students and social workers and burying them in mass graves over nine months to spiritually cripple the natives of then East Pakistan.

Similarly officers and soldiers of East Bengal Regiment, East Pakistan Rifles and East Pakistan Police Force were killed. Rape and molestation of women were common as the Pakistan army became an occupation force and indulged in deliberate acts of revenge, retaliation and torture. Use of thousands of Bengali women as sex slaves in military camps and bunkers by the members of all ranks of Pakistani occupation army is no secret.

Where the Bangladesh tragedy differed from Bosnia’s ethnic cleansing was that while Bosnian crisis received all the attention from the international media and major powers that it deserved, the 1971 genocide in the then East Pakistan became a dot in the world history and an unwept blot on human kind. The international community and global human rights bodies cannot remain silent to this dark chapter which is no less shameful than the Bosnian genocide. Justice is not the prerogative of developed countries alone. 

Among top war criminals from Pakistan include  General Yahya Khan, Lt. General Tikka Khan, Lt. General A.A.K. Niazi,  Major General Rao Forman Ali,  Maj Gen Khadim Hussain Raja, Major General Mohammad Hussain Ansari, Brig Manzoor Hussain Atif, Colonel M Yakub Malik, Lt Colonel Shams-uz-Zaman, Major Mohd Abdullah Khan, Major Khurshid Omar and Captain Abdul Wahid. In addition, over 190 officers of Army, Navy and Air Force were involved in some war crimes or the other through 1971 till independence for East Pakistan was achieved.

Key accused is Lt Gen Niazi. As the Corps Commander, he is alleged to have participated in a series of high level conferences in March 1971 at Dhaka where genocide was planned and finalized. After he took over as Martial Law Administrator Zone-B, he issued orders to execute the plan in toto. Evidence is available that mass rape was carried out by men under Niazi’s command. He was personally present at the scene of the systematic murder of intellectuals on or about 12-16 December, 1971. Another charge against him is that he had detained at least 50 women and girls in Dhaka “for his personal pleasure”.

Equally guilty is Niazi’s junior Major General Rao Farman Ali Khan (Deputy Martial Law Administrator Zone B). He formulated the master plan to eliminate all intellectuals and Awami League leaders. Major General Mohammad Hussain Ansari, who served as Station Commander Chittagong, was also associated with the operation to eliminate the Bengali military men serving in Chittagong Garrison. After became GOC, 9th Division and Sub-Martial Law Administrator, Section III, he had carried out mass atrocities including murder, torture, rape and arson in the area under his control (July 1971 till surrender).

Among other key accused Colonel M Yakub Malik (53 Brigade 14 Division) was responsible for killing several Bengali military personnel and civilians in Comilla. Also guilty of war crimes was Lt. Col. A. Shams-ul-Zaman (known as Col. Shams). He was Assistant Sub-Martial Law Administrator (Khulna) till June 1971 and Sub-Martial Maw Administrator (Jessore) from July 1971. Under him from March to May 1971, nearly 2000 persons in batches were brought to Khulna Circuit House, tortured and killed at Forest Ghat.  Major Mohammad Abdullah Khan and Major Khurshid Omar were also accused of severe torture and killings in violation of international law. Though junior at that time, Captain Abdul Wahid was responsible for the anarchy and murder in Dhaka. Undoubtedly all these acts of injustice did undermine the international human rights regime. 

A close look at the crimes committed by Pakistani Army officers would put any Army to shame.  Islamabad, understandably, is nervous over the war crime trial and its international implications since pressure is already mounting on Zardari government to control terror groups on Pakistani soil.

Hasina government’s eagerness to bring an end to ‘most unfortunate chapter of Bangladesh’s history’ could be understood from the fact that it has set up a separate courtroom, chambers of the judges and offices of the prosecutors and investigators at the old High Court building on the Supreme Court premises. The probe agency will investigate allegations of any crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes, arson, attacks, looting, rape and forcing people to leave the country during the 1971 independence war based on documents, newspaper reports at home and abroad and other such evidence available.

The investigation agency will probe offences mentioned in Section 3 of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973 Act – crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, genocide, violation of any humanitarian rules during armed conflicts as laid down in the Geneva Convention of 1949, any other crimes under international laws, attempt, abetment or conspiracy to commit any such crimes and complicity in or failure to prevent commission of any such crime.

Trial of war criminal is necessary for strengthening the foundation of democracy in Bangladesh. As far as the ruling Awami League and the people of Bangladesh are concerned, war trial is a matter of validating the historical truth, which included appalling massacres and a concerted drive to wipe out intelligentsia. International community particularly the West has a responsibility to assist Dhaka to bring the perpetrators to justice. The 1971 genocide is no less gory than that in Cambodia, Germany or former Yugoslavia.