The role of super powers and the Muslim states

in the Liberation war, Unsolved issues between

Bangladesh and Pakistan

Presented By
Ataus Samad Raju
Senior Lecturer
Dept. of Natural Science
Port City International University
Email: [email protected]
The role of super powers and the Muslim
states in the Liberation war, Unsolved
issues between Bangladesh and Pakistan

1. The Role of India in Bangladesh

Liberation War
2. The role of USA, USSR, China and
Muslim World
3. Unsolved issues between Bangladesh
and Pakistan
 The Role of India in Bangladesh
Liberation War
• India played a vital role in the Liberation
war of Bangladesh. Not only political
but also military as well as people-to-
people support was given by India.
• Besides, India provided support and
refuge to the people of Bangladesh. The
contribution of Indian government and
the citizens of India is an integral part of
the history of the Independence war of
Bangladesh
• On 27 March 1971, the Prime Minister
of India Mrs. Indira Gandhi, expressed
full support of her government to the
Bangladeshi struggle for independence.
 Military Support and assistance
• India also provided training and arms and ammunitions
for the freedom fighters. The BSF has established
camps at which 50,000 Bengalis are reportedly
receiving training in guerrilla and sabotage tactics.
Limited quantities of arms and ammunition provided
to the Bengali and some Indian forces have infiltrated
into East Bengal to provide assistance and training to
the Mukti Bahini.
• From the month of September, the Indian army
gradually started to participate directly in the
Liberation War. Initially the support was limited to
indirect fire support (artillery support) to Mukti Bahini
units. From November, the Indian army was permitted
to conduct operations up to 10 miles inside Bangladesh
territory.
• Indian Eastern Naval contingent (1 aircraft
carrier and several warships) could have
imposed a blockade of the province and cut
off supplies from the sea, as the Pakistan
Naval arm in the east only contained 1
destroyer and 4 gunboats.
• On the Eastern front, the Indian Army joined
forces with the Mukti Bahini (Freedom
fighters) to form the Mitro Bahini (“Allied
Forces”). India’s Army, Navy and Air Force and
Mukti Bahini were lauded for their role in
ending a genocide.
• India not only spent seven thousand crores of
rupees for the liberation war of Bangladesh but
also sacrificed the lives of 3630 officers and
Jawans of her Army. About 9856 officers and
Jawans were wounded and more than 213
officers and Jawans are missing till today. The
blood of these Indian soldiers are mixed with the
soil of Independent Bangladesh.
 Refugee Shelter
• Almost 10 million men and
women who were forced to
leave their motherland to
save themselves entered
various states of India like
West Bengal, Tripura, Assam,
Meghalaya, Bihar and Uttar
Pradesh where they lived as
refugees. India willingly took
the responsibility and cared
for these unfortunate men,
women and children for nine
months.
 Diplomatic assistence
• From 24 October 1971 Indira Gandhi started travelling to
the USA and Western Europe countries (Belgium,
German, France, and Great Britain) with a view to create
world public opinion and gain support.
• Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India during that
time, was able to secure support from the Soviet Union,
The United Kingdom and France to ensure that there
would be no directives in favour of Pakistan in the United
Nations Security Council.
• On 9 August 1971, Indira Gandhi signed a twenty-year
treaty of friendship and co-operation with the Soviet
Union. It was greatly shocking for the United States, and
decreasing the possibility, that China would become
involved in the conflict. The Soviet leader Leonid
Brezhnev assured that if the US or China attacked India,
the Soviet Union would take severe counter measures
• On 30th August, 1971 through the opening of
Bangladesh Mission in New Delhi,
the Bangladesh government earned a remarkable
success in recognition process. Although in the
meantime on 18th April, in Kolkata, the first
Bangladesh Mission began its ceremonial journey.
After that the 2nd and 3rd Missions started
working in USA and Britain.
• Not only for the freedom of Bangladesh, but also
for the release of the Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman from the prison of Pakistan, the
then Prime Minister of India Smt. Indira Gandhi
traveled around the world to gather support for
the cause.
 Recognition of Bangladesh
• The subject of recognition was complementary to
the birth of a nation. At first, the responsibility of
recognition came on the shoulder of India.
‘Bangladesh’s Recognition became an integral
part of India’s internal politics.
• The Indian political parties, various professional
organizations, cultural organizations and the
common man of India wanted that India should
recognize first. The ruling Congress Party was also
in favor of recognizing Bangladesh as a nation but
it had to take place at an appropriate time.
• The existing practical situation forced India to be
very cautious regarding the recognition issue.
Indian government was vigilant on regional and
international politics as well as on international
law and its effects.
• Bangladesh attained all the conditions to be
recognized in accordance with the International
law de jure. However, in order to get recognition,
it had to wait till 6th December, 1971.
• Although the recognition issue was legal, but
overall it was a political decision. The demand for
recognition of Bangladesh turned into a national
issue within Indian politics since the end of
March to December for nine long months.
• The contribution of Indian
government and the
citizens of India is a vital
part of the history of the
Independence war of
Bangladesh. Without
mentioning the
contribution of India, the
history of Bangladesh is
incomplete.
The role of USA, USSR, China and
Muslim World
USA role
• The foreign policy of United States about
Bangladesh Liberation war was double minded
and against the interest of Bangladesh. They tried
not to create bad impression about America on
both Pakistani and Bengali leaders‟ minds. But
Nixon government helped Pakistan morally,
politically and economically.
• US president Richard M. Nixon supported
Pakistan from March to December in 1971
against Bangladesh continuously.
• Nixon always gives high priority to Pakistan in US policy
in South Asia concern. India- Russia treaty on 9 August
in 1971 surprised the US and became a threat for
them. As a result the USA helped Pakistan and support
the genocide in East Pakistan done by Pakistani army.
• The US politicians especially a number of senator and
members of congress criticised the government policy
in Bangladesh (East Pakistan) issue.
• Senator Edward Kennedy asked for US government to
take step immediately for peace in Pakistan because
massacre was happened in East Pakistan by using
American weapon. Ten senators requested for sending
relief to East Pakistan and stop economic and military
help to West Pakistan.
• In this circumstance US provided 0.8milion
arm assistance, 900million dollars economic
assistance during 1971 and 0.7million arms
assistance and 441million economic assistance
during Liberation War of Bangladesh
• On June 22, 1971, the New York Times
reported that Pakistani ships loaded with US
arms were headed for the Pakistan coast,
despite a US embargo on arms supplies to
Islamabad.
• By June 25, reports said a third Pakistani
freighter loaded with US military supplies had
left New York for Karachi.
• Information had known the conversation
between Nixon-Kissinger, US provided arms
assistance through the 3rd country
• In 12 December an emergency meeting was
called and Nixon, Kissinger and general Heig
were present in this meeting. They decided to
send aircraft Carrier, USS Enterprise to Bay of
Bengal.
 USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) role
• As India had decided to go on with the war, and Indira
Gandhi had failed to gain American support and
sympathy for the Bengalis who were being tortured in
East Pakistan, she finally took a hard move and on
August 9, signed a treaty of peace, friendship and
cooperation with Soviet Union.
• introduced a resolution in the UN Security Council,
calling for a cease-fire and the withdrawal of armed
forces by India and Pakistan. Believing India can win the
war and Indira Gandhi being determined to protect the
interest of Bengalis, Soviet Union vetoed out the
resolution, thus letting India fight for the cause. Nixon
and Kissinger pressurized Soviets to a very extent but
luck did not support them.
• Russian navy started to Bay of Bengal with
two groups of ships with nuclear weapons.
They trailed the US activities from Indian
Ocean in the meantime. But this policy was
failed due to surrender of Pakistan army in 16
December 1971.
• Americans returned and couldn’t do anything.
Soviet Union had also threatened China that,
if they ever opened a front against India on its
border, they will receive a tough response
from North.
• In the sub-continent over the 1971 Bangladesh
struggle “was a power struggle between China
and the Soviet Union and a strategic conflict
between Moscow and Washington”. In South Asia
during December 1971 the Soviet Union seemed
to have gained most from this three-cornered
fight.
• Soviet Union's positive role thus contributed
immensely to the historic triumph of Bangladesh.
• The role of super powers in the war of liberation
brought to bold relief the reality of international
politics during the early 1970s. Each of the two
super powers played its part in accordance with
its own national, regional and global interests.
 China
As a long-standing ally of Pakistan, the People's Republic
of China reacted with alarm to the evolving situation in
East Pakistan and the prospect of India invading West
Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Believing that
just such an Indian attack was imminent, Nixon
encouraged China to mobilise its armed forces along its
border with India to discourage it.
The Chinese did not, however, respond to this
encouragement, because unlike the 1962 Sino-Indian
War when India was caught entirely unaware, this time
the Indian Army was prepared and had deployed eight
mountain divisions to the Sino-Indian border to guard
against such an eventuality. China instead threw its
weight behind demands for an immediate ceasefire.
• When Bangladesh applied for membership to
the United Nations in 1972, China vetoed their
application because two United Nations
resolutions regarding the repatriation of
Pakistani prisoners of war and civilians had
not yet been implemented. China was also
among the last countries to recognize
independent Bangladesh, refusing to do so
until 31 August 1975
Mulism world
• Saudi Arab, Indonesia, Libya, Turkey, Jordan,
United Arab-Emirate, Iran provided arms
assistance, especially fighter plane to Pakistan
during the Liberation War of Bangladesh. Told
in teleconference that already 4 planes
reached in Pakistan from Jordan, 22 planes
was going on, Saudi Arab and Turkey
expressed willing to send 5 planes to Pakistan.
Already France proposed to sell some plane to
Pakistan.
• Though not mentioned in the conversations
here, the UAE sent in half a squadron of
fighter aircraft and the Indonesians dispatched
at least one naval vessel to fight alongside the
Pakistani Navy Friend state of Pakistan, North
Korea sent an arms shipment of 800tons to
Pakistan where had artillery multiple rocket
launcher and ammunition
 Unsolved issues between
Bangladesh and Pakistan
Recognition
• The left-oriented Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) led
by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who had been the main
political opponent of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,
came into power in the aftermath of Bangladesh's
independent from Pakistan.
• A heavy lobbying staged by Pakistan, other states
such as the People's Republic of China, Saudi
Arabia and some other Middle Eastern nations,
refused to recognize Bangladesh. In 1972, Pakistan
left the Commonwealth of Nations after it
extended membership to Bangladesh.
• For its part, Bangladesh demanded an apology
from Pakistan for war crimes committed by
the Pakistani military and reparations.
Bangladesh's development of close ties with
India, which had played a role in securing its
independence, also angered Pakistan.
• On the issue of Bangladesh's application for
membership to the UN, China, on Pakistan's
request, exercised its veto power for the first
time to stall the move, which helped Pakistan to
secure in a bargain the release of its Prisoners of
war and the return of troops to their prewar
positions.
• 1974, the relationship between Bangladesh
and Pakistan thawed. Rahman
visited Lahore for an Organization of the
Islamic Conference summit, and in return
the Parliament of Pakistan authorised Bhutto
to extend recognition to Bangladesh. In June
1974, Pakistani Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali
Bhutto visited Bangladesh and paid homage to
Bangladesh's war memorial at Savar Upazila.
Delhi Agreement
The Delhi Agreement was a trilateral agreement
signed between India, Pakistan
and Bangladesh on 28 August 1973. It allowed the
repatriation of prisoners of
war and interned officials held in the three
countries after the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation
War. The agreement has been criticized for
Pakistan's failure to repatriate Urdu-speakers in
Bangladesh and not holding to account 195 senior
military officials accused of war crimes and
genocide.
Background of this treaty
• During the 1971 Bangladesh War, thousands of
Bengali bureaucrats and military personnel
were interned in West Pakistan along with their
families by the Pakistani Government.
• India held several thousand Pakistani prisoners
of war after the Surrender of Pakistan on 16
December 1971, including 195 military officers
accused of orchestrating the 1971 Bangladesh
genocide.
• President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto threatened to put
interned Bengali officials on trial if Bangladesh
proceeded with plans to indict alleged Pakistani
war criminals.
Implementation
• The treaty came into effect on 8 August 1973 and
ended on 1 July 1974. Under the terms of the
agreement, UNHCR supervised the repatriation of
Bangladeshi and Pakistani citizens.
• According to the UN, 121,695 Bengalis were
moved from Pakistan to Bangladesh. They
included high-level Bengali civil servants and
military officers.. India released 6,500 Pakistani
PoWs, who were mostly transported by train to
Pakistan. In 1974, General Niazi was the last
Pakistan officer symbolically repatriated through
the Wagah Border.
Urdu-speaking Bihari issue
• In pre-independence British India, there was an Urdu-
speaking Muslim minority in the Hindu majority state
of Bihar. In 1947, at the time of partition of India, the Bihari
Muslims, many of whom were fleeing the violence that took
place during partition fled to the newly independent East
Pakistan
• In Bangladesh, many in the Urdu-speaking community
wished to relocate to Pakistan, because they believe in
Pakistan nationalism. Biharis supported the Pakistan Armed
Forces during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War,
comprising majorities in armed paramilitary groups such
as Al-Shams, Razakars, and Al-Badr.
• Post independence Bangladesh scorned the Biharis for
having supporting the Pakistan army.
• Under the Delhi agreement, 108,744 non-Bengali civilians
and civil servants were moved from Bangladesh to Pakistan.
• In an agreement in 1974 Pakistan accepted 170,000 Bihari
refugees, however the repatriation process has since stalled.
Refugee crisis
• The Bangladesh government announced
Presidential Order 149 in 1972, offering
citizenship to Biharis.
• According to government sources 600,000
Biharis accepted the offer, and 539,669 opted
to return to Pakistan.
• But according to historian Partha Ghosh
approximately 470,000 Biharis out of a total of
700,000 Biharis opted to be repatriated to
Pakistan through the International Red
Cross. Several groups in Pakistan have urged
their government to accept the Biharis.
Immigration
• Due to their initial pro-Pakistan stance, the
Biharis were consistent in their wish to be
repatriated to Pakistan. Initially, 83,000 Biharis
(58,000 former civil servants and military
personnel), members of divided families and
25,000 hardship cases were evacuated to
Pakistan. By 1974, 108,000 had been transferred
to Pakistan (mainly by air); by 1981, about
163,000.
• By 1982 Pakistan had received 169,000
Biharis. Some Biharis also entered Pakistan
through illegal means.
• According to the UNHCR report 170,000
Biharis were repatriated after the second
Delhi Agreement.
• In 1977, 4,790 families were repatriated;
2,800 in 1979; 7,000 in 1981; 6,000 in 1984;
and 50 families in 1993.
• A total of approximately 178,069 Biharis were
repatriated to Pakistan between 1973-1993.
• In a visit to Bangladesh in 2002 Pervez Musharraf
(President of Pakistan) said while he had every
sympathy for the plight of thousands of people in
Bangladesh known as 'stranded Pakistanis', he could
not allow them to emigrate to Pakistan as Pakistan was
in no position to absorb such a large number of
refugees which shared no linguistic, cultural or history
with that of Pakistan. He encouraged his Bengali
counterpart not to politicize the issue and accept the
refugees as citizens being the successor state of East
Pakistan.
• Biharis were stateless until 2008 when a judgement by
the Dhaka High Court gave them right of citizenship.
The judgement does not cover refugees who were
adults at the time of Bangladesh Liberation War.
Apology Issue
• Bangladesh wants a formal apology by
Pakistan for the crimes against humanity on
innocent civilians by Pakistani soldiers
committed in 1971.
• Apology means, first, the acknowledgment of
crimes committed, second, feeling and
expressing remorse for crimes and, third,
doing something to restore what was
manifestly wrong and hurtful.
• It is therefore all the more necessary at this time for
the people in Bangladesh that Pakistan should at least
apologise to Bangladesh for the atrocities perpetrated
on Bangladeshi civilians.
• Dhaka would like a proper apology from the Pakistani
government for the large-scale killing of Bengalis.
• Bangladesh think like worldwide other incidents, like,
The Vatican has apologised for the actions of Catholics
who persecuted non-Catholics, and expressed sorrow
over the attack on Constantinople during the Crusades,
Japan has apologised to Koreans for wartime
aggression. So, it is time for Pakistan, too, to come to
terms with its past.
Asset Sharing
• Soon after its independence in 1971 the
Bangladeshi authorities made a demand of
their due share in the assets according to the
contribution made by the East Pakistan in the
development of the United Pakistan. The
estimated share which they had claimed was
about $4 billion.
• Bangladesh offers a proposal to accept the
half share of the total debt that is to be paid
by Pakistan till 1971 in an agreement in 1975.
• Prior to this settlement a committee was setup in
1972 with a task to investigate the legality of the
demands made by the Bangladesh, this
committee completely rejected those demands
rather they made a point that if the policy of
nationalization is applied over the issue it would
be Bangladesh that have to pay to Pakistan.
• It was under the military regime of Zia-ul-Haq
when the issue was surfaced again. He assured
the Bangladeshi authorities that he would look
up the matter and its legality. Another committee
was formed but nothing concrete came out over
this matter.
• This issue has become complicated as the
Bangladeshi authorities are stuck to their
stance whereas Pakistan has being changing
its positions on different occasions.
• The process of reconciliation between
Pakistan and Bangladesh which was started in
1974 remains unfinished because of the
unsettled disputes between the two countries.
Any Question ?
 Sample Questions
• Write a brief note about unsolved issues between Bangladesh and Pakistan.
• Write a brief note on role of India in the Liberation War of Bangladesh.
• Describe the role of Super Powers (USA, USSR, and China) in the Liberation
War of Bangladesh.
• Critically discuss the role of India in the liberation war of Bangladesh.
• Critically discuss the role of China in the liberation war of Bangladesh.
• Critically discuss the role of U.S.A and U.S.S.R in the liberation war of
Bangladesh.
• Evaluate the roles of various countries and creating global opinion in the
emergence of independent Bangladesh.
• What do you know about Delhi Agreement (1973)? Write a brief note about
unsolved issues between Bangladesh and Pakistan.
• Describe Contribution of India in the War of Liberation of Bangladesh.