Invoking Islam to Repress and Subjugate Bengalis of East Pakistan in 1971 by Shabbir Ahmed

Invoking Islam to Repress and Subjugate Bengalis of East Pakistan in 1971

By: Shabbir Ahmed

The people of Bangladesh were repressed and subjugated by the Pakistani military rulers and their cohort Islamists in 1971. They invoked various aspects of Islam to justify mass murder, rapes, and torture of Bengalis. The political Islamists used Islam to commit genocidal crimes. I myself saw and observed the severity of crimes committed against the Bengalis in general and the minority Hindus in particular. All the crimes were justified in the eyes of most of the Mullahs and their allied fundamentalist forces. Many Bengalis still remember the crimes of the political Islamists even after thirty four years of the independence of Bangladesh. Here I am writing a few of the atrocities that I saw in 1971. First of all, I am giving a brief background information on the conflicts created by the Pakistani military and their Islamist cohorts.

Bangladesh, whose name used to be East Pakistan, was a part of Pakistan till December 16, 1971. In East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), the movement for liberal democracy (against military and theocratic rule of Pakistan) grew very fast since late 50s of the last century. In this movement, the intellectuals and the liberal politicians of all secular parties in general and the political leaders of a major political party Awami League in particular, contributed to mobilize public opinion in favor of democratic movement in a Muslim majority East Pakistan. As one can understand that the intellectuals can write and create a wave on an issue among the conscious section of the population of a country but ultimately there should be the political leaders having clear political agenda to carry forward the messages to the grass root level. The people of East Pakistan were fortunate enough to have a charismatic political leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (we lovingly call him �Bongobondhu� meaning a friend of Bengal), who wholeheartedly wanted liberal democracy and separation of Islam from politics as opposed to Islamic theocracy, fundamentalism, and military rule in the then Pakistan. He popularized secular democratic values in East Pakistan � an overwhelmingly Muslim majority province of Pakistan. The nation was under the military rule of Gen. Ayub Khan till 1969. Then another military man, Gen. Yahya Khan, took over the power and promised to establish democracy through adult franchise.

In December 1970, a free and fair election was held throughout the nation. In this election, Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman�s party Awami League won 167 out of 300 parliamentary seats in the entire Pakistan. His party got 167 seats (out of 169 seats) from East Pakistan but did not get a single seat from West Pakistan (now Pakistan). Compared to East Pakistan, the intellectuals and the political leaders in West Pakistan were way behind in promoting secular liberal democratic values. So, there were sharp differences in the vision and mindset between the people of East and West Pakistan.

The victory of Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman�s Awami League did not bode well with the military rulers from West Pakistan. Besides, the Islamic fundamentalist parties including Jamaat-i-Islam of Pakistan and Muslim League were not all that thrilled to see a secularist party such as Awami League literally knocking at the door to assume the power to rule the entire of Pakistan. Furthermore, the military in power thought that the establishment of liberal democracy would undermine the unlimited power the military had in those days in Pakistan. Whereas, the Islamic fundamentalists thought that the establishment of secular democracy by Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman�s Awami League would seriously jeopardize the Islamists dream for a totalitarian Islamic Shariah rule in Pakistan. Therefore, both the military and the Islamic fundamentalist parties of Pakistan joined hands to deny handing over power to Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and to his party Awami League even though they got clear mandate to rule Pakistan.

At one point, on 25th March, 1971 the military in power under President Gen. Yahya Khan overturned the election results and cracked down on unarmed Bengalis (people of East Pakistan) for supporting and voting Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his party the Awami League. In the night of 25th March, they killed tens of thousands of people in Dhaka city alone by targeting minority Hindus, students, Awami League supporters, and young men/women. They immediately arrested Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and took him to a jail in West Pakistan, which is thousand miles away from East Pakistan. Later, they continued their operation throughout East Pakistan for nine months. Millions of people were displaced and about ten million people took shelter as refugees in the neighboring provinces of India. The elected leaders of Awami League had no other choice but to form a government in exile in India and start a freedom struggle for the marginalized population of East Pakistan.

The most hideous development however was the joining of the Islamic fundamentalists with the Pakistan army in wanton killing, raping, torture, and extortion of the Bengalis. They said that they were protecting Islam and Pakistan, both from becoming extinct in East Pakistan. Many of the Mullahs justified the killings and rapes mentioning the rulings in Qur�an (verses of God) and Hadith (sayings of Prophet Muhammad). All the fundamentalist forces came together and they organized to form Islamic paramilitary militia forces with the support and training given by the Pakistan military in power. Three main forces they formed were: Razakars, Al-Badars, and Al-Shams. Razakars were composed of the fundamentalist members and supporters from the whole country. Al-Badars and Al-Shams were mainly the members of the student wing of the fundamentalist party Jamaat-e-Islami headed by the political leaders Maulana Abul Ala Moududi (now deceased), and many ideologues of Moududi such as Golam Azam (retired, living comfortably in Bangladesh), Maulana Matiur Rahman Nizami (currently a Minister in Bangladesh), and few other Bengali Islamists.

The members of Razakar, Al-Badar, and Al-Shams forces were trained by Pakistan army just like Talibans of Afghanistan. They could kill anyone if they deemed them to be an enemy of Islam or of Pakistan. They carried out this brutal operation till our independence on 16th December 1971. During the turbulent nine-month period in 1971, the Pakistan army and the Islamic Militia forces could investigate anyone to check whether he knew the four basic Kalemas (Kalema means the pledge or allegiance to Allah and Muhammad, which every good Muslim must know by heart). According to a fundamentalist Muslim, one cannot be a good Muslim unless one could recite those Kalemas in Arabic uninterruptedly. That was not all. Everyone had to wear Islamic cap (called �tupi� in Bangladesh) to show the army and their allied Islamic militia that he was a Muslim. Just for being Hindu was a crime of the century! Many Hindus who could not flee to India were thus killed. Many supporters of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Awami League who could not hide and/or flee to India were killed as well to keep Islam and Pakistan intact.

In 1971, on one day, I was riding a bus. The bus was halted by Pakistan army and Razakars. Before the bus could come to a dead stop, the driver instructed everyone to wear Islamic cap and memorize the four Kalemas of Islam in Arabic. The first Kalema, which is better known as Kalema Taiyeb in Arabic, is �La Ilaha Illallahu Muhammadur Rasulullah� meaning �there is no other God but Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet.� I remember quite well the terror and tremor in the bus. Everyone was panicked and terrified and couldn�t wear the cap properly because then all of us were terrified and our hands were constantly in tremor. We were ordered to get down from the bus. We approached one-by-one. We had to recite the Kalemas. A Pakistan army and few Razakars asked everyone whether we were Muslims. Fortunate for us, all the passengers could say the Arabic pledges and we were allowed to board the bus and resume our journey. I still could remember seeing few hapless persons handcuffed (probably from another bus) on one side. I heard people saying that most probably those unfortunate ones couldn�t utter the Islamic pledges and they failed to prove that they were Muslims. In those turbulent days, this could have been a horrendous crime in the eyes of the brute Pakistani military and their Islamist allies. A harsh death penalty was given to many who failed to prove that they were Muslims. Many Hindus started memorizing the four Arabic pledges of Islam just to save their neck. The Pakistan army and Islamic militia forces came to know about this later. So, they started checking whether they were circumcised like Muslims even though they were able to recite the Kalemas. Therefore, it was rather difficult for a Hindu to escape death from the Pakistan army and Islamic militia forces in 1971 inside East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).

I still remember the mass scale massacre of Hindus of a small village called �Naria� near Moulvibazar, in the northeastern part of Bangladesh. Pakistan army in cohort with the Islamic paramilitary forces (�Razakars�) attacked all the Hindu families of that village. I was living with my Aunt�s family at the time in a neighboring village. I still remember the heartfelt crying of one Hindu survivor �Mr. Nolini,� whose all family members were killed by the Pakistan army and Razakar Islamists. He survived because he became unconscious (and that�s why he survived) probably a second before the army and the Islamic forces shot bullets from the machine guns on the columns in which all the members of his family were lined up by the army. Mr. Nolini was probably in his early 60s and was recovered by the neighboring villagers from the pool of blood of his near and dear ones. He was brought by the sympathizers to my Aunt�s house where I was living. My Aunt�s husband was a friend of Mr. Nolini. As the only survivor, he was crying and regretting the following day by saying why he was not being killed by the Pakistan army and by the fundamentalist forces. What we came to know was that he felt unconscious (probably a second before the army and the fundamentalist forces opened fire from the machine guns) when he saw every one of his family including his little grandson crying and waiting for imminent deaths standing on the columns. About thirty members of his near and dear ones (his sons and their families and others) were mercilessly killed in that village in one evening sometime in April/May of 1971. Everyone standing there (including myself) cried after seeing the gentleman the following morning. Still, it is hard for me to check my tears whenever I remember that old gentleman rolling on the ground for the loss of his near and dear ones. The villagers later tried to help him to flee to India because they figured that the army and the Razakar Islamists would come back and would even kill those who helped Mr. Nolini, a Hindu.

The Pakistan army and Islamic paramilitary forces raped many girls and women. Most of the religious leaders or Maulnas were the patrons and supporters of the killers and the rapists. Many of them were even the perpetrators of all these heinous crimes. At that time, I even heard them saying in Mosques that the proper actions by Pakistan military against Hindus helped protect Islam in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The Pakistan army and theirs allied religious forces captured Bengali girls and women mostly from the minority Hindu community. Many army officers captured the Bengali women to keep them as �pleasure girl.� Most of the Mullahs justified these types of acts as Mut�a marriage (temporary marriage) approved by Islam. To them, it was perfectly okay because the Muslim Pakistan soldiers and their allied religious forces rescued Pakistan from the enemies of Pakistan and Islam. So, according to them, the women captured by these forces were Halal (meaning okay according to Islamic law) as spoils of the war. Many Mullahs were not even shameful at all in giving their edict in public meetings in favor of the Islamic paramilitary forces and Pakistan army. I asked a few times to Mullahs in Bangladesh about the torture on Hindus and liberal Muslims by the Islamic paramilitary forces. In reply, these Mullahs tried to cover up and defend shamelessly. I observed similar attitude among many so-called Islamic thinkers (not Mullahs but western-educated defenders of Islam). A disgruntle Mullah named Maulana Abul Ala Moududi of Pakistan supported all the torture on minority Hindus and liberal Muslims by allowing his party Jamaat-I-Isami in forming different paramilitary forces. In the whole Muslim world, this Maulana is regarded as an Islamic scholar. In response to my strong criticisms, many times I was reminded by the Islam-oriented Bengalis about the scholarly works of this killer Mullah Moududi on Islam. I started questioning: where did Mullah Moududi get inspiration to let his party take part in genocidal crimes against Hindus and liberal Muslims? Did this scholar get inspiration from the scriptures that he knew so well? Inspired by Maulana Moududi, almost all the Mullahs supported and/or defended the genocide of Bengalis in 1971.

Many Mullahs took active part in the killings. For example, Maulana Delwar Hussain Saidee (a current parliament member in Bangladesh from Jamaat-I-Islami) and Maulana Matiur Rahman Nizami (a current minister in Bangladesh from Jamaat-I-Islami) are two among many, who were wanted by police for their crimes after the independence of Bangladesh. The crimes committed by the political Islamists in 1971 was severe. There were innumerable number of incidences of torture, brutality, killings, and rapes committed by the Pakistan army and the Islamist Fifth Columnist of the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). During the last three/four days of our independence war, these forces killed many secular Bengali intellectuals including university professors, journalists, doctors, newspaper editors, and others before their surrender in December 16, 1971. After the independence of Bangladesh, the government banned all the religious (read Islamic) political parties according to constitutional law to separate state from the Mosque. That was sufficient of crime for Bangladesh for not being recognized by not only Saudi Arabia but also by many Islamic nations of the globe. Through a tragic coup, the government was changed on August 15, 1975. Does this surprise anyone that Saudi Arabia recognized Bangladesh immediately after the change of the government? A military dictator named Gen. Ziaur Rahman came to power by a stratagem. He immediately deleted the article of separation of religion from politics from the constitution. He even allowed Islamic political parties to grow and function. In a planned way, the Islamic politics and the allied parties were brought to the surface by changing the secular constitution of Bangladesh. The constitution was changed later to make Islam as the state religion of Bangladesh. Now, two of the fundamentalist parties (Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikko Jote (Islami Unity Council)) are sharing power in an alliance with two other semi-Islamic parties. In 1972, we started as a pragmatic liberal secular state but now with time we are going down under the influence of political Islam.

Many intellectuals, progressive democracy-loving young men/women, and minorities sacrificed their lives in the hands of the brutal political Islamists with a dream to have a non-communal Bangladesh for all irrespective of their religious identities. But, the political Islamists extended their base through Madrasas, Islamic non-government organizations, and Islamic charities. Gradually, they have gained strength to share government power. Still, their militant cadres are killing respected secular people. Many minority men/women have been tortured and killed since they took over power after the election in 2001. The secularization of Bangladesh, which happened rapidly in 1972 with our independence was replaced by the gradual Islamization. All indications are there that this nation of 140 million people will become another fundamentalist Islamic nation a la Afghanistan unless we start re-educating our people by showing the gross inanities in Political Islam, which is thwarting all the progress in the nation and above all taking the people of Bangladesh to a journey backwards in time.