AoA

It is another 16th December, which reminds us of the fall of Dhakka on 16th December, 1971. Forty years have passed and miseries, pain and agony remains there (I also dont know why this day comes in the cold and sad month of December!) ..

Connected to this event are a number of things, one of important thing is a a video or pictures where Lt General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi is signing instrument of surrender as a looser while General Jagjit Singh Arora is affixing his signatures as the winner party! And while watching that scene many of Pakistanis use names for Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi as if he is the only responsible for that surrender and he is such a disgraced and scornful personality that one cannot use good words for him.

When we see over the then Lt General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, there is a great controversy with regard to him. His previous record/track record shows that he was the man who fought bravely in Burma theaters in second world war and was given title of tiger and was awarded Military Cross. though at that time he was too junior, just a lieutenant but he got such a fame that he was considered for Distinguished Service Order but he was not given that Order because he was too junior. Then he was only one of two Indian origin officers to be decorated for the Burma War (the other one was Sam Manekshaw - who was also one of the Field Marshal of India). Later in 1965 War, Niazi was there at the war of chawinda, where he bravely fought..... After 1971 war and reaching back to country, he was presented before the Hamoodur Rehman Commission with a number of charges. He also requested for court martial (presentation before the military generals) but he was not given any court martial rather was absolved of services by Bhutto and Tikka Khan! He also wrote a book and tried to state that he was made a scapegoat and Yahya Khan, Rao Farman Ali, Tikka Khan and Bhutto were responsible for separation of East Pakistan.. About his end, it is said that when in 2004, General passed away, not many people attended his janaza either... !.........
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amir_Abdullah_Khan_Niazi]

A question may arise in the minds of many, including my mind, why he is considered as the only responsible person. Was he, in fact the only man responsible to receive such a disrespect. Why not others!

i think we must not just blame gen Niazi for that tragedy...
There are many other factors that must be taken into account...

• The geographical distance between West and East Pakistan played a crucial role as there was an Enemy country existing between these two that was adamant to remove Pakistan from world map from the very first day..
• The major superpowers were involved so situation was very critical for Pak Army..
• Local people were against Pakistan amid mass propaganda by Indians...
• Mukti Bahini, the Indian sponsored guerrillas...
• Direct indian Invasion...
• The logistic support for Pak Army was cut off...
• Pak Army didn't have Air support as aircrafts in East Pakistan didn't have fuel to fly combat or Ground support missions...

The Political Reasons
Mr Bhutto was not showing flexibility...
Banagalis were feeling deprived as they thought that Pakistan (West) is enjoying while they pay...
They were also made think that Pakistan does not want to give them their rights...

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Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.
But when love is one sided, holding off is no more an option.

W.A bro,

You are absolutely right in saying that only Gen.Niazi was not responsible for the Dhaka debacle rather all those at the helm of affairs were equally convicted of negligence,bad-governance,mismanagement,ego-centrism and self vested interests.Not to blame any,one should think over his own share in the failure of his target and the input-cum-output comparative scale.It is crystal clear that success or failure do not come overnight rather these are amalgamations and collection of overall mean progress of whole span of time.
As far as Gen.Niazi's fault in the secession of Eastern Wing from the Western Wing is concerned,it is evident from the history that he along with the high brass of military and civil establishment was found guilty of negligence but the fact remains all the same that the factors led to the lethal incident were many:Political,social,geographical,economical and administrative.All the stakeholders at the nook and corner neglected their mandates and bad-governance despite consecutive military takeovers added fuel to fire.

Let me clear one thing that countries and nations are ruined more by inside treachery than outside conspiracies.Not to talk of East Pakistan,Our economy and business hub Karachi,our unpaid borders security guards tribal belt and our energy rich Baluchistan are terribly turning rebellious owing to the unwise and unjust policies of all the incumbents.

But being optimistic,we should look at the future despite carrying on the conventional blame-game and abusive language.All the stakeholders,the common masses and media should extend their full support for the realization of the dreams of the forefathers of the country.May our dear homeland exist till dooms day,Amin.

I agreed with Imtiaz. Actually Gen. were not responsible for the fall alone. 65% population of the east, where they were deprived from their basic rights. There was only a single maj. gen in Pakistan army who was bangali. Mr. Bhatto was used as scapegoat. And the roots of the separation can be found in the decade of 60's

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Life is a Comedy if you feel, and tragedy if you think

Gen. Niazi was not responsible infact every person who is bound to obey the orders is not responsible for any such act.
Gen Niazi is past now lets talk about Baluchistan now why we are trying to made another east pakistan? who will be responsible for that? Lets try to figure out culprits now rather to wait for another 16 Dec

it seems that we are going to repeat the history of Bangladesh . Baluchistan problem demands in-depth intellectualism and wisdom. The inaduate military operations in the 65 years history of Pakistan only further deteriorate the situations. Operation in East Pakistan, KPK,Karachi and Baluchistan had adverse repercussions. if Govt will not solve the problems of Baluchistan it will prove very harful for country...

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LOVE all, TRUST a few, do WRONG to none......

Martial law was responsible for this sad incident. Most of the things that went wrong in this country happened during the martial law periods.
for example
1)Pakistan sold its rivers to India during first martial law
2)Pakistan lost its half part during second martial law
3)Pakistan is facing religious and sectarian terrorism, the foundation of it was laid in third martial law. klashankof culture too was introduced during this period.
MQM(a mafia) came into being during this period.
4) Balochistan issue arose during fourth martial law when Akbar bugti was killed by Gen. Musharaf. Terrorism boosted due to Pakistan,s involvement in a foreign war.
These are few major things. Other wise the list is very large.
Democracy has never prevailed in this country, and power always rested in the hands of military either directly during martial laws or indirectly during other periods.
I am of the opinion that military is responsible for fall of Dhaka.. If military is not then why it tries to protect even its retired Generals, who tore the law of Pakistan into pieces many times.

My comments may look harsh to some people. I want to apologize those in advance. But this is bitter truth of our history............

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When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. (Paulo Coehlo)

Dear,your points are relevant and correct.Actually the problems create when someone tries to misuse,overuse or neglect one's coveted duties.If the politicians had presented a role model of good governance;if the military had not consistently intervened in the political affairs-against their constitutional provisions and if all tom,deck and harry had fulfilled his duties well,this dogmatic incident would never had happened.The fault lies within,otherwise foreign conspiracies can not harm us.Look,when our immunity system is strong,diseases find no room for them within our body,but when we grow old,then they find us an easy prey to attack on.According to a report,some 17 secessionist movement are running in India,but we can see that India is not only triumphant in crushing them but is also diverting the World's attention to its successful Public Diplomacy(PD).I think we should learn a lesson from our previous blunders and should set our house in order lest these debacles happen again!!Let us try to share our part in rehabilitate Pakistan from the menaces of corruption,sectarianism,violence,ignorance and bad-governance.

Subh ka boola sham ko ghar ajay to usay boola nai kehty.

Gen. Niazi was a symbol of corrupt narrow mentality of people of West pakistan. according to me it was neither Distance nor Mukti Bahini responsible for our break up. it was the difference between social and mental up-bringing of the people of both sides that led to separation. people of West Pakistan were more secular and Muslim than west Pakistanis, who are still facing the consequences of being inflexible. There is no extremism in todays Bangladesh, while we are burning from head to toe in the fire of religious and non-religious extremism.My hearts is aching but I know Bengali's are not traitors it is we who couldn't grant them their rights.

So Bangladesh was a foreign conspiracy in which the Bengalis were fooled to fight against the country that they had struggled to build?

In any case, the independence of Bangladesh didn't just occur in a day. It was a process. They wanted true representation. West Pakistan wanted parity. If East Pakistan had 55% of Pakistan's population, why was it given 50% representation in parliament? Is this democracy? Is this fair?

Secondly, West Pakistan invested revenue from East Pakistani agriculture into industrial projects in Punjab. The Bengalis, just like the Baloch, wanted the revenue generated by their resources to benefit their people first and then everyone else. We denied the Bengalis that just the way we deny this to the Baloch. Instead, we give them bogus "packages".

This is a long story though. In short, the first step (among many) towards the independence of Bangladesh was taken in 1948. And it was taken not by Mujeeb-ur-Rehman but by the Quaid-e-Azam himself when he visited Dhaka University and said:

"Urdu and Urdu alone shall be the national language of Pakistan"

How can we impose a foreign language on a place where 99% of the population speaks Bengali? In fact, in 1947, Bengali was the most spoken language of Pakistan.

Here's what we can do: we can be childish and blame everything on our usual imaginary enemies - secret RAW/CIA agents and aliens from Planet Gagaland. Or we can be mature, accept our faults and failures and hence learn from them so that we do not repeat them. From what it seems, we are still led to believe that Bangladesh fought for its independence not because of our discriminatory attitude towards them but because our army couldn't deploy there on time or because India had intervened or because the big, bad powers wanted to break Pakistan...