History of Our Liberation War
The Pakistan army had no friends in Bangladesh, except for a few traitors. To help the Pakistan army, these traitors created teams of rajakars, who were anti-Bangladesh militia. In September 1971, a political delegation from West Pakistan informed General Niazi that the rajakars consisted of armed cadres of Jamaat-e-Islami, a political party. General Niazi then ordered that the rajakars be called Al-Badr and AI-Shams. These rajakars had neither the strength nor the courage to face the freedom fighters directly. But as puppets of the Pakistan army, they carried out unspeakable torture and oppression on the Bangladeshi people.
The Pakistan army did not know the people of this country; it was the Al-Badr and Al-Shams rajakars who helped to identify them. Whatever its original meaning, there is no word than rajakar that is hated most by the Bangladeshi people.
When the world began to find out about the Pakistan armys massacres, the support of most countries was for Bangladesh. But two important countries, the United States of America and China, worked on Pakistans side, against Bangladeshs freedom. In 1971, even though mostly Muslim Bangladeshis were being killed, almost all other Muslim countries sided with Pakistan to try and stop our movement for freedom. Even thought the US government was on Pakistans side because of political reasons, the people of America stood by Bangladesh. When he came to know about the genocide, the US Consul General in Dhaka at that time, Archer K Blood, was livid; the telegram he sent to the US State Department is known to be the harshest letter ever written in the diplomatic world.
Near the end of the war, the USA sent warships from their Seventh Naval Fleet and the Soviet Union (now Russia) sent its nuclear naval fleet to the Bay of Bengal. As hard to believe as it may be, because of Bangladeshs freedom movement, two of the worlds largest superpowers at the time came up against each other with their nuclear weapons.
At the very end of the war, when victory for the joint Bangladeshi and Indian army was certain, America tried to stop it by repeatedly sending ceasefire proposals to the United Nations Security Council. But and the Soviet Union vetoed these proposals every time, clearing the road for our victory. But the country that played the most important role in our freedom movement was India. This neighbouring country took on the responsibility of feeding and sheltering Bangladeshi refugees and supplied our fighters with arms, training and shelter. After India recognised Bangladesh as an independent country, it joined forces with our freedom fighters. About 1,500 Indian fighters died in our Liberation War.
Around July, the freedom fighters began to fight back in an organised manner, and by October, they bad become strong and confident. They began to systematically attack and take over the Pakistan army border outposts. The guerrilla battles also began to be more and more daring. The Pakistan armys response to these battles was to go into villages with the rajakars, burn down houses and kill civilians. By that time, the Pakistan armys morale was beginning to weaken and the soldiers were reluctant to go outside of their camps
To be continued.
Source: Childrens History of the Liberation War by Muhammed Zafar Iqbal
(Translated by Yeshim Iqbal).
