On December 16, 1971, at 09:00 am East Pakistan Time, Commander of Pakistan Forces in Eastern theatre surrendered to Indian Army and Mukti Bahini. East Pakistan became Bangladesh; Pakistani flag was removed from the last buildings inside Dhaka cantonment. The tragic and bloody end of East Pakistan technically marked the end of Pakistan in the east and end to the ideology in both parts. People of my generation never saw united Pakistan. All we were told about that debacle was the pack of lies through state produced material in the shape of textbooks.
It is the biggest tragedy in our national history, yet nobody could be held responsible for. It is ever more tragic and heart aching that the people responsible got state funeral with full military honours. Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi passed away in 2004, demanding for court martial. Despite that he was indicted by Hamood-ur-Rehman Commission, it was his firm conviction that he followed the orders of his seniors like General Gul Hassan, General Hameed etc. The scale of the tragedy demanded thorough investigations but the Hamood-ur-Rehman Commission report was never made public. It was only in the year 2000 when this top secret document got published in India Today that Pakistan government under General Musharaf decided to publish it in December 2000.
The lamentable aspect of the situation is that the right leaning forces, which actually dominate the corridors of power, have never really demanded for the accountability of those responsible. There has been a very strange kind of sense of relief in right wing parties on this tragedy who otherwise claim to be the guardians and custodians of geographical and ideological frontiers of Pakistan. Patriotism demands that the tragedy of East Pakistan should be understood and we must make sure that such an incident never repeats itself.
