After March 7…
<i>Pakistani military knew it was the end</i>
As Bangladesh is set to recall Bangabandhu's historic speech of March 7, 1971 tomorrow, the Pakistani media and former military officials acknowledged that the address marked the end of Pakistan 41 years ago.
“A parallel government had come into effect. After the (pre-partition) 1942 martial law in Sindh, this was the second parallel government in the subcontinent,” said Pakistan's newspaper, Dawn, in a recent opinionated article in its online version.
It recalled that on that day, “when ZA Bhutto was holding a press conference in Karachi and Mujib was addressing a public meeting in Dhaka, national flags on all official, semi-official and private buildings in Bangladesh were replaced by Bangladeshi flags.”
“Mujib's house hoisted the same flag,” read the article, “A leaf from history: A parallel government takes over.”
It recalled that on March 19, “when Yahya and Mujib met, it was all blank. No substantive talk took place. It was, therefore, decided to continue talks the next day. A more serious era was to follow.”
Dawn's review last week came as several ex-army officers earlier described the address to be the line which drew the end of a united Pakistan.
“Bangladesh had virtually come into being on March 7, 1971,” Lieutenant General Kamal Matinuddin wrote in his book, “Tragedy of Errors: East Pakistan Crisis 1968-1971”.
The commander of the Pakistani troops in East Pakistan, Lieutenant General AAK Niazi, in his “Betrayal of East Pakistan” wrote that after that day “Mujib virtually became the ruler”.
“His residence became the presidency . . . the command of the central government began to be defied,” he wrote.
But observations by another relatively junior officer reflected how the then West Pakistani military junta kept an anxious watch on what could be the content and impact of Bangabandhu's speech on over a million people assembled at the then Ramna Race Course Maidan.
The public relations officer of the Pakistani military in the then East Pakistan, Major Siddique Salik, had seen the event obviously from a Pakistani point of view. But he could not conceal his admiration for Bangabandhu as he described the scene in his “Witness to Surrender”.
“As the crucial 7 March - the day Mujib was to address a public rally at Ramna Race Course - approached, Dacca became restive with rumors, fears and apprehensions,” wrote Salik.
He recalled that the Pakistani Chief Martial Law Administrator's headquarters had directed Dhaka Radio station to stop this “nonsense” while he himself conveyed the order to the radio station.
“The Bengali friend (Bangabandhu) at the receiving end reacted sharply to the order. He said, 'If we cannot broadcast the voice of the 75 million people we refuse to work'. With that the radio station went off the air,” Salik wrote.
At the Race Course Maidan in the afternoon, he said Mujib mounted the dais and “surveyed the sea of humanity waiting for his long awaited declaration”.
“Mujib started in his usual thunderous tone but gradually scaled down the pitch to conform to the contents of his speech.
He did not make the unilateral declaration of independence but laid down four preconditions before attending the assembly session on March 25.
These were the lifting of martial law, transfer of power to the people's representatives, the return of the army to the barracks and the establishment of a judicial enquiry into the killing of Bangalees.
“The crowds that had surged to the Race Course dispersed like a receding tide. They looked like a religious congregation returning from mosque or church after listening to a satisfying sermon,” Salik wrote.
“They lacked the fury which might have motivated them to charge on the cantonment; as many of us had apprehended,” he added.
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