SYNOPSIS: 1971 MASSACRES IN BANGLADESH
From 1757 to 1947, India was a British Colony until the British withdrew its rule due to the anti-British movements. This led to India’s division into India and Pakistan. The Hindu majority areas were within India’s borders and the Muslim majority areas were put under the newly created Pakistan. Pakistan got two wings, West Pakistan was located in the west of India, while East Pakistan was located in the east of India. The distance between the two wings of Pakistan was about 1200 miles by land. Pakistan had been under military rule for most of its life.
Soon after Pakistan was born the West Pakistanis got the ruling power including 95% military and civil servants. Bengalis, the natives of East Pakistan, were never allowed to participate in ruling the country. The West Pakistani rulers turned the Bengali land into a colony. They were never given the power to rule the country although Bengalis were the 56% majority. The West tried to impose Urdu as the official language in the East. The issues of the state language, inter-wing economic and administrative disparities, provincial autonomy, defense of East Pakistan, and many other issues had been contributing to deteriorating the relations between the two wings of Pakistan. The people of East Pakistan marched on the streets for movements against the rulers of Pakistan. Bengali leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman demanded the autonomy of East Pakistan. He was arrested and tried as a secessionist and was kept in the prison for a total of 15 years.
The military held a general election in December 1970. East Pakistan’s Awami League, headed by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won the majority (167 out of 300 Seats of the Pakistan National Assembly), but the Pakistan President refused to hand over power and banned Awami League. On March 7, 1971, in front of the millions of people, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib declared, “Our struggle this time is for our freedom, our struggle this time is for our independence, Joy Bangla”.
The Pakistan Army launched, “Operation Searchlight” on 25 March 1971 which killed thousands of unarmed innocent people. In the early morning of March 26, 1971, just before he was arrested, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared the independence of Bangladesh and instructed the people to fight for independence from Pakistan. The liberation war lasted for 9 months from March 26 of 1971 to December 16 of 1971, leading to the birth of independent Bangladesh. The Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, and others unitedly struggled for their freedom bonded by their common identity of Bengali language and culture.
During the liberation war of Bangladesh, the heinous crimes against humanity such as large-scale killings and different types of atrocities including physical tortures, mass rapes, burning and destroying houses, businesses, infrastructures, industries, factories, crops, and other properties, and evictions of the Bengalis from their homes and forced them to leave their country to India were committed by the Pakistani occupation forces in 1971. These hideous crimes of the Pakistani armed forces continued widespread over the entire country in all the cities, towns, neighborhoods, and villages for 9 months until they surrendered to Bangladesh freedom fighters and allied forces. They killed an estimated 3 million people, displaced a further 30 million within East Pakistan, and raped over 400,000 Bangladeshi women in a planned campaign of genocidal killing and rape. About 10 million people were forced to flee the country and take shelter in India as refugees. These massacres were the most dreadful genocide after the World War II Holocaust. No other nation had paid such a high price for their freedom. But the world community and the new generations of Bangladesh, Pakistan, and the world did not know much about such vicious crimes of the Pakistani armed forces against the Bengalis in 1971.
This book exposes my personal experience about the hideous atrocities of the Pakistani armed forces during the 9-month period of the liberation war in 1971. Hundreds of occurrences of atrocities were cited in this book which were the horrible Genocides and Massacres committed by the Pakistani Armed Forces in Bangladesh in 1971.
SYNOPSIS: REVENGE OF RAPES (A NON-FICTION NOVEL)
Pakistan’s west wing (West Pakistan) was ruling its east wing (East Pakistan, now Bangladesh) since it was born on August 14, 1947, after India was divided based on the Hindu-Muslim religions following the 190 years of colonial rule of the British from 1757 to 1947. West Pakistan got ruling power including 95% military and civil servants from the beginning. The West Pakistani rulers turned the Bengali land into its colony. The Bengali people were never allowed to share the power to rule Pakistan, although Bengalis were the 56% majority of Pakistan. Bengalis started movements against the 23 years of colonial rules. The Pakistan Army launched the “Operation Searchlight” on March 25, 1971, killing thousands of people. Bengali leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on the morning of March 26, 1971, declared the independence of Bangladesh just before he was arrested by the Pakistani Army.
During the liberation war, the crimes against humanity included mass killings, tortures, rapes, destroying infrastructures, industries, factories, businesses, houses, and other properties, and displacing of millions of Bengalis from their homes committed by the Pakistani armed forces in 1971. They abducted women and kept them captives as sex slaves in their barracks, camps, and cantonments.
Maya, a final year medical student was abducted from the Rajshahi-Natore bus and kept as a sex slave by the Pakistani occupation forces. She was brutally tortured and raped daily for 8 months. She was freed when the Pakistani occupation forces surrendered. Maya along with hundreds of other captive girls and women got pregnant during their captivity in the Pakistani army cantonments. Maya and many other pregnant war heroines did not want to go back to their homes but rather decided to jump into the river to commit suicide as they would not be accepted by her family and society. Maya and other women were rescued by Mamun, a regional commander of freedom fighters, who helped her and other women with treatment and rehabilitation. Dr. Malika recognized Maya during treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Dr. Malika was 2-year senior to Maya at Rajshahi Medical College. Dr. Malika and Mamun helped Maya with better treatment and got her admitted to the Dhaka Medical College for her final year of the medical program. Dr. Malika kept Maya at her apartment for 2 years while Maya completed her medical degree (MBBS) and internship.
Maya gave birth to a baby girl, Joya. She gave Joya for adoption. She completed a medical degree in Dhaka city and escaped from Bangladesh. Joya grew up in America in a small city in upstate New York with her rich adopted parents who had no other children. At the university, she was insulted and humiliated by some students telling her bastard child was born out of rapes. She didn’t know about her biological parental identity. Joya asked her adopted parents to help find her biological mother. Joya fell in love with Adi who has been helping her since the day of admission and saved her from attacks and humiliations. Joya, her parents, and Adi went to Bangladesh and met with Mamun and Dr. Malika who were the friends of Adi’s parents.
Mamun wanted to marry Maya even though she was violated by the army commander. Maya used to love Mamun before but now she refused him because of social humiliation.
After a lot of searches even after putting ads in the newspapers, TVs, and other media sources Joya found her biological mother from another country and brought her to America. According to Maya, Col. Saleh Khan, the Commander of the Pakistani Armed Forces at Natore Cantonment was the only rapist who kept her as his personal sex slave, Then Joya wanted to find the rapist of her mother. She along with her adopted parents went to Pakistan and met with the officials of the US Embassy and Army headquarters in Islamabad. She went to Lahore to find Col. Saleh Khan. But she failed to get full information about the rapist.
Joya came back to America with partial information about the rapist of her biological mother. She went to the US State Department, Immigration and Visa offices, Pakistan Embassy in Washington, DC, and the Pakistan Consul General offices in New York and Los Angeles and finally found the rapist. But the rapist denied all allegations. Joya wanted to take their DNA tests to prove or rule out that the Pakistani Army Commander Col. Saleh Khan fathered Joya but he refused to take a DNA test with Joya. Joya and Maya then filed a criminal case against Col. Saleh Khan in the Criminal Court of New York. The rapist was summoned and arrested and brought to New York from Los Angeles. He was compelled to take the DNA test and physical medical examinations.
Maya explained the inhuman merciless tortures and rapes committed on her by the rapist. She explained how she fought to protect herself but failed. She gave some graphic descriptions of some marks in the private areas of the rapist that Maya inflicted on him while she was fighting back to protect her from the coercive rapes. The DNA and the physical examination reports confirmed that the rapist indeed raped Maya and fathered Joya. The Jurors passed the verdict that the rapist was guilty of all 15 counts. The judge jailed the rapist for 1001 years without any option of bail or parole.
The convicted rapist after hearing judgment begged apology and forgiveness from Maya and Joya even by holding their feet. Joya and Maya kicked him away. Suddenly, the rapist jumped on a police officer and snatched the gun. He pointed the gun at the judge and wanted to kill him unless he dismissed the case and set him free. Police shielded and protected the Judge. He then pointed the gun toward Joya and Maya and wanted to kill them unless they withdraw the case and request the judge to dismiss the case and set him free. Joya jumped on the rapist and grabbed the gun. She asked the rapist to surrender. Maya told Joya to give the gun to the police. Joya was giving the gun to a police officer. The rapist Col. Saleh Khan again jumped and snatched the gun and pointed the gun at Joya. Maya, Mamun and Adi came in the aide of Joya. There was a fistfight. The gun went off and the rapist got hit and died. The rapist's family filed a murder case against Joya, Maya, Mamun, and Adi. The judge ordered a criminal investigation for finding who was responsible for triggering the gun and killing the rapist. After reviewing the criminal investigation reports of the situation of killing the rapist, the judge dismissed the murder case against Joya, Maya, Mamun, and Adi and set them free.
Joya and Adi were in deep love, but Adi’s family vehemently opposed their relationship. Adi’s mother thought Adi and her family and their next generations will be humiliated because they were from the same conservative society and country. Adi’s parents were also the friends of Maya, Mamun, and Dr. Malika as they were studying in the same city and belonged to the same pro-liberation student party. Maya, Mamun, Dr. Malika, and Joya’s adopted parents were finally able to convince Adi’s parents to accept Joya as Adi’s friend.
