Bangladesh genocide

The Bangladesh liberation war witnessed widespread atrocities committed mainly on the Bengali population of East Pakistan, at a level that Bangladeshis maintain is one of the worst genocides in history. The actual extent of the atrocities committed is not clearly known, and opinions vary, as the next section discusses. However, there is little doubt that numerous civilians were tortured and killed during the war. There are many mass graves in Bangladesh, and newer ones are always being discovered, such as a recent one in a mosque in Dhaka located in the non-Bengali region of the city. The first night of war on Bengalis, which is very well documented, saw indiscriminate killings of students of Dhaka University and other civilians.

[edit] How many people died? The number of people that died in the liberation war of Bangladesh is not known in any reliable accuracy. There has been a great disparity in the casualty figures put forth by Pakistan on one hand (26,000) and India and Bangladesh on the other hand (3 million). International media has also had different views, as can be seen from this compilation. Due to the lack of records and the long time that has since passed, an accurate number is hard to get, though various arguments for and against certain numbers have been put forward. Most guesses fall somewhere between a few hundred thousand and two million.

Pakistan has maintained that only 26,000 people died in the war. Though most researchers do not support such a small number, many are inclined to believe that the real number was still a far cry from the 3 million put forward by Bangladesh and other sources. Some maintain that the real number of casualties was closer to 300,000 and was wrongly translated. This view received recent support from a conference on South Asia held in the United States [3][4]. Supporters of this view point out that killing 3 million people in the space of nine months is almost impossible.

On the other hand, though the figure of 3 million is unsubstantiated, many believe that the real number is still exceedingly high (more than 1 million) and the killing can clearly be termed a genocide. This view gets support from the aforementioned reports in international media, which were reported during the war before the 3 million figure was put forward. Supporters of this view would also point out to the enormous influx of refugees into India (8 million seems to be a widely accepted number), and reason that killings numbering as low as the Pakistanis would like to claim would not have caused such a large number of people to leave their homes. Some say that the Bangladesh claim might have had roots in a statement by Yahya Khan. According to Robert Payne in Massacre [1973], on February 22, 1971 Yahya Khan told a group of generals, "Kill three million of them, and the rest will eat out of our hands."

[edit] Atrocities on women and minorities Numerous women were tortured, raped and killed during the war. Again, exact numbers are not known and are a subject of debate. Bangladeshi sources cite a staggering figure of 200,000 women raped. Some other sources, for example Susan Brownmiller, refer to an even higher number of 400,000. Pakistani sources claim the number is much lower, though having not completely denied rape incidents.

There has been evidence of not only rape (and usually subsequent murder) of women, but of sex slaves kept captive by the Pakistan army. During the last periods of war, when the Pakistani army was retreating, the Mukti Bahini and Indian forces reported freeing numerous such women. Apart from Brownmiller's, another work that has included direct experiences from the women raped is Ami Virangana Bolchhi ("I, the heroine, speak") by Nilima Ibrahim. The work includes in its name from the word Virangana (Heroine), given by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman after the war, to the raped and tortured women during the war. This was a conscious effort to alleviate any social stigma the women might face in the society. How successful this effort was is doubtful, though.

The minorities of Bangladesh, specially the Hindus, were the biggest targets of the Pakistan army. There was widespread killing of Hindu males, and rapes of women. In public places, men were often made to undress to prove that they have been circumcised and hence were Muslim. More than 60% of the Bengali refugees that had fled to India were Hindus, and many never returned. It is not exactly known what percentage of the people killed by the Pakistan army were Hindus, but it is safe to say it was disproportionately high. This widespread violence against Hindus was motivated by a policy to purge East Pakistan of what was seen as Indian influence. The West Pakistani rulers identified the Bengali culture with Hindu and Indian culture, and thought that the eradication of Hindus would remove such influences from the majority Muslims in East Pakistan.