Thankless Indians

Within a few hours of its forced landing, the straying Indian Army helicopter along with its crew members was released by Pakistan as a gesture of goodwill. The helicopter carried two pilots, Major R.G. Raja and Major G. Kapila; a junior commissioned officer, Subedar Adilesh Sharma and an engineer officer, Lieutenant Colonel S.P. Verma. The helicopter had taken off from Leh in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ladakh region and was bound for Bhimbhat in Drass sector near Kargil, on the LoC, to assist an Indian Army helicopter that got grounded there after a technical snag. The Pakistan army allowed the chopper to return to Kargil after refueling the machine and providing directions to the pilots.

Pakistan’s benevolent motion was spurned by Indians, who started their usual blame game. Indian daily, The Hindustan Times quoted unnamed Indian government officials as saying that the incident was being probed at a high level as the GPS data of the helicopter was found wiped out, along with nicknames and code signs of all the helipads in the Nemu, Leh-based 14 Corps, which is responsible for the defence of Kargil-Leh, Siachen Glacier and the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with Tibet. To start with, if the helicopter was equipped with GPS, there is no reason for its straying off course and violating Pakistani air space; secondly helicopter landing pads are hardly a classified data in this age of satellite imagery as they are visibly marked in Jeppeson navigation manual and other aviation charts, and Pakistan would have no need to steal them from the Indian helicopter.

It appears that the Pakistani gesture has been wasted on a nation which only knows the message of belligerence. Readers may recall that on August 10, 1999, Indian Air Force MiG-21 fighters scrambled from the IAF Base Naliya in Gujarat had shot down an unarmed Pakistan Navy (PN) maritime surveillance aircraft. The French-built Breguet Atlantique of PN’s 29 squadron had got airborne with 16 crew members including five officers from Mehran Air Base for a routine patrol and reconnaissance training mission in the coastal region near the Indian border. Indian air defence radars, which were tracking the PN aircraft, decided to take aggressive action although the PN aircraft was staying within the Pakistani boundary. Despite the fact that the Atlantique is an unarmed aircraft, the IAF MiGs fired an R-60 air-to-air missile and destroyed the Atlantique, killing all 16 on board. When the Indians realized that the debris was on the Pakistani side, they dispatched a helicopter to land near the crash site and drag the wreckage into the Indian border to make a case for itself. A PN helicopter escorted by PAF fighter aircraft sent to look for survivors drove the Indians away.

On September 21, 1999, Pakistan lodged a compensation claim at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, accusing India of shooting down an unarmed aircraft. Pakistan sought $60 million in reparations from India and compensation for the victims’ families. India’s attorney general, Soli Sorabjee, argued that the court did not have jurisdiction, citing an exemption it filed in 1974 to exclude disputes between India and other Commonwealth States, and disputes covered by multi-lateral treaties.

To rub salt in the wound, the Indians awarded the prestigious Vayusena medal to Squadron Leader P.K. Bundela. The medal was also awarded to Wing Commander V.S. Sharma (the fighter controller who tracked the Atlantique, guided the pilot and ordered him to attack the plane) and Squadron Leader Pankaj Vishnoi, the helicopter pilot dispatched to steal the debris of the Atlantique. However, fate has its own plans for exacting revenge. Two and a half years after the incident, Squadron Leader P.K. Bundela, crashed in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur district on April 4, 2002, killing seven civilians on the ground in the air accident. The 16 PN personnel must have embraced shahadat instantly as the IAF R-60 missile streaked into its broadside. Squadron Leader Prashant Bundela suffering was protracted; still in his early thirties, he ejected from his MiG-21, only to land on his back. His spinal cord got crushed and he was paralyzed neck down. A series of operations did not restore his mobility; he was made to suffer for another year and a half like a virtual vegetable, till death relieved him of his pain and agony.

Pakistan military and foreign office have been magnanimous in returning the violating Indian Army helicopter, if only its government was equally magnanimous in not biting the hand of friendship extended by Pakistan.

Here the views of Maj Gen (R) Jatinder Singh published in The Hindu are also quoted for the benefit of the readers.

“BRAVO PAK ARMY BRAVO

Maj Gen (R) Jatinder Singh of Chandigarh letter in India’s Hindu:

“This refers to the report that Pakistan allowed an India helicopter with four Army personnel to return home five hours after the aircraft was forced to land in Skardu for violating Pakistani airspace. This action vindicates my long-held view that Pakistan Army is a professional institution, not a rogue Army (As claimed by our American friends) and some sections of the media, service colleagues and politicians would like to suggest. Even if Pakistan had shot down the helicopter (Like we shot Pakistan Navy un-armed maritime. The Atlantique Incident was a major international incident that occurred on 10 August 1999 when a Pakistan Naval Air Arm patrol aircraft-a Breguet Atlantique with 16 personnel on board-was shot down in the border area of the Kutch region by Indian Air Force jets. Pakistan and India both claimed the aircraft to be in their respective airspace. However, the wreckage fell well within Pakistani territory, giving credence to the Pakistani claim), and shown it as a crash, we would not have been able to ascertain the truth, considering the sparsely populated terrain of Skardu. The incident speaks volumes for the speed in decision-making, communications set-up and the maturity of the Pakistani Army hierarchy.”

Zardari to Nawaz – Stop criticising the army

By Abdul Manan

The political positions of the two leading parties in the country have come full circle since the 1990s. In a letter written to the eponymous leader of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz, President Asif Ali Zardari asked Nawaz Sharif not to criticise the army or the government.

In reply to Nawaz Sharif’s address against govt, president urges all parties to help instead of pointing fingers.

The letter, which was highly critical of the PML-N leadership in polite but pointed language, was made public through a press release by the Punjab government’s information department.

Using references to the highly divisive politics of the 1990s, the president appeared to be playing the role of an elder statesman, asking the leader of the country’s largest opposition party to focus on helping the people of the one province that the PML-N governs rather than concerning themselves with criticising the federal government’s every move.

“The nation does not need provocative speeches, but rather a treatment for dengue fever,” the president’s letter was quoted as saying, in a reference to the dengue epidemic that has plagued Punjab over the past few days.

(Read: Alarming proportions – ‘Dengue out of Punjab government’s control’)

Teaching hospitals in Lahore, the provincial capital, report receiving as many as 600 dengue fever patients a day. A Pakistan Peoples Party spokesperson in Punjab claimed that 10,000 people had been affected by the disease so far.

The president also asked Sharif to spare a thought for the flood victims in Sindh, Zardari’s home province.

“If you do not want to visit Sindh because of me, visit it for the sake of the poor, marooned people of the province,” the president was quoted as having written.

The president even offered Sharif his personal residence in Nawabshah for his stay in Sindh and implied that his hospitality would be a repayment in kind for Zardari’s stay in Kholi (a prison), a reference to the time that Zardari was imprisoned on corruption charges (that were never proven) during the Sharif administration in the 1990s.

“Let’s come together to support the nation and get her out from the clutches of natural calamities,” the press release quoted the president as having said.

(Read: President visits flood hit areas, ensures relief and rehabilitation for affectees)

Allusions to plots

Yet the main thrust of the president’s letter appeared to be to convince Sharif of the need to support democracy in the country and not take any actions to destabilise it. In veiled terms, the president appeared to be referring to reports that have emerged in recent months that the PML-N is planning to seek early parliamentary polls before the March 2012 Senate elections.

Zardari reminded Sharif that the ouster of the PPP government in 1996 by then-President Farooq Leghari gave the PML-N a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly but did not secure democracy in the country, leading ultimately to the military coup by General Pervez Musharraf.

“Democracy requires a hundred years to take hold in a nation but it can be destroyed in an instant,” the president was quoted as saying. “Come out of the world of imagination, idealism and adventurism or else there will come a time when neither you will be able to call me in Kholi nor will I be able to call you.”

That veiled reference to the possibility of another military coup was accompanied with the request to Sharif to stop criticising the army, something that the PML-N leader has been doing very frequently and publicly since the May 2 US raid on Abbottabad.

(Read: ‘Zardari conspiring to create Nawaz-Army rift’)

Zardari asked Sharif to remember what the president considered to be the achievements of the PPP-led government, including the restoration of the 1973 constitution, freedom of expression, and the institutionalisation of the supremacy of parliament and the independence of the judiciary.

2020: Year Of The Modern China Military

China appears on track to forge a modern military by 2020, a rapid buildup that could be potentially destabilising to the Asia-Pacific region, the Pentagon has said.

China’s People’s Liberation Army marches in Beijing

Fuelled by its booming economy, China’s military growth in the past decade has exceeded most US forecasts. Its aircraft carrier programme, cyberwarfare capabilities and anti-satellite missiles have alarmed neighbours and Washington.

Some China watchers, including members of the US Congress, note with apprehension that rising Chinese defence spending coincides with Washington’s plans for defence cuts.

“China clearly believes that it can capitalise on the global financial crisis,” said the house armed services committee chairman, Howard McKeon, adding that the US military presence in the Pacific must not be sacrificed in an attempt to control US spending.

The US defence department’s annual assessment to Congress on the Chinese military flagged all the major concerns about China’s growing military might, including Beijing’s widening edge over Taiwan. It also noted cyber-attacks in 2010 – including those on US government computers – that appeared to have originated in China.

“We have some concerns [on cyber] about some of the things that we’ve seen. And we want to be able to work through that with China,” said Michael Schiffer, a deputy assistant secretary of defence.

The report focused on 2010, a year when the Pentagon said China’s military modernisation programme paid “visible dividends”. It cited China’s fielding of an operational anti-ship ballistic missile, continued work on its aircraft carrier programme and the completion of a prototype of China’s first stealth fighter jet, the J-20.

The J-20 programme, the Pentagon report said, would not achieve “effective operational capability” before 2018.

“Despite continued gaps in some key areas, large quantities of antiquated hardware and a lack of operational experience, the PLA [China's People's Liberation Army] is steadily closing the technological gap with modern armed forces,” the report said.

A spokesman for China’s embassy in Washington said the report was “a reflection of cold war mentality” and would be used as a tool to depict China as a threat.

“We hope the US will take practical steps to work with China for stable and healthy military ties by following the spirit of mutual respect, mutual trust, reciprocity and mutual benefit,” the embassy spokesman Wang Baodong said in an email.

The military buildup could have a destabilising effect on the region, Schiffer said, calling for greater openness by the PLA and more bilateral military dialogue.

“The pace and scope of China’s sustained military investments have allowed China to pursue capabilities that we believe are potentially destabilising to regional military balances,” Schiffer said.

The Pentagon said that despite its progress at becoming a more potent regional military power, Beijing was not expected to be able to project and sustain large forces in high-intensity combat operations far from China before 2020.

That is something the United States, still the predominant military power in the Pacific, has been able to do throughout the world for decades.

One of the best ways for a military to project power is with aircraft carriers and China launched its first carrier – a refitted former Soviet craft – for a maiden run earlier this month. Schiffer said he believed Beijing was working towards building its own domestically produced aircraft carriers and sources told Reuters China was building two carriers.

Still, the report said any domestically produced Chinese aircraft carrier would not be operational until at least 2015 if construction were to start this year.

“Whether or not this [China's carrier programme] proves to be a net plus for the region or for the globe or proves to be something that has destabilising effects and raises blood pressure in various regional capitals I think remains to be seen,” Schiffer said.

One of the biggest irritants in the US-Chinese relationship is Taiwan. The PLA suspended military ties with the United States for most of 2010 over US arms sales to Taiwan and warned that a renewed flurry of engagement could again be jeopardised by new arms sales to an island China sees as a renegade province.

Schiffer said the US government had not yet made a decision on any new arms sales to Taiwan, comments echoed at the state department.

A Reuters report this month said the US sale of 66 new Lockheed Martin F-16 C/D fighter jets to Taiwan appeared unlikely.

Pagara calls for deployment of Army in Karachi

KARACHI: PML-F Chief Pir Pagara said Saturday that the army would need to be called in for the restoration of peace in Karachi, meanwhile Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that some individuals were directing the carnage in Karachi from jails adding that action against miscreants would continue until peace was restored in the city.

Talking to media after the arrival of Interior Minister Rehman Malik at Kingri House, Pir Pagara said that he had made a demand for the commissioner system which had been fulfilled.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that an operation was conducted in the troubled areas of Katti Pahari and Kasbah Colony. Malik said that the FC had been deployed for the protection of people.

The elite SSG Commando Force of Pakistan

SSG Training and the Commando Course are not easy. It requires real commitment and determination, Elite SSG Commando force of Pakistan army protecting Pakistan’s border with honour. these brave heart Commandos of the Special services Group, are the pride of pakistan army and nation.

Malik sees global plot to destabilise Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Wednesday said in the Senate that Pakistan was being destabilized under a well-planned international conspiracy because it was an Islamic state and a nuclear power.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Interior, Senator A. Rehman Malik talking to the media persons outside Parliament House

Winding up the debate on the law and order situation in the Senate, with particular reference to Karachi, the minister said foreign intelligence agencies trained the Pakistanis and used them for attacks in Pakistan and abroad to advance their agenda. “They also try to pit one sect against another in the country,” he said.

On the last day of discussion on the Karachi situation, the minister had to face strong criticism from the opposition senators, particularly from Professor Khurshid Ahmad and Sajid Mir, who said that the government itself was facilitating foreign hands as they referred to issuance of visas to nationals of a third country in Dubai.

During his speech, Rehman Malik also claimed that the law and order situation was improving with reduction in incidents of target killings in Karachi and Quetta.

He said a decision was taken to take action in six police stations of Quetta, which were no-go areas and as a result 103 proclaimed offenders, 97 target killers and 60 absconders were arrested and since then there had been no incident of target killing in Quetta city.

The minister offered that a fact-finding mission should be sent to determine whether the FC was in any way involved in the Panjgur incident. He said he was also ready for a judicial inquiry or inquiry within the Senate.

The interior minister said the poor law and order situation in Karachi was mainly because of political polarization and the government, including the president and the prime minister, were trying to resolve it. He said there were also other factors of unrest and violent incidents in the city like economic pressure, drug and land mafia.

Rehman Malik said he never talked about initiation of a Swat and Malakand-like operation in Balochistan. About the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, he said the province was a frontline region in the war on terror and suffered heavily both in terms of life and property. He, however, said the situation had improved as a consequence of the operations launched by the Army and law enforcing agencies and now life had returned to normal in the troubled areas.

The interior minister said the government was following the 3-D policy, which was working well. He said the government was pursuing the policy of reconciliation but it could not talk to those who trampled the Islamic teachings by indulging in acts of terrorism.

He said it was the duty of the government to protect life and property of citizens but it was the nation’s collective responsibility to sit together and formulate an effective strategy. He said he was ready to give an in-camera briefing to parliament so that the members might have an idea what actually was happening.

About issuance of visas to nationals of a third country in Dubai, the minister said the visas were issued within rules. “How the visas can be refused when there was nothing wrong with passports and applicants themselves,” he asked.

Professor Khurshid said that Pakistan government should find ways to come out of the war on terror as it had resulted in insecurity and deterioration of the law and order situation in the country. He regretted that incidents of target killings were continuing in Karachi despite assurances from the interior minister. “The government is not alive and sensitive to the law and order situation, particularly in Karachi and Balochistan,” the JI senator observed. He said culprits were receiving patronage from politicians.

Professor Khurshid said all was not good with the lower judiciary and the masses were not getting speedy justice from there. “The improvement in the working of the Supreme Court and high courts should also trickle down to the lower judiciary,” he said.

Senator Sajid Mir of the PML-N said the statements of rulers about improvement in the law and order situation and their assurances in this connection were baseless.

He said the government itself was facilitating enemies of the country and in this connection he referred to the issuance of visas to nationals of a third country in Dubai. “Such an attitude and presence of foreign agents in the country will deteriorate the law and order situation,” he said.

He observed that incidents of terrorism in the country could not be controlled till the time the US forces and Indians were present in Afghanistan.

Maulana Abdul Rasheed asked the interior minister to apprise the House of the actual reasons behind the acts of terrorism and target killings.

NNI adds: Rehman Malik said that violation of Pakistan’s territorial integrity by any country would not be allowed and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani would raise the issue with the US.

Talking to the media outside the Parliament House, Rehman Malik said that Pakistan registered a protest with the US, Nato and Afghanistan over transgression of its territory. He said that an investigation was underway and a report in this regard would be made public soon.

Earlier, Malik told the National Assembly that Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s brother had appealed in US Supreme Court against his sister’s 86-year conviction. He said the US did not fulfill legalities of the case. He also asserted that the concerned lawyers did not defend the case as was expected from them.

Talking about his meeting with Dr Fauzia Siddiqui, the minister said Dr Aafia’s family was not seeking any assistance from the government. However, he confirmed the family was being provided all kinds of legal and monetary assistance.

Breaking the myths of Pakistan’s tribal areas

I had not expected Pakistan’s tribal areas to be so neat and so prosperous.

These are meant to be the badlands, mythologised as no-go areas by Kiplingesque images of xenophobic Pashtuns, jezail musket in hand, defying British troops from rugged clifftops.

They are the “ungovernable” lands where al Qaeda took sanctuary after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan; the bastion of Islamist militants said to threaten the entire world.

Yet to fly by helicopter for the first time into Bajaur tribal agency is to challenge the more wildly imagined cliches about this little-visited region on the Pakistan-Afghan border.

Here, in the northernmost part of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), you realize this region is no longer as ferocious as feared and that while militants still call the shots in parts of FATA, Bajaur at least is somewhat pacified.

The Pakistan army knows this and has brought us, a small group of foreign journalists, to Bajaur to try to convince us it has turned a corner in its battle against Islamist militants.

It is a message we are given repeatedly on a whirlwind tour of the country. In Islamabad, the city is relatively relaxed despite the many checkpoints, the jacaranda trees are in bloom and families are back out strolling in the parks.

A minister reminisces about the bars of his student days; an official remembers the more peaceful country that existed before the jihad against the 1979-89 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

In Karachi, businessmen party through the power cuts and talk up the stock market; in Lahore, academics speak of the potential cultural revival of a country of 170 million people.

The still-frequent bombings and lingering militant hideouts, including in North Waziristan on the Afghan border, give plenty of grounds for skepticism. But visiting Bajaur is meant to make you believe that something has changed.

FORT UNDER SIEGE

Our helicopter lands in Khar, at a fort which less than two years ago was under siege with rockets raining down every day.

Authorities had ceded control of the surrounding area running up to the Afghan border to militants believed to have once offered sanctuary to al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri.

It became so bad that, according to one military official, the army feared even the fort would be overrun, the troops inside either massacred or taken prisoner en masse.

Outside the fort, the militants ran their own checkpoints, collected revenue, beheaded prisoners in the bazaar and convinced every family to offer up one male child to the cause.

Even reopening a marble factory required written permission from the militants; another man — according to the army — turned himself from laborer to landlord by successfully navigating the paperwork of their newly created bureaucracy.

Now we are able to drive out of the fort toward the border to inspect an abandoned former stronghold of the Taliban.

This is a region which we are told was run according to a 6,000-year-old tribal system — primitive say some, mature say others — where each individual was so clear of his or her obligation to society that it worked “perfectly” in its own way.

The fields are either neatly terraced or carefully laid out and the land is well-tended and fertile. If you have traveled in South Asia, it looks remarkably prosperous, either thanks to the old tribal order or money sent in by workers in the Gulf.

The terrain is hilly rather than rugged, although the mountains rise up at the Afghan border in the distance.

The old order broke down with the CIA-backed Pakistan-led jihad against the Soviets which stressed pan-Islamism over tribal loyalty; it nearly collapsed altogether with the flood of fighters fleeing the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

The militants became so entrenched that when Pakistani authorities tried to reassert control in 2008 by setting up a checkpoint at the region’s main crossroads, the 150 troops there found themselves surrounded by a thousand fighters.

They began to run out of water and ammunition and each party sent from Khar to rescue them was ambushed. Eventually, after fierce fighting, 140 made it back to Khar. But it was enough to convince the army to launch a full-scale military operation.

In February, the army cleared out the last of the main militant strongholds in Bajaur after months of intense fighting which destroyed villages, left gaping wounds in buildings from rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), and sent villagers fleeing.

MYTH BROKEN

Our small group drives out of the fort of Khar in pick-up trucks, soldiers standing in the back around a rather alarming stack of black-tipped RPGs meant to guarantee our safety.

The roads here are better than in much of South Asia and we drive fast — presumably to avoid a bullet from a lone gunman or a remotely triggered IED. It is clear that while the strongholds may have been overrun, the area is still not secure.

Yet the atmosphere is less threatening than I had felt for example in Kashmir at the height of the insurgency there.

The crowds of men we come across along the road stare, but without menace. The young girls in white, their heads but not their faces covered, ignore us. Women are nowhere to be seen.

The soldiers who fan out when we reach the abandoned stronghold at Damadola some 20 minutes drive away, where local militant leader Fakir Mohammad once held court, are watchful but not jumpy.

At the very least, the myth of the “ungovernable” tribal areas — so beloved of Raj-era tales — has been broken.

The militants were so well entrenched at Damadola that only when the fighting intensified did they put up a sign asking local people to stop bringing their disputes for settlement.

As the army pressed forward, some militants escaped, including the leaders, into Afghanistan, or back into the population. Some were captured, many were killed. The last of them retreated into a warren of caves dug out of the hillside.

You have to stoop low to get through the narrow tunnel at the entrance to the caves, fighting claustrophobia before you can stand up straight again in a dark cavern.

The army says it cleared these caves one by one, throwing in smoke grenades and then opening fire. For some of the local boys, given up by their families to join the militants, this would be the last they saw of their neat and prosperous land.

Bangladesh Leader Admits India Conspired To Invade East Pakistan

Fresh Evidence On The Unprovoked Indian Invasion Of Pakistan

Mujeeb’s daughter admits her father was a traitor, says Indian helped him raise an Indian-backed terror militia that raped and plundered in order to malign Pakistan Army

India’s advocates in Washington and London have argued for years that Pakistan is the source of tension with India. They conveniently forget where it all started: the unilateral and unprovoked and premeditated Indian invasion of Pakistan in 1971, preceded by careful planning over two years to recruit a terror militia and spread violence and mayhem to engage local Pakistan Army units in East Pakistan, paving the way for a direct Indian military invasion, which was a one-sided violation of international law. India is an aggressor in the South Asia region. Pakistan’s policymakers are right in demanding a mindset change in New Delhi for peace to prevail. [PakNationalists-Editorial]

By Monjurul Hassan
The Daily Mail of Pakistan
WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

DHAKA, Bangladesh-For the past 39 years politicians and the ‘Blame Pakistan first’ crowd have blamed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto for saying “Humm iddhar tum uddhar” (a quote attributed to Mr. Bhutto that means, ‘You stay there and we stay here, a quote which has since been refuted as bogus), and blamed the Pakistan Army for the attack on the Indian-backed Mukti Bahni terrorists on March 23 as the reason for the creation of Bangladesh.

Ms. Hasina Mujib the daughter of former East Pakistan politician Sheikh Mujib Ur Rehman has now confessed that her father Sheikh Mujib had planned to secede from Pakistan in 1969-two years before the March 23 ‘military action’ against Indian saboteurs and their misguided supporters among disgruntled East Pakistanis.

General Mankeshaw wrote a book in which has claimed that he recruited 80,000 Hindus to create the Mukti Bahni. These terrorists were dressed up in Pakistan Army uniform and raped and pillaged Pakistani Bengalis. They also were dressed up as civilians carrying out acts of sabotage against the civil and military government of Pakistan.

Sheikh Hasina Mujib’s confession [See report below] sheds new light on the events of March 23, 1971, because it proves that the Agartala Conspiracy was a real conspiracy sponsored by India against Pakistan and that the then President of Pakistan Ayub Khan had rightly described Sheikh Mujib Ur Rehman as a traitor.

After breaking up Pakistan and declaring independence thanks to direct Indian military intervention, the Indian-backed Mujib regime killed more than 30 thousand Pakistani Bengali patriots who opposed Indian takeover. Mr. Mujib’s first actions were to surrender the natural resources of Bangladesh to India. This includes water. These actions by the pro-Indian regime caused the man-made famine of 1974, in which three to five hundred thousand people perished, according to reports.

Mujib suppressed all democratic rights and unleashed a reign of terror. His main concern was to contain a population that was just waking up from the disaster and did not accept the breakup of Pakistan. In the above circumstances, according to some, Bangladesh faced extinction as an independent nation and was about to become a vassal state of Indian hegemonists.

The coup of 15 August 1975 saved the situation to a large extent and it was widely supported by the people. On August 14, 1975, Bangladeshi nationalists buried secularism deep into the Bay of Bengal. Today Bangladesh faces new threats from India. After failing to take over Bangladesh in real terms, India is forcing a transit policy on a defenseless Bangladesh. The transit facilities that India is demanding would clog existing Bangladeshi road links and pose a security threat to Bangladesh.

PLANNED INDIAN AGGRESSION AGAINST PAKISTAN

Bangladesh’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had made detailed plans for secession from Pakistan during a stay in London in 1969, his daughter and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said.

Sheikh Mujib discussed his plans at a meeting held a few months after his release from prison following a prolonged trial in the Agartala conspiracy case in which then Pakistan government had brought sedition charges against him and 34 others, Hasina told a meeting Sunday.

They were charged with conspiring to separate from the then East Pakistan with help from neighbor India. Agartala is the capital of Tripura state in northeastern India. Political analysts say her disclosure, reinforced by the claim of her own presence at the meeting, could be a scoring point in the ongoing debate on who actually declared the country’s independence, or separation from Pakistan.

Mujib’s role is disputed by opposition leader Khaleda Zia. Zia’s supporters claim that it was her husband and then Pakistan Army major Ziaur Rahman who had first broadcast a freedom speech.

Referring to this debate, Hasina urged all to go through the reports of intelligence agencies and foreign ministries of different countries. Mujib, who became Bangladesh’s president, was assassinated in August 1975. Ziaur Rahman, who became the army chief and later the president, was assassinated in 1981. Siffy News. Mujib planned separation from Pakistan in 1969.

Sheikh Mujib met an ignominious end on 14th August 1975, when Bharati conspiracies to absorb Bangladesh into Bharat were buried deep into the Bay of Bengal. On that day Bengali patriots killed the traitor who had declared himself “dactator for life” and banned all Bangladeshi political parties.

Bengali patriots killed Shaikh Mujib who was seen as an Indian agent and a sell out to Delhi. Bangaldeshis revolted against the Indian imposed “Rakhi Bahni” (run by a sitting Indian General) and rose against the so called “Treaty of Friendhsip” whose aim was to absorb Bengal into India. Shaikh Mujib’s body lay in the streets of days. It was Awami League of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman that mortgaged the national independence and state sovereignty signing the 25 years long-term unequal treaty with India. By creating Rakkhi Bahini, Lal Bahini, Sheccha Shebok Bahini and other private Bahinis AWAMI-BKSALISTS unleashed an unbearable reign of terror killing 40000 nationalists and patriotic people with out any trial. Ishaan Tharoor in an article in Time magazine published on Nov. 20, 2009 “To outsiders, this celebration of a justice [death penalty for mutiny against Mujib) long deferred may seem a bit too rapturous. But it cuts at the heart of the political traumas that have plagued Bangladesh since its bloody independence from Pakistan in 1971. Mujib had been President of the new country for just four years before a coup hatched by disgruntled military officers, some of whom harbored Islamist or pro-Pakistani sentiments, led to his assassination and the installation of a military government. Since then, Bangladesh has endured a succession of army-run regimes, as well as a period of dysfunctional democratic rule marred by corruption and partisan bickering.

Yes; my father did break Pakistan, confesses BD Premier

Daily Mail Monitoring
Sunday, 7 March 2010

Dhaka-Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid has confessed that her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a traitor who formed a detailed conspiracy to break Pakistan into 2 pieces with the help of the Indian government during his stay in London in 1969.

Hasina was addressing a discussion in Dhaka to mark the ‘March 7,1971′ speech of mutiny, in which Sheikh Mujib called on the people of East Pakistan to prepare for the secession from the rest of Pakistan.

She said that her father made separation plans just months after his release from Kurmitola where he had been detained in the Agartala Conspiracy Case, in which the Pakistan government had brought sedition charges against him and 34 others.

“He went to London on October 22 1969, following his release in the Agartala case on April 22 that year. I reached London the next day from Italy, where I was living with my husband,” she recalled.

“It was there that my father at a meeting made plans for separating West Pakistan from East Pakistan, including when the war would start, where our fighters would be trained and where refugees would take shelter.”

“All preparations were taken there (London). I was serving tea and entered the room several times where the meeting between my father and some Indian officials was being held. I heard their discussions,” the Prime Minister said.

Referring to the recent debate over who first proclaimed Bangladesh’s independence, she urged all to go through the reports of intelligent agencies and foreign ministries of different countries.

She also said the Aug 15 1975 assassination of her father and family members, and the Jail Killings of four national leaders on Nov 3 the same year, were planned by those defeated in the war to take revenge for their defeat.

“Those who rewarded the killers had never expected Bangladesh’s independence. They wanted to impose the principles of the defeated forces on the people,” she added.