LAHORE: A lecture was delivered on the ‘Creation of Bangladesh: Myths Exploded’ by Dr Junaid Ahmad, an academician, writer and researcher at Government College University (GCU) on Thursday.

A number of statements from Indian prime ministers Indra Gandhi and Narendra Modi and some diplomats were shown on the slides with their claims and plan about dismembering Pakistan and also helping the Awami League and training Mukti Bahini guerrillas.

Dr Junaid said he carried out in-depth research on the creations of the 1971 incidents.

He said a myth was created that the government had ignored East Pakistan which was not true. Efforts for industrialisation, development of infrastructure, including airlines, ports, oil fields/ refinery and hydroelectric projects showed that significant attention was paid to East Pakistan’s progress.

He said the first issue surfaced when Urdu was declared as a national language and East Pakistan people did not support it. Some policemen in misadventure shot some students dead on Feb 21, 1952, and later the day became the Mother Language Day.

He said it was propaganda that Operation Searchlight (March 25, 1971) was launched against innocent civilians. After Chief Martial Law administrator Yahya Khan’s announcement to postpone the National Assembly session, the Awami Leaguers took to the roads. They were armed and started vandalism, arson, loot, and killings.

He said from the National Assembly session postponement till the start of Operation Searchlight thousands of innocent people had been killed, the national flag was desecrated every day, and jailbreaks occurred regularly. Due to this lawlessness, Operation Searchlight was launched against Awami League leaders and its militant supporters.

Mr Ahmed rejected the figure of the genocide of three million Bengalis, saying that there were no official data to prove it. Only Sheikh Mujibur Rehman announced this figure after he returned to Bangladesh and several investigative accounts had rejected these fictitious claims.

He also argued the number of soldiers who surrendered and called it exaggerated and false. The actual number was 34,000 troops, and 11,000 police, rangers, scouts and militia. This made the total number of combatants 45,000.

Accordingly, the number of 93,000 as conjured by Indians is ill-founded.

He was of the view that the current government also had sentenced a number of people to death, forgiven by her father after the creation of Bangladesh. Pakistan and Bangladesh could become friends and the governments of both sides should cooperate with each other. The only threat to peace in the region is India.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2021