Remembering 7th March of 1971

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Seminar on Speech Made by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 7th March 1971 A seminar was held on March 5, 2005 under the auspices of ‘Jatir Janak Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Trust’ at the auditorium of Institute of Engineers packed to its full capacity at 4 p.m. Three hour long seminar, participated by leading intellectuals of the country, was presided over by AL Chief Jananetri, as she is dearly called by her followers, Mrs. Sheikh Hasina, president of the memorial trust. The keynote article entitled “Bangabandhur Satoi Marcher Bhasan : Amar Aniyata Bhabna” (The 7th March Speech of Bangabandhu: My random thoughts) was presented by Professor Dr. Ajoy Roy, a physicist and our MM member. The discussants included Historian Prof. A. F. Salahuddin Ahmed, educationist Prof. Mustafa Nurul Islam, Mr. Ashrafuzzaman Khan, a nanogerian Director General (retd) of Bangladesh Radio, freedom fighter Major (retd) Rafiqul Islam, BU, Dr. Abul Barkat, professor of economics of DU, and Prof. Momtaz Latif. With non stop applause and vibrating slogans, the daughter of Bangabandhu, Sheikh Hasina entered the Hall right at 3-55 p.m. The proceedings of the seminar started immediately.

The 25-minutes duration article presented by Professor Roy set the tune of the proceedings and mood of the audience; it was presented with eloquence, emotion and solemnity demanded by the occasion- but based on facts and information and punched with recitation from the parts of historic speech of Bangabandhu delivered on March 7, 1971 in presence of not less than one million people of all cross-section of the society whom we call ‘mass’. He
stressed that speech delivered at the race course was a finest example of extempore speech ever delivered by a national leader made before an emotionally chocked mass of not less than one million. The speech emanated from the core of his heart for his people whom he loved so much. The speaker ended his with a quotation “Ekti Bangladesh, Tumi Jagrata Janatar Ekti Bangladesh, Tumi Jagrata Bismoy”

As the author finished his speech, he was greeted with non-stop applause from the emotionally chocked audience. Each of the discussants dealt some aspect of the historic speech of 7th March form different angle. As for example Prof. Barkat of economics department stressed that by the term emancipation (Mukti) in his last but most important sentence of his speech Bangabandhu meant the economic self reliance for the common men. And this could not be achieved unless the East Pakistan attained political freedom from the West Pakistani economic oppressor.

Taking part in the discussion Major (retd) Rafiqul Islam said that he took the historic speech as ‘go ahead signal’ foe all out war against Pakistani occupation. And started the war of independence when moment came- not waiting for any other call from another major. Mr. Ashrafuzzaman Khna narrated the dramatic situation when the military people surrounded the Radio broadcasting station just 10 minutes before Bangabandhu arriving at the race course. As the leader proceeded toward the microphone, the army officers ordered the radio staff not to broadcast the speech of Bangabandhu directly. Fortunately however the entire speech was tape recorded at the race course by the technicians of the Dhaka Radio station. This recorded speech was broadcast on the following day from all radio stations throughout East Pakistan. So the message of independence spread just like fire. Crores of Bengalis heard Bangabandhu clarinet call “Ebarer Sngram Amader Muktir Sabgram, Ebarer sangram Swadhinatar Sangram”

(Present struggle- struggle for our emancipation, Present struggle- struggle for independence). Mr. Khan recalled that when he informed Sheikh Mujib that his speech would be broadcast at 8-30 a.m. on March 8, he invited Mr. Khan to come to his residence so that they together listen the historic speech. And they did with Begum Mujib and other inmates of the family.

Professor Mustafa Nurul Islam evaluated the speech of Bangabandhu as one of the greatest speech ever delivered by a national leader- probably it would top the list as this speech won us the independence- a free Bangladesh. The learned professor said that at this critical hour when evil forces are engulfing Bangladesh the young generation must draw its inspiration from the speech of 7th March.

Thanking Prof. Roy, the main author of the theme of the seminar for his beautiful presentation punched with facts and figures, and other participants, the president of the seminar Sheikh Hasina winded up the discussion. In her concluding speech she urged upon the youth to be united with the spirit in which Bangabandhu urged and inspired the then youths on 7th March 34 years back to face the evil forces. Similarly the present evil forces must be met with the spirit of 7th March of seventy one, and this must be done unitedly with all forces believing in spirit of war of liberation, democracy, secularism and Bengali nationalism. Referring to the spread of terrorist fundamentalism she asked the government to arrest two Jamati ministers in the government in order to get true information about the terrorists and terrorism.

Bangabandhu’s finest hour

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It is this writer’s view that the March 7th speech was Bangabandhu’s finest hour. He stood far taller than ever before and with him we too stood taller. He was always known for being a powerful speaker. But that day, 26 years ago, he outperformed himself a thousand times over, and a thousand times more empowered we felt that day. During that crucial March afternoon, and especially through the electrifying moments of the speech he stood towering above the nation, singly shouldering the burden of leading an unprepared people towards sell assertion.

However bravely we may talk today about those events so long ago, at that time we really did not know how things were to unfold. Yes, we all wanted our rights, and we wanted them right away. But how they were to come? Was freedom to come through negotiations or would it require us to wage an armed struggle? And what did we understand by armed struggle? We romanticised about it, but knew nothing of it.

Things were becoming increasingly obvious that to realise our legitimate demands we may have to seek independence. But how is one to start an independence movement? What would be the consequence of making a declaration for it? Though we all talked about it, and some may have even said so in public, yet it was for our elected leader to take us through that uncharted path. The man who should be the Prime Minister of whole of Pakistan by dint of his electoral victory had to take the right step at the right time. The critical question was when would the right time strike.

And this is where the specialty of the March 7th speech lies. It says everything without the elements that could be used to hold responsible for breaking up the legal Pakistan. For by then, the country had actually broken up in all other sense. To really appreciate the magnificence of this speech one has to understand the context in which it was delivered. Awami League had fought an election and won the majority of seats of the parliament of Pakistan. Following the results, Gen Yahya had declared that Sheikh Mujib would be the Prime Minister of Pakistan. It was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and some conniving army generals who did not want to transfer power to someone whose electoral programme was to realise the legitimate rights of the Bengali people enshrined in the now famous six points. There were lots of indications about the impending betrayal of the verdict of the December ’70 elections, yet it was not till the postponement of the session of the newly elected parliament that Bangabandhu could really give a call for an all out movement.

When the session of the parliament was postponed on March 1st, ’71, the fatal shot to the existence of united Pakistan was fired right into its chest. And it was on the night of March 25th, when Pakistani military cracked down on the civilian population of what was till then one country, that Pakistan was killed and buried. It was in the midst of this highly charged transition period — from the 1st to the 25th — when events were unfolding at a break-neck speed that Bangabandhu had to give this speech.

And here lies the beauty and the craftsmanship of this speech, which transforms it as a classic in political oratory.

The speech had to live up to the high expectation of the people who wanted their independence and yet there should be nothing in it that could give an outright excuse to the Pakistan army to start military action against the unarmed Bengali people. In fact, Tikka Khan’s band of killers would want nothing better than to be given a publicly announced excuse for a genocidal action. So Bangabandhu had to say everything, and yet not give the excuse that Pakistan military was looking for. He had to stand steadfast and yet keep open the doors for negotiations. Under no circumstances could he appear to be the one responsible for the breakdown of the talks. And yet he had to take his people forward and give them the right directions, maintain the militancy, ask them to take all the necessary preparatory steps, and clear people’s minds about the final goal. It was a political and intellectual challenge of the highest kind, and it could be tackled only by a speech of the type that Bangabandhu delivered that day.

Take for example the content of the speech. In it he gradually builds up the whole rationale for the movement that has been going on. He argues, cajoles, pleads, demands and finally warns, not to take lightly the demand of a people who have realised their strength through struggle. He talks of peace and yet gives clear signals that peace cannot come at the cost of capitulation. He talks of sacrifice, but not in terms of a helpless people who are suffering because they are weak, but in terms of a courageous and bold people who have knowingly taking upon a task which they know to be a arduous, and for which they are ready to face any consequence. There was superb cleverness in the construction of the speech by which he said all that he needed to and yet the enemy could not hold him responsible for having said anything which was illegal.

The voice in the speech is one of its most magnificent aspects. It was so bold that the whole nation could and in fact did, take strength from it. There was an unhesitant enunciation of everything that needed to be said. There was such appropriate modulation of voice that every word uttered seemed irreplaceable. Throughout it all the strength of the man came out and touched all those who heard him, drawing all close to him and making all trust and repose faith in him.

If ever a speech united, strengthened, enthused, inspired a people, and gave courage to them to become bolder and more determined than they usually are, it was Bangabandhu’s speech of March 7th, 1971. If ever one single speech became the most effective motivational weapon for a nation at war then this was it. If ever a speech of a leader became the constant companion for young freedom fighters facing an enemy known for their proficiency and ferocity and which acted to link us all in a spellbinding string of words and sounds, then this speech was so for all of us, the freedom fighters, spread throughout the nook and corner of what was then our enslaved motherland.

Author : Mahfuz Anam is Editor and Publisher, The Daily Star.

Historic 7th March and Parents of our Nation:

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Today is 7th march, 2004. Exactly 33 years ago, on 7th March, 1971, the then President of Awami League, honoured with title of Bangabandhu, named Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, addressed a mammoth rally of the people of Bangladesh at Sahrawardy Uddyan in Dhaka, where he delivered the historic speech, popularly known as `Mujib’s speech of 7th March’.

I was a physical participant in that rally. Although 33 years of dust has spread on my memories, despite the bitter debate of expectations, frustrations, significance, message or contents of that speech those are being placed to the younger generation of today; for me and many more, the significant value of that speech will indeed remain, as one of the most memorable moments, till death.

To elaborate a little on the perspective and the background of the historic speech of `Bangabandhu’ delivered on 7th March of 1971, which gave the Nation the definite direction to prepare for an armed struggle against the then ruling Pak Military Junta, is undeniable. The words of the greatest orator, whom I heard on my own live being present at Sahrawardy Uddyan, shall stay in my life ringing in my years. “Build fortresses in every of your homesteads”, “Whatever whom possesses take up those to face the enemy”, because, “Henceforth the struggle is our struggle for liberation, and henceforth the struggle is struggle for independence”.

Western journalists present on that day at the historic rally termed the orator as, “The Poet of Politics”. No doubt that was poetry, and the poetry that evolved through long and bitter struggle of the orator and the people of our motherland from 1952 to 1971, long 19 years, in which the orator of that day had always been one of the most remarkable protagonist.

To make that long history of 19 years short. All that started in 1952, the historic Language Movement marking at present the accredited `International Mother Language day’, the 21st February, the pride of our Nation which we presented to the Peoples’ of the World earned by ourselves through the movement and the sacrifice of blood of proud sons of our soil. That movement to establish the right of the Mother Tongue, evolved further-on through the cultural movement of the National self identity, the movement against the autocratic education policy in 1962, the six point demand of Mujibur against economic disparity in 1966 that put him and a host of national leaders to prison; the 11 point movement against the national repression of autocratic rule of Field Marshall Ayub Khan achieving through mass upsurge, release of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and others from prison, fall of the dictator, the acknowledgment of the demand of adult franchise by the new dictator Yahya Khan, then the victory of Awami League securing majority of the seats in the Parliament of Pakistan in 1970, and then came the historic moment in March 1971 bringing the people of erstwhile East Pakistan face to face with the Military Junta of Pakistan those denied to handover power to the elected representatives of the people.

So, in March 1971, the leader of the nation declared all out non- violent, non –cooperation movement against the Pak Military Junta, and that was the perspective in which the speech of the 7th March was delivered.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was elected leader of the People of the country, emerged through the national election in Pakistan held under adult franchise, the right given through the Legal Frame-work Order promulgated by General Yahya Khan the then Military dictator of Pakistan. Therefore, side by side while giving the clarion call to the people to prepare for armed struggle, in his speech he also pressed the demands in re-enforced language to hand over power to the elected representatives of the people of Pakistan to form a civilian Government with army returned to the barracks.

This very later part of Mujib’s speech of that day became the root of all controversies, raised by the eager aspirators for launching the armed struggle following declaration of independence in advance; similarly, the anti-independence and anti-liberation elements in disguise with the end to undermine the role of Mujibur, even cursed him as traitor, because of the killing and suffering that fell upon the nation when Pak Army cracked down upon the unarmed civilians, Bengali members of Police & Army while they were totally unprepared for waging the fight for resistance and hence the one sided onslaught and genocide continued for few months till the resistance started to take shape.

However, on the same fateful night of 25th March, 1971, Pak Army captured Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from his residence and shifted him to a prison in the then West Pakistan, where he faced the trial against charges of treason brought against him by the then rulers of Pakistan.

Though it was initially delayed but in a month or so, armed resistance got organised and built up with strength of a forceful guerilla warfare by the freedom fighters constituting the members of the Army, Police, Para Military Forces, students, youths, members of intelligentsia, peasants, workers, professionals, from almost all walks of the nation. Nine months guerilla warfare followed by face to face battle waged by the joint liberation forces, as a result of sacrifice of three million martyrs, the Pak army surrendered in the afternoon of 16th December, 1971, giving the first taste of victory to the Bengalee Nation after centuries of foreign dominations.

Shahajahan Siraj M. P.; in 1971 who was leader of Students League the student wing of Awami League, but at present member of BNP and Minister for Environment of the current ruling alliance of Bangladesh, while talking in a discussion telecast of Channel-I titled `Third Dimension’ informed that, the underground movement led by Serajul Alam Khan organized under the name of `Bangladesh Liberation Force’ was already preparing for declaration and subsequent armed struggle for independence much ahead of 1971 or much ahead of Mujib’s, in his word, the `obscure’ call for preparation of armed struggle for independence made on 7th March 1971, which had been then already exposed and demonstrated at Paltan Maidan on 3rd March, 1971 staging militant march past, presentation of the new flag of independent Bangladesh as well as declaration of Manifesto of independent Bangladesh read out by him at the Bot-tala of Dhaka University.

The leadership of BNP goes further in claiming that the declaration of independence was made by Major Ziaur Rahman in Chittagong on 27th March, 1971, at a time when there was no sense of direction available from the National leaders, and when already the Pak Army had cracked down on 25th March, 1971 undertaking the operation of crushing down the movement, which was the definite chromosome of armed resistance against the Pak Army for the liberation and independence of Bangladesh.

Notwithstanding, all those claims and counter claims, the fact remains that, in 1967 the Pak Government of Ayub Khan arrested Sheikh Mujibur Rahman including few of the then officers of civil, army and navy services, framing charges against them for treason and hatching conspiracy to bring about independent Bangladesh alleged to have been masterminded by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman meeting at Agartala, which was widely known later as the alleged, `Agartala Conspiracy Case’. But the case lost its ground with the fall of Ayub Khan in the wake of mass upsurge in 1969, which was led by united front of the students of Dhaka University that claimed sacrifices of many martyrs including that of Sergeant Jahurul Haque, the names of those innumerous martyrs which the nation will always remember, including the unforgettable fiery speeches of Maulana Bhashani, those aroused the nation to challenge the dictatorial regime against the alleged charges of treason brought against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and others.

Notwithstanding all those claims and counter claims, the fact remains that, Awami League under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman earned the confidence of the people expressed through the results of the national election held in Pakistan under the rule of Yahya Khan in 1970, which gave Sheikh Mujibur Rahman the legitimacy to lead the nation to preserve political democracy and to earn economic parity for the people of the then East Pakistan, and which shocked the seat of the power of the military junta of Pakistan, because they knew that, this was the same Sheikh whom they wanted to try for treason in 1969 but failed, so how they could dream to hand over Prime Ministership of Pakistan and handover power to him peacefully.

Notwithstanding all those claims and counter claims, the fact remains that, the pragmatism of the words so chosen and delivered by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in his speech on 7th March, 1971, and then the crackdown of the Pak army on the civilian population on 25th March, 1971, established beyond any doubt the legitimacy of the people of Bangladesh to declare and wage the war of independence, and hence could earn support and acknowledgment in favour of that from the international community, while the attempt to try the national leaders for treason and to justify the crackdown on the civilians by the Pak Military Junta could get no ground at all.

The pragmatism mixed with uncompromising characteristics of the leadership which brought Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the centre of the genesis of the independence of Bangladesh, when other national leaders like Maulana Bhashani or Professor Muzaffar Ahmed were also very much present and active in the movement for independent Bangladesh, could not be ignored just because of other centers of efforts not to be undermined even, because those had been the essential features and components which normally constitutes the unity of the people’s war, albeit the centre of political leadership could not be shifted but from him upon whom the ultimate confidence of the people was vested.

The role of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman before 10th January 1972 the date on which he returned to independent Bangladesh from the prisons of Pakistan, and the role of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman that was witnessed after the date of 10th January 1972, should be evaluated separately in the premises of two different perspectives. The attempt of taking over the results of one by the evaluation of the other part is disastrous for our nation, because in the former part lies the perception and spirit of the liberation and independence of Bangladesh, and in the later rests the perception of effort of reconstituting the unity of independent Bangladeshis divided due to their diverse background of socio-cultural-political-economical perceptions and interest from which his own party could not even become an exception.

Hence the effort to put to measure the failure, lapses and successes in the balance of the weighing machine, the legacy of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of his 23 years of bravery and sacrifices of enduring the repression of the successive Pakistani rulers and the pragmatic but uncompromising leadership which he gave to the nation for the liberation and independence of Bangladesh; with that of three and half years of Prime Ministership of independent Bangladesh, is an attempt so malicious which can be tried only by them who are either confused or motivated in favour of the enemies of independent Bangladesh. The persons who vie for that, undoubtedly their ultimate objective is to malign the true history, perception and spirit of the liberation and independence of Bangladesh.

Author : AFROZA BEGUM

A short speech with a long and deep meaning

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A short speech with a long and deep meaning

Lord Brabazon (1910-1974), British Conservative politician, once made the remark: “I take the view, .. that if you cannot say what you have to say in twenty minutes, you should go away and write a book about it”. It so happened that Bangabandhu, in his historic 7 March speech, said all he had to say in exactly 19 minutes; and he took less than one minute of Lord Brabazon’s prescribed time-slot for a perfect speech. Nevertheless, this was Bangabandhu’s finest speech under the most trying of the circumstances. This was also the most decisive speech this nation has ever heard; it decided, or to be more specific, indicated the future course of the nation at a time when such a decision/indication was critically important. This speech also marked a discernible transition in the political career of the speaker himself–– he graduated from a populist leader to a statesman. A political leader sees the present in the context of the past, but statesman, besides being aware of the pre-sent, also envisions the future for his people. We as a nation were given the right future direction by this speech at a time when we had been gripped by uncertainty as to our future. We heard what we wanted in a way that pleased us but did not provoke the adversary to immediately go for action against us. It seemed an impending disaster was averted strategically by this speech; and herein lay the master-stroke of statesmanship of the speaker.

What were the contents of the speech that had so many such messages, both apparent and underlying? The speech had two broad parts. The first part was exclusively for the Pakistani rulers; and the second as well as more meaningful one was entirely for us. As it was, the first part prefaced the second purely as a political stratagem.

As the speech was delivered against the gloomy background of a political stand-off, the first part laid out conditionalities for resolving the same. The conditionalities included inter alia trial of the killers, taking the army back to barrack and handing over power to the elected representatives, etc. It does not need any iota of imagination to suggest that Bangabandhu did not believe that these conditionalities would be met and the crisis resolved. The sole purpose of setting these conditionalities was to get across the message of sincerity on the part of Bangabandhu.

As Bangabandhu knew deep down in his heart any political accommodation with the Pakistani ruling junta was an impossibility; the course available for his people was to wrest independence through an armed struggle; and for which, his indications were aplenty. The message and indication were contained in the staccato sentence: “The struggle this time is for our liberation, the struggle this time is for independence”. The sentence immediately preceding this one had the assertion: “We shall liberate the people of Bengal, InshaAllah”. It is worth noting that the word ‘liberation’ was used twice; and ‘independence’ once; and the clearest message was that as independence was what we desired, more important was the aspiration for total liberation. Indeed, independence is a micro-concept, while liberation a macro one. The experience-hardened politician Bangabandhu appeared to have juxtaposed these words consciously and knowing full well the difference in connotation between these two words. At the time-distance of nearly four plus decades since this speech was delivered we squarely face the disturbing reality that, Bangladesh, although independent, is yet to be properly liberated from the constraints that stunt our full development as proper human beings.

The speech not only set the goal of the armed struggle for independence, the strategy for which was also clearly laid out–– it was to be a people’s war to be fought through guerilla strategy; and people were exhorted to turn their homes into fortresses where they would to ready themselves with whatever weapons they could gather. Bangabandhu, at one stage of this speech exuded confidence as he roared: “None can now keep down the people of Bengal”. Indeed, the armed struggle that ensued shortly demonstrated how the people of Bengal fought an unequal people’s war and emerged victorious. More than that, the war was fought exactly as what the speech had indicated. Again, as he shared his hunch and said: “Even if I cannot command you, be ready with whatever you have”. As it was, he had to spend the entire duration of the Liberation War in the Pakistani captivity, but his people did prove that they had the correct understanding of this message.

An opinion goes around that Bangabandhu was expected to declare independence outright on that day, but he did not. Was it so? A little in-depth reading of the core message of the speech is in order. True, it was not an outright declaration, but it was a clear indication of independence short of declaration. As an astute and experienced politician he knew that the unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) was contrary to the principles of international law. Moreover, such a declaration at that time would have put us against the will of the international community. On the contrary, as things turned out, when we started the Liberation War by resisting the crackdown by the Pakistani army, code-named “Operation Searchlight”, we had the blessing of the world public opinion. Above all, an outright declaration on that day would have resulted in massacre and bloodshed on the spot thereby ending our hopes and aspirations.

It was Shakespeare who put in the mouth of Julius Caeser the dialogue: “To stir men’s blood; I only speak right on”. Yes, as Bangabandhu finished his speech and departed we the members of the audience truly felt the blood flowing in our veins had been stirred by this speech.

Author : Prof. Dr Syed Anwar Husain is the Editor of daily sun.

The article that changed the history of Bangladesh

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On 13 June 1971, an article in the UK’s Sunday Times exposed the brutality of Pakistan’s suppression of the Bangladeshi uprising. It forced the reporter’s family into hiding and changed history.

Abdul Bari had run out of luck. Like thousands of other people in East Bengal, he had made the mistake – the fatal mistake – of running within sight of a Pakistani patrol. He was 24 years old, a slight man surrounded by soldiers. He was trembling because he was about to be shot. So starts one of the most influential pieces of South Asian journalism of the past half century.

Written by Anthony Mascarenhas, a Pakistani reporter, and printed in the UK’s Sunday Times, it exposed for the first time the scale of the Pakistan army’s brutal campaign to suppress its breakaway eastern province in 1971.

Nobody knows exactly how many people were killed, but certainly a huge number of people lost their lives. Independent researchers think that between 300,000 and 500,000 died. The Bangladesh government puts the figure at three million.

The strategy failed, and Bangladeshis are now celebrating the 40th anniversary of the birth of their country. Meanwhile, the first trial of those accused of committing war crimes has recently begun in Dhaka.

There is little doubt that Mascarenhas’ reportage played its part in ending the war. It helped turn world opinion against Pakistan and encouraged India to play a decisive role.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi told the then editor of the Sunday Times, Harold Evans, that the article had shocked her so deeply it had set her “on a campaign of personal diplomacy in the European capitals and Moscow to prepare the ground for India’s armed intervention,” he recalled.

Not that this was ever Mascarenhas’ intention. He was, Evans wrote in his memoirs, “just a very good reporter doing an honest job”.

He was also very brave. Pakistan, at the time, was run by the military, and he knew that he would have to get himself and his family out of the country before the story could be published – not an easy task in those days.

“His mother always told him to stand up and speak the truth and be counted,” Mascarenhas’s widow, Yvonne, recalled (he died in 1986). “He used to tell me, put a mountain before me and I’ll climb it. He was never daunted.”

When the war in what was then East Pakistan broke out in March 1971, Mascarenhas was a respected journalist in Karachi, the main city in the country’s dominant western wing, on good terms with the country’s ruling elite. He was a member of the city’s small community of Goan Christians, and he and Yvonne had five children.

The conflict was sparked by elections, which were won by an East Pakistani party, the Awami League, which wanted greater autonomy for the region.

While the political parties and the military argued over the formation of a new government, many Bengalis became convinced that West Pakistan was deliberately blocking their ambitions.

The situation started to become violent. The Awami League launched a campaign of civil disobedience, its supporters attacked many non-Bengali civilians, and the army flew in thousands of reinforcements.

On the evening of 25 March it launched a pre-emptive strike against the Awami League, and other perceived opponents, including members of the intelligentsia and the Hindu community, who at that time made up around 20% of the province’s 75 million people.

In the first of many notorious war crimes, soldiers attacked Dhaka University, lining up and executing students and professors.

Their campaign of terror then moved into the countryside, where they battled local troops who had mutinied.

Initially, the plan seemed to work, and the army decided it would be a good idea to invite some Pakistani reporters to the region to show them how they had successfully dealt with the “freedom fighters”.

Foreign journalists had already been expelled, and Pakistan was also keen to publicise atrocities committed by the other side. Awami League supporters had massacred tens of thousands of civilians whose loyalty they suspected, a war crime that is still denied by many today in Bangladesh.

Eight journalists, including Mascarenhas, were given a 10-day tour of the province. When they returned home, seven of them duly wrote what they were told to.

But one of them refused.

Yvonne Mascarenhas remembers him coming back distraught: “I’d never seen my husband looking in such a state. He was absolutely shocked, stressed, upset and terribly emotional,” she says, speaking from her home in west London.

“He told me that if he couldn’t write the story of what he’d seen he’d never be able to write another word again.”

Clearly it would not be possible to do so in Pakistan. All newspaper articles were checked by the military censor, and Mascarenhas told his wife he was certain he would be shot if he tried.

Pretending he was visiting his sick sister, Mascarenhas then travelled to London, where he headed straight to the Sunday Times and the editor’s office.

Evans remembers him in that meeting as having “the bearing of a military man, square-set and moustached, but appealing, almost soulful eyes and an air of profound melancholy”.

“He’d been shocked by the Bengali outrages in March, but he maintained that what the army was doing was altogether worse and on a grander scale,” Evans wrote.

Mascarenhas told him he had been an eyewitness to a huge, systematic killing spree, and had heard army officers describe the killings as a “final solution”.

Evans promised to run the story, but first Yvonne and the children had to escape Karachi.

They had agreed that the signal for them to start preparing for this was a telegram from Mascarenhas saying that “Ann’s operation was successful”.

Yvonne remembers receiving the message at three the next morning. “I heard the telegram man bang at my window and I woke up my sons and I was, oh my gosh, we have to go to London. It was terrifying. I had to leave everything behind.”

“We could only take one suitcase each. We were crying so much it was like a funeral,” she says.

To avoid suspicion, Mascarenhas had to return to Pakistan before his family could leave. But as Pakistanis were only allowed one foreign flight a year, he then had to sneak out of the country by himself, crossing by land into Afghanistan.

The day after the family was reunited in their new home in London, the Sunday Times published his article, under the headline “Genocide”.

‘Betrayal’
It is such a powerful piece of reporting because Mascarenhas was clearly so well trusted by the Pakistani officers he spent time with.

I have witnessed the brutality of ‘kill and burn missions’ as the army units, after clearing out the rebels, pursued the pogrom in the towns and villages.

I have seen whole villages devastated by ‘punitive action’.

And in the officer’s mess at night I have listened incredulously as otherwise brave and honourable men proudly chewed over the day’s kill.

‘How many did you get?’ The answers are seared in my memory.

His article was – from Pakistan’s point of view – a huge betrayal and he was accused of being an enemy agent. It still denies its forces were behind such atrocities as those described by Mascarenhas, and blames Indian propaganda.

However, he still maintained excellent contacts there, and in 1979 became the first journalist to reveal that Pakistan had developed nuclear weapons.

In Bangladesh, of course, he is remembered more fondly, and his article is still displayed in the country’s Liberation War Museum.

“This was one of the most significant articles written on the war. It came out when our country was cut off, and helped inform the world of what was going on here,” says Mofidul Huq, a trustee of the museum.

His family, meanwhile, settled into life in a new and colder country.

“People were so serious in London and nobody ever talked to us,” Yvonne Mascarenhas remembers. “We were used to happy, smiley faces, it was all a bit of a change for us after Karachi. But we never regretted it.”

Author : Mark Dummett, BBC News