A Pakistani soldier said after the 1971 war, every Indian Armyman knows he is backed solidly by his superior. That’s not always the case in his Army, he rued
On March 7, 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ended his historic speech at the Ramna Race Course Grounds, Dhaka, with the thunderous declaration, “Our struggle this time is a struggle for independence. Our struggle this time is a struggle for freedom.” The massive crowd exploded in applause. Bangladesh, then East Pakistan, was being swept by a tumultuous movement for independence from Islamabad's colonial rule. The Awami league had won 160 seats in the election to Pakistan's 300-strong National Assembly held on December 7, 1970. This gave it a clear majority in the Assembly and the mandate to form a Government for the whole of Pakistan. The ruling military junta, hand-in-glove with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and his Pakistan Peoples Party, which had 81 seats in the House, put roadblocks in the way.
The movement intensified. What had started out as a demand for autonomy, an end to economic exploitation by the western wing and cultural and linguistic freedom and equality, became one for independence. The military junta and Bhutto prepared to crush the movement by force. On the night of March 25, 1971, the junta unleashed a campaign of genocidal repression that led to the slaughter of three million people by the time the Pakistani army in Bangladesh surrendered to the Indian Army on December 16, 1971. Four-hundred thousand women were raped. Thousands were kept as sex slaves in cantonments,
Ten million refugees fled to Indian States bordering Bangladesh. The social and economic burden of hosting them became increasingly difficult with time. This and the continuing horrific crimes against humanity in Bangladesh, led India to assist the liberation army formed in Bangladesh to fight for independence and the Bangladesh government in exile operating from Kolkata. Pakistan retaliated by strafing several Indian air bases on the evening of December 3, 2015. The war began,
Wing Commander Dhirendra S Jafa, then a Squadron leader, of the Indian Air Force, was one of those who fought, He gave up the security of his position as an aide to the then Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal PC lal, at the air headquarters, to join his unit which then flew Sukhoi 7s. His plane was shot down behind enemy lines. Baling out and badly injured, he was taken prisoner of war. His book, Death Wasn't Painful: Stories of Indian Fighter Pilots from the 1971 War (Sage), is an account of his, as well as those of several other Indian pilots, life in Pakistan's custody. In the process, it says a lot about Pakistan, its Army, the good and bad behaviour of the latter's officers and men, their hostility and caring, individual warmth and chauvinistic outbursts.
It is a gripping book with many interesting passages. In one, Iqbal, a Pakistani sentry guarding Jafa, talks about the difference between Indian and Pakistani officers. “On the front, our Major Saheb raises his head from the trench and tells the Captain Saheb, ‘CHARGE…’ The Captain Saheb peers outside the trench and tells the JCO, ‘CHARGE…' The JCO in turn calls out to the jawans, ‘CHARGE…' The jawans spring out from the trenches and begin the charge. But when they look back, there is no one to be seen.”
Jafa asked him whether it did not happen everywhere. “No”, Iqbal replied emphatically, “I have seen with my own eyes. On your side, the Major leaps out of the trench with a firing sten gun in his hands and bounds forward crying’ ‘C.H.A.R.G.E'. The Captain comes behind him, then the JCOs and then the jawans, all successive people trying to overtake those before. Finally, of course, the jawan takes the lead but he knows that everyone is solidly behind him. This is what wins battles.” It is not for nothing that the Indian Armed Forces are regarded as among the very best in the world.