Part 11
By Dr. Humam Khan
The Role of the Pakistani Army in the 1971 War
The war of 1971 added another dark chapter to the history of the Pakistani military. The painful events that occurred during this conflict served as clear evidence that, even twenty-four years after the creation of Pakistan, the mentality of the army had not changed in the slightest. The British first employed soldiers from Western India when they sought to suppress the uprising that emerged from Bengal in 1857. The atrocities committed against the Bengalis in 1971 were, in reality, the result of the same sentiments of hatred and prejudice that the British had instilled in the very fabric of this military during the events of 1857.
Even after the establishment of Pakistan, the military leadership continued to run its institution on the basis of the same ignorant prejudices that the British had deeply embedded in their minds and thinking. The ethnic composition of the Pakistani Army also remained almost the same as it had been before the creation of Pakistan, with the proportions of various ethnic groups remaining largely unchanged.
Military analyst and scholar Ayesha Siddiqa noted in her 2007 research that the overwhelming majority of personnel in the Pakistani Army, approximately 71 percent, still came from the province of Punjab. According to her findings:
12 percent were from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,
9 percent from Azad Kashmir,
4 percent from Sindh,
3 percent from the Northern Areas,
and less than 1 percent from Balochistan.
Furthermore, even among those recruited from Sindh, more than eighty percent came only from the cities of Karachi and Hyderabad, while the rest of Sindh received almost no representation.
Likewise, in his 1998 study, Stephen P. Cohen observed that the Pakistani Army still rested upon the so-called “martial races” theory, a pseudo-scientific doctrine formulated by the British more than a century earlier. As a consequence of this philosophy, 75 percent of the army’s soldiers continued to be recruited from five districts of Punjab and the Frontier region that the British had historically regarded as their preferred “martial races.”
It was because of this prejudiced conduct on the part of the military leadership and the higher bureaucracy that separatist movements emerged in Balochistan, Sindh, the Frontier region, and Southern Punjab. These same prejudices also contributed to the separation of East Pakistan.
In its treatment of the Muslims of East Pakistan, the army not only remained committed to the same “martial races” doctrine, but also continued the harmful practice of regarding Bengali Muslims as inferior and keeping them under pressure, a mindset that it had inherited from its colonial masters after the events of 1857.
After the war, a commission was established under the chairmanship of Hamoodur Rahman, Chief Justice of Pakistan, to investigate the atrocities committed against Bengali Muslims and to identify those responsible for the military’s failure in the conflict. The commission also included the Chief Justices of the High Courts of Sindh and Balochistan among its members.
Following extensive investigations and the testimony of hundreds of witnesses, the commission prepared a report that exposed the military’s misconduct and abuses. Although the commission itself met the very fate that had been expected before it could carry its inquiry to its logical conclusion, its report nevertheless remains sufficient to open the eyes of every Pakistani.