Content area
Full Text
This is the story of a young officer hardly four years service, who decided to fight alongside his old unit, raised and commanded by his father. He had grown up in the unit and earned a nick name ‘Chand Sahib’ in the unit. He left the comfortable living as a pilot in the Army Aviation Flight at Dacca and decided to join 2 East Bengal Regiment (EBR) on 29 March 1971 at Joydebpor. The author terms it as a decision of his heart against mind (page 5). Why Heart over Mind? There is need to study why or what forces young officers/men to stand up for a cause. This is to be viewed in the circumstances prevailing in East Pakistan at that time. The Governor and the Commander Eastern Command, both non-Bengalis, resigned in protest against the Federal Government Decision to cancel the National Assembly session scheduled for 3 March 1971 at Dacca. This was Yayha’s most stupid decision, which became the immediate cause for the creation of BANGLA DESH.
It was viewed by the people of East Pakistan as reluctance by the Federal Government to hand over power to the Majority Party leader after the Elections. The entire civil government, police and the people, business men, civil society, villagers poor and rich, henceforth (1 March 1971) started working on the directions of Sh Mujib ur Rehman and Awami League. Writ of the federal government was non-existent since 1 March 1971. It was an all out Up rising and defiance by the people of the entire province. The local shopkeepers refused to sell any thing to the Army units or Families. The Author had observed the massacre of Non-Bengalis on 4 March 1971 at Chittagong , when he was sent by General Yaqub to observe and report. (Page 125-126). However the Bengali elements of Pakistan Army Including EBR and East Pakistan had not yet revolted, but their sympathies were clearly with the Awami League. (GOC 14 Div Gen Khadim Raja in his recently published Book, “I was a stranger in my own country.“)
Note: (The Army Higher Command took no action in this period to take protective measures like withdrawing the West Pakistani troops deployed in penny packets in isolated Posts or small towns on...