The general’s nephew’s phone call

A recent telephone call has made headlines both in Bangladesh and in the region. During these COVID-19 times, these headlines have drawn the attention of many, as headlines are these days reserved for pandemic-related stories, be it drug trial or vaccine or corruption. This much-talked-about phone call was from Pakistan's Imran Khan to Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina.

In recent times there have been several reports in the regional media, some important and others unheard off, coming up with manufactured sensations. While some remained busy publishing photoshopped images of Hasina exchanging greetings with her Pakistani counterpart Khan, the champion is perhaps The Dawn, a leading Pakistani newspaper that published a twisted report about Khan raising the issue of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir during his recent phone call to Hasina. This was not reflected in the statement by Hasina's press secretary to the local media following this telephone conversation.

The Dawn actually went on to misquote and also misinterpret an Indian and another Bangladesh newspaper that Bangladesh's regional focus was now tilting, referring to the award of an airport development project in Bangladesh to a non-Indian construction firm. By raising such an issue, the Pakistani newspaper has actually brought forward Pakistan's reality to the world. Stories of how successive Pakistani prime ministers have minted money through corruption in a country still dominated by the "men in uniform", where "corruption is the rule of the game", is nothing new to the world. If a Pakistani newspaper puts in "black and white" that a government can award a project to any company it wishes to defy the procurement guidelines, it immediately comes to our minds that it's Pakistan that's being referred to. I, therefore, have no objection to The Dawn's way of looking at things. It's the mindset of the Pakistani newspapers and their journalists, having been born and brought up in a country where the military and not the populous is the source of power and where corruption reigns, is what prompted The Dawn to report such a story.

Bangladesh's Liberation War Affairs Minister Mozammel Haque has been quoted by the media to have informed the outgoing Indian High Commissioner to Dhaka, Riva Ganguly Das, as she made a farewell call on him, that the Bangladesh government has selected a 3.5 acres piece of land in Akhaura, bordering India's Tripura state capital Agartala, to construct a monument for the fallen Indian soldiers of 1971. Akhaura had seen some of the many battles fiercely fought by the Indian Army and Mukti Bahini against the Pakistani Army on the soil of Bangladesh in December 1971. More than 3,000 Indian servicemen sacrificed their lives for the liberation of Bangladesh. Reports also said that the outgoing Indian envoy expressed her government's desire to partner with Bangladesh in celebrating our golden jubilee of independence next year. This news is water-shedder to the aspirations of many who started living in the fool's paradise in recent days having been inspired by some "yellowish news" published by some media in recent times.

They repeatedly forget that the failed state of Pakistan recognised Bangladesh when they realised that Bangladesh had been brought down to their rank following Bangabandhu's assassination on Aug 15, 1975. In fact, they just took hours to recognise Bangladesh and the Khandakar Mushtaque government, possibly even before Bangabandhu was laid to eternal rest. Not only so, but the Pakistani government also declared a welcome package of 50,000 tonnes of rice and 15 million yards of cloth for Bangladesh and called on its friends to recognise the "Islamic Republic of Bangladesh", which was rushing backwards at full speed at that point of time. The Pakistani call was immediately answered by the nations, who vehemently opposed the emergence of Bangladesh and joined the blood-soaked hands of the Pakistanis in 1971. This list goes on to include many of our today's development partners in the Middle and the Far East!

On Aug 16, 1975, the influential Pakistani newspaper Nawa-E-Waqt advocated for the unification of Pakistan with the "Islamic Republic of East Pakistan" – their preferred name of independent Bangladesh. And on Aug 18, 1975, the headline of the Daily Telegraph in the UK read "Pakistan-trained troops led Bangladesh coup" clearly pointing to Pakistani involvement in Bangabandhu's assassination. In fact, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto suggested a confederation between Pakistan and Bangladesh in his interview with French Le Figaro on Oct 16, 1975. A group of Pakistan-backed barristers even went on to constitute 'East Pakistan government in exile' in London in 1975 in an attempt to realise Bhutto's unrealised dreams.

The recent newspaper reports are not at all bothering, not to mention that the rumours that roam across these days. What is most surprising is the audacity of the Pakistani prime minister to call for strengthening the "so-called brotherly relationship between Bangladesh and his failed state", having been the nephew of the top war criminal of 1971 Lieutenant General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi and not ever offering apologies to the people of Bangladesh for what his forefathers did to our forefathers in Bangladesh in the not-too-distant past.

Imran Khan is so obedient to his country's brutal stand in Bangladesh in 1971 that he has very carefully curtailed his name from "Imran Khan Niazi" to "Imran Khan" in an attempt to erase the family ties with his uncle, better referred to as the "butcher of Bengal", who led the Pakistani atrocities in occupied Bangladesh during the nine months of 1971 and eventually led Pakistan's journey to the most humiliating event in their history when he signed the instrument of unconditional surrender to the Joint India-Bangladesh Command in the broad daylight of Dec 16, 1971, at the Dhaka Racecourse Ground.

No matter how many phone calls Imran Khan Niazi makes and no matter how many articles get published, these will be nothing more than far cries as Bangladesh and India prepare for joint celebrations of the most glorious event in their history – the victory in Dhaka, the victory that sealed their relationships in blood, as was mentioned by Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen as he paid homage to the 1971 Bangladesh government in exile at Mujibnagar recently.