Military Crackdown
On 25 March, Yahya and his aides quietly flew back to West Pakistan, followed by Bhutto a day later. As ominous clouds gathered over the horizon, it was clear that the time for politics was over.
The
military had planned to conduct Operation ‘Searchlight’ starting at 0100 hrs on
26 March, by which time General Yahya would have safely landed in Karachi. Maj
Gen Rao Farman Ali, the advisor on civil affairs, was put in charge of
operations in Dacca and its environs, while Maj Gen Khadim Hussain Raja,
General Officer Commanding (GOC) 14 Division, was given charge of the rest of
East Pakistan.
Some of the more
important tasks assigned to Farman’s subordinate, Brig Jehanzeb Arbab,
(Commander 57 Brigade), included disarming of about 5,000 personnel of East
Pakistan Rifles, disarming of 1,000 policemen at the city’s Police Lines,
neutralisation of Awami League strong points inside Dacca University, and
capture of Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman (code-named ‘Big Bird’). Additionally, combing
operations and show of force was to be conducted, wherever required.
The operation in
Dacca was over by first light, with all objectives achieved. The ‘Big Bird’ was
in the cage, and was whisked off to Karachi three days later. The casualty
figures of the Bengalis, especially at the University, remain moot. While the
Army sources estimated around one hundred deaths in the University area,
Bengalis insisted that these ran in thousands.
The
main task
of securing the rest of East Pakistan with a single army division was not an
easy one. The rebel strongholds in Chittagong, Kushtia and Pabna were
particularly formidable and well-defended, and needed to be neutralised
promptly before the rebels went on the rampage against the non-Bengalis.
Chittagong
had just one battalion with 600-odd troops to fight off an estimated 5,000
rebels. Reinforcements from the brigade headquarters at Comilla, including an
infantry battalion and a mortar battery, were blocked by the rebels after blowing
up of a bridge enroute. All attempts to make headway towards Chittagong were
thwarted, and eventually, contact was lost with the relief column. The GOC himself undertook a search of the
column from a helicopter, braving intermittent fire and several hits, but to no
avail. A detachment of commandos was also
flown in from Dacca to search for the column, but soon it came under rebel
cross fire and took substantial
casualties.[1]
When the Officer Commanding of 24 FF fell in action, the Brigade Commander (53
Brigade) at Comilla, Brig Iqbal Shafi, himself took charge of the battalion,
and was able to break the rebel resistance not long afterwards. The way to Chittagong was cleared, but unfortunately,
the troops were too late to prevent a horrid massacre of unarmed non-Bengali men, women and
children at Ispahani Jute Mills near the edge of the city.
The
important tasks in Chittagong included destruction of radio transmitters that
had been spewing virulent anti-Pakistan
messages, as well as the neutralisation of East Pakistan Regimental Centre
and Reserve Police Lines. The latter two locations had a strong presence of trained
saboteurs, and were reported to have been heavily stocked with weapons.
After two abortive and
costly attempts[2] by a
commando detachment to blow up the radio transmitters, PAF Sabres were called
in to do the job, which was easily accomplished.
The East Pakistan Regimental Centre was
attacked with a couple of tanks, heavy mortar battery, as well as unconventional
fire support from the destroyer PNS Jahangir and two gunboats Rajshahi
and Balaghat. After a raging battle that lasted for three hours, the
target was destroyed and the rebels subdued.
The defenders at the
Police Reserve Lines could not face Pak Army’s battalion-sized onslaught, and
promptly vacated the area.
While
the main operations in Chittagong were over in five days, mopping up continued
into the first week of April.
In
Kushtia, the
task for the Army was to maintain security and establish own presence with the
help of a company detached from its battalion headquarters at Jessore, 55 miles
away. On 28 March, the local Superintendent of Police informed the Company Commander
that an attack on the town by rebels was imminent. The attack commenced with
heavy mortar firing early on the morning of 29 March. Troops of an East Bengal
battalion joined by the Indian Border Security Force charged on the police
armoury occupied by Pak Army troops. In the next few hours, twenty soldiers had
fallen. The company headquarters, as well as posts at the telephone exchange
and VHF station were also attacked by the Bengali-Indian combine, resulting in
heavy casualties. Desperate requests for reinforcements were denied due to
other commitments, and air support had to be called off due to poor visibility.
Kushtia
was abandoned, and 65 surviving soldiers out of 150 were driven out in a convoy
to Jessore. Enroute, a deadly ambush cut down all but nine soldiers who managed
to escape, only to be rounded up and subjected to a barbaric end. The ill-prepared
company had been virtually wiped out, in what was the worst disaster faced by
the Pakistan Army during Operation ‘Searchlight’.
In
Pabna, the task
was not much different from the one at Kushtia, being mostly show of military
presence in the area, by a lightly armed company of troops. Some important
vulnerable points like the power house and the telephone exchange were also to
be defended against the rebels. A costly mistake was made in wrongly
assessing the strength of the rebels in the area. This realisation came too
late when the rebels carried out a surprise raid on the telephone exchange, in
which 85 troops were martyred. The remnants were evacuated by a relief party
from Rajshahi, but were met with heavy resistance as they fought their way out.
The column reached Rajshahi with just 18 survivors; 112 had been martyred in
the operation.
Operation ‘Searchlight’ was deemed
to have helped achieve full control over much of the province, by the end of
April. While the Bengalis claimed that their casualties ran in hundreds of
thousands in less than a month, Pakistan Army sources insist that rebel deaths
did not exceed four figures. India had good reason to inflate the numbers to
paint Pakistan Army in bad light in the eyes of the international community, an
exercise in which she succeeded resoundingly. Expulsion of foreign press prior
to the operation did not help matters either, and it was only too pleased to
parrot India’s line on the subject.
Full-blown
Insurgency
While Operation
‘Searchlight’ was underway, two more Army divisions (9 and 16 Divisions), as
well as additional paramilitary forces, were flown in from West Pakistan. These
forces were lightly armed, and their heavy equipment was left behind. A new Commander of Eastern Command, Lt Gen A
A K ‘Tiger’ Niazi was also posted in, and he had three new GOCs of the three divisions
for conducting counter-insurgency
operations.
The Indian government had, meanwhile,
declared its full support to the rebels, having perceived a distinct
possibility of Pakistan’s breakup. The
Director of Indian Institute of Strategic Studies, Krishnaswamy Subrahmanyam,
gave heft to that perception when he brazenly suggested at a symposium, to
destroy Pakistan: “What India must realise is the fact that the breakup of
Pakistan is in our interest, and opportunity the like of which will never come
again.”[3]
He called it a ‘chance of a century’ to destroy India’s enemy number one.
India started a crash programme of
military preparations, including reorganisation and re-equipment. On the
diplomatic front, she went all out in creating a favourable world opinion, as
well as getting erstwhile Soviet Union’s commitment to help in the impending
military action.[4] The presence of Bengali refugees and their
plight was also exploited advantageously.
The most consequential action by
India was the formation of an organised, well-trained and well-equipped rebel
force, to thwart Pak Army’s efforts in fighting the insurgency. The Mukti
Bahini (freedom fighters) force was cobbled up with Bengali defectors from
the army and para-military forces,
students and able-bodied volunteers. Their task, as recalled in India’s
Second Liberation by Pran Chopra, was: “Deployment in their own native land
with a view to initially immobilizing and tying down the Pakistan military
forces for protective tasks in Bengal, subsequently by gradual escalation of guerrilla
operations, to sap and corrode the morale of the Pakistan Forces in the eastern
sector, and finally to avail the cadres as ancillaries to the Eastern Field
Force in the event of Pakistan initiating hostilities against us.”[5]
With a constantly
growing number of training camps in India, as many as 100,000 Mukti Bahini
had cycled through training courses by end of November. 300 frogmen had also been
trained by India to undertake sabotage operations against shipping and riverine
craft.
Pak Army had a total
of 45,000 troops, including 11,000 paramilitary forces and police.[6]
It also had additional support of about 50,000 Urdu-speaking Biharis and some
sympathetic Bengalis under the support of an umbrella organisation called Razakars
(volunteers). While the Razakars had been fired by patriotic fervour,
they did not have proper training to transform their zeal into anything
worthwhile. They could hardly conduct operations independent of Pak Army.
Pak Army earnestly
started active counter-insurgency operations in April. The main focus was on
maintaining occupation of border posts, and controlling major towns. Rebels
followed hit-and-run tactics, and could not be countered as they disappeared
before the Pak Army arrived on the scene. This modus operandi of the Mukti Bahini
continued incessantly for many months. With time – and ceaseless Indian support
– their methods became more well-planned,
and the rebels became more audacious in their attacks. Bridges, railway lines and electric power
stations were the preferred targets. For the Pak Army, fighting an insurgency
spread over more than 55,000 square miles was a tall order. Besides, being involved in a prolonged
insurgency without any relief resulted in indifference and apathy setting in.
The
writing on
the wall was clear: the population of East Pakistan was not going to stop short
of an independent Bangla Desh, as the West Pakistani power brokers had nothing
to offer that could meet their aspirations. Retracting at this stage, when too
much blood had been spilt, would have been seen by the Bengalis as an insult to
their dignity. Sadly, the time for
reconciliation was past.
General Yahya seemed
completely afflicted by inaction and inertia over the nine months spanned by
the insurgency. His efforts at some sort of reconciliation were confined to
superficial measures, including replacement of Lt Gen Tikka Khan with a
civilian Governor, to assuage the feelings of the Bengalis who saw Tikka as a
tyrant. A former dentist, trade union
leader, and elderly politician, Dr A M Malik was sworn in on 3 September. A day later, general amnesty for ‘miscreants’
was announced, but there was no mention of the release of Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman,
which made it appear meaningless to the Bengalis. Yahya’s actions were,
decidedly, too little, too late.
A Chance of a
Century for India
While preparing for a military
intervention in East Pakistan, India continued with shrewd diplomatic efforts
in parallel. Notably, she signed the euphemistically dubbed Indo-Soviet Treaty
of Peace, Friendship and Co-operation on 9 August 1971. Her diplomatic
offensive centred around the ‘massive humanitarian problem’ of refugees who had
fled to India because of the civil war in East Pakistan. It also helped assuage
any apprehensions of a possible wider conflict, especially with regard to US
and China, whose beleaguered ally, Pakistan, could have clamoured for help. In any case, the US was unwilling, and China
unable, to do much to avoid a conflagration.
The
Indian military, in the meantime, found enough time to prepare for war on two
fronts viz, West Pakistan as well as East Pakistan, the latter being considered
as the main theatre. Equipment and manpower shortfalls were speedily addressed,
and war plans adequately reviewed.
War
preparations on the Pakistani side were seriously constrained by shortfalls in
the Army’s fighting formations. The move of two infantry divisions from West
Pakistan was clearly a short-term response to the deteriorating situation in
East Pakistan; it gravely altered the balance of forces in the West, the main
theater of war. Any operational reverses
that might occur were to be redressed by denuding the strategic reserves.
Unfortunately, this meant that the very foundations of a Pakistani military
response had been utterly weakened.
While the
insurgency within East Pakistan continued without let, India started artillery
shelling on the border outposts in late June. This activity increased in the
following months, with as many as 2,000 rounds falling daily.[7]
On the one hand, it served the objective
of controlled escalation by India, while on the other, it helped the Mukti
Bahini in occupying many salients and enclaves, as these became indefensible under
constant fire. By the time of General Yahya’s address to the nation on 12
October, in which he declared that every inch of the sacred soil of Pakistan
would be defended, 3,000 square miles of
border area had already gone under Indian control.
India had carefully
assessed that Pak Army troops in East Pakistan were tired of fighting an
insurgency for over eight months, and their morale was not at its best. Indian Army had the numbers to overwhelm Pak
Army troops three times over, and had adequate mobility and logistics support
to make a fast run for Dacca. In West Pakistan, India enjoyed numerical
superiority, especially in the Desert Sector where it was overpowering. Her
defences were strong in all sectors, and she was confident of stopping any
Pakistani foray, were Pakistan to attempt capture of vital territory as a sop
for the loss of East Pakistan.
As for the Pakistan Air Force,
India saw it mostly in a supporting role for Pak Army, and if the latter’s
design could be stymied through deft planning, the aerial battlefront was not
seen as a major threat to her designs.
As war clouds
appeared over the sub-continent, India
found it opportune to act on Subrahmanyam’s advice to avail the chance of a
century. Sadly, at this stage, there was
hardly a way out of the morass that Pakistan found itself in but to fight, however
best as was possible.
[1] 16 commandos were martyred in this action.
[2] 13 commandos were martyred in this action.
[3] The symposium was organised by the Indian Council of
World Affairs in New Delhi. Subrahmanyam’s speech was reported by The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 1 April
1971.
[4] The Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and
Co-operation was signed on 9 August 1971.
[5] Pakistan Cut to
Size, Manekar, D R, Delhi; page 133.
[6] This figure is quoted by Lt Gen Niazi in his book, The
Betrayal of East Pakistan, Chapter 14, page 237.
[7] Witness to Surrender, Salik, Siddiq; Oxford University Press,
Karachi, 1977, page 116.
© KAISER TUFAIL
