*Mohammad Amjad Hossain, retired
diplomat from Bangladesh, former JointDirector of Central Kachi-Kanchar mela,
biggest and oldest children organization
of Bangladesh and former President of
Nova
Chapter
of
prestigious
Toastmasters club of America, writes
from Virginia
12
Through a well-coordinated action
Mukti Bahini (freedom fighters)
prepared the ground for an all-out
attack on the Pakistani forces. India
joined Mukti Bahini to fight against
Pakistan army from five fronts,Jessore
in the West, Chittagong Hill in the
north west,Rangpur in the north, the
Sylhet area in the north east and
Chittagong port area in the South
east. Indian troops had gained
command of the fighting on the
ground in East Pakistan within ten
days and Pakistan army surrendered
to joint command of India and Mukti
Bahini on December 16, 1971.
Bangladesh has emerged as an
independent country on the map of
the world through massacres of
thousands of innocent people,
particularly
Hindu
community,
dishonoring hundreds of girls and
women in the process of barbarity by
Pakistan army. The spilt of Pakistan
apart was the traumatic development
in the history of the South Asia subcontinent since the partition of the
British India in 1947.
Page
on November 13 that “the world now
held a fuller appreciation of the
seriousness of the crisis on the Subcontinent and the course of action
India would take to resolve it”. On
November 21 Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi declared war against Pakistan
in self-defense against approaching
Pakistani tank forces. Both super
powers did not remain as passive
spectators. President Nixon ordered
aircraft carrier: Task force 74 to move
to a position off Singapore to deter an
Indian attack westward, but also to
have forces in place in case the Soviet
Union pressured China as indicated
by Richard Thornton in his book: The
Nixon-Kissinger years while Soviet
union moved additional units of its
Pacific fleet toward the combat zone.
China did not get involved in the war
in favor of Pakistan which apparently
remained silent. On one occasion
China criticized India for meddling in
the internal affair of Pakistan. Oil –rich
Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia,
Libya, and Iran did not appear to go
along with the dismemberment of the
Muslim Country, Pakistan.