Forty years ago, this day, Pakistani forces surrendered to Lt. Gen. J S Aurora and Bangladesh became truly independent. As Daily Star (Bangladeshi newspaper) wrote, the false premise of communalism was broken and Bangladeshis 'were proud witnesses to a restoration of their secular heritage'.
Celebrating a military victory after forty years may not be very nice, especially when we are seeking peace with Pakistan, but this is more of a remembrance than a celebration. And a special remembrance not because the number 40 looks fancy, but because, finally justice is being delivered for the victims of genocide that saw targeted killings and rape of Bengali people, especially Awami leaguers, Hindus, and intellectuals.
After 40 years of various roadblocks, Bangladesh has set up International Crimes Tribunal to prosecute the perpetrators of genocide. Though Pakistani officials will escape justice, Bangladeshi men who aided the genocide are standing trial, which is bringing new evidences and horror stories everyday. Let's hope this will bring justice to them.
As Indians, it is also worth noting the pattern of war we fought and contrast it with 'liberation' wars fought in many places including Iraq and Afghanistan. It lasted less than two weeks and Indira Gandhi ended the operation on West Pakistan the moment our objective was achieved, namely the Bangladeshi independence. Indian Army was withdrawn from Bangladesh in under three months. The liberation war was swift, just and meaningful.
PS: These days I mostly write only in Google Plus, even if the post is moderately big. Makes it easier to follow up and comment upon the comments. But till HTML remains unsupported in G+, longer posts will be put up here.
