Ever since Imran Khan’s exit from power through a constitutional process, there has been a sustained campaign against the establishment holding it responsible for the permeating situation in the country, more so after the 2024 general elections. The real target of the campaign has been the Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir. The party has been persistently claiming that its mandate has been stolen and the country was being run by the will of a single man and that the current situation in the country was like in East Pakistan in 1971.
Imran Khan has further upped the ante against the Pakistan Army in his latest tweet, specifically against General Asim Munir. The insinuation is that Like General Yahya in 1971, General Asim was the man behind the current situation in the country. He has also posed the question who was the traitor? Ostensibly he is trying to put the blame on the Army for the tragic events of 1971 as well as the current post-election situation. He is clearly pointing the finger at General Asim Munir. He is also trying to equate himself with Sheikh Mujir ur Rehman whom he absolves of the responsibility for the creation of Bangladesh.
It is my considered view that what Imran Khan and his party are propagating is a brazen attempt to distort history and foment hatred against the Army by portraying it as a villain. The reality is quite different from it. The delay in the transfer of power after the 1970 elections was not the only reason for the dismemberment of Pakistan. It was only the icing on the cake. Mujib was harbouring the idea of an independent Bangladesh for more than two decades before the 1971 war, which he publicly expressed when the Indian forces occupied East Pakistan, by saying that his dream of 24 years for an ‘Independent Bangladesh’ had been fulfilled.
The Agartala Conspiracy Case instituted by Ayub Khan against him which had to be withdrawn under intense pressure from the agitation led by Maulana Abdul Hamid Bhashani in East Pakistan and an unremitting demand by the politicians from the West Wing was a reality and not a setup to discredit Mujib as claimed by his supporters. The Deputy Speaker of the Bangladesh Assembly, Shaukat Ali, who was one of the accused of the Agartala Conspiracy, on a point of order in the Bangladesh Assembly in 2010, confessed that the charges read out to them were true stating that they formed a Shangram Parishad under Sheikh Mujib for secession.
As regards allegations against Pakistan Army for killing Bengalis and raping women, Dr Sarmila Bose, a Bengali intellectual in her book “Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War”, argued that the number of Bengalis killed in 1971 was not three million, but around 50,000 while Bengalis were equally involved in the bloodshed of non-Bengalis. In regards to the much trumped-up Jaysore massacre, she maintained that it was engineered and conducted by Mukti Bahni wearing army uniforms, and the charges of rape were based on propaganda as no rape incident occurred at the hands of Pak Army personnel. The contentions of Dr. Bose are endorsed by none other than General Manek Shaw, who claimed that he recruited 80,000 Hindus to create the Mukti Bahni, who dressed up in Pakistan Army uniform and raped and pillaged Bengalis. They also dressed up as civilians and carried out acts of sabotage against the civil and military Government of Pakistan.
As is evident India provided training facilities to the Mukti Bahni which carried out murders and rapes to malign Pakistan Army and prepared the ground for eventual assault. Tripura was actually the launching pad for an offensive against the Pakistan Army for the Mukti Bahni and the Indian army. When Sheikh Hasina visited Tripura from January 11-12 in 2009, a Bangladeshi journalist Haroon Habib in an article published by The Hindu said that by visiting the state she was revisiting history as Tripura was the unofficial headquarters of the war of liberation.
The foregoing facts leave no doubt in drawing the inference that Mujib conspired with India to achieve his designs for the creation of Bangladesh. It adequately answers Imran’s question, of who was the traitor and also quashed his accusations against the military leadership of the time. Of course, the traitor was Mujib ur Rehman. It is perhaps worth mentioning that Mujib met the most tragic end to his life when his own Army killed his entire family. It was perhaps divine retribution for the killings and bloodshed caused by his conspiracy to dismember Pakistan.
The situation in Pakistan at present is surely not like that of East Pakistan in 1971. What happened there was a conspiracy with the help of an enemy country and that process was going on for more than two decades before the 1970 elections. If Imran Khan equates himself with Mujib and likens the situation in Pakistan at the moment to 1971 conditions then does it not mean that he is threatening to further dismember Pakistan and earn the dubious distinction of a traitor? I am sure he does not realize the implications and consequences of his actions premised on his obsession and lust for power which is so strong that he is even ready to undermine state interests.
Imran undoubtedly is a leader in his own right—though for all the wrong reasons--- and his priority should be to first clear himself and the leadership of his party from the allegations of orchestrating and executing the 9th May incidents, stop maligning the Army and state institutions and advise his party to play a positive role in the assemblies to justify their mandate.
In politics, there is always a next time. But if he continues in the same vein it would ultimately prove disastrous for himself and his party. The country, God willing, will wriggle out of the hard situation but history will remember him only as a person who used his popularity to foster instability in the country and harm the state’s interests. There is still time for him to recalibrate his political strategy if he wants to remain relevant to the future political landscape of the country. Sanity in politics is the need of the hour. The kind of madness being exhibited by PTI poses a serious threat to state interests.
Malik Muhammad Ashraf
The writer is a freelance columnist. He can be reached at ashpak10@gmail.com