Brig RP Singh, VSM (Retd)

“This is my last message. From today, Bangladesh is a sovereign and independent country…,” these words of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman demolished the Pakistan that was created on August 14, 1947 by the British rulers.

The Pakistan Army’s genocide in Bangladesh, launched as part of Operation Searchlight on the night of March 25-26, 1971 was supported by US President Richard Nixon, whereas the media and majority of Congress were critical of the administration’s stand on the issue.

On this day 50 years ago (Sunday June 13, 1971), a report by Neville Anthony Mascarenhas, a Pakistani journalist, that appeared in the Sunday Times (London), shocked the world and made global-leaders take notice of the Pakistan Army’s genocide in Bangladesh.

Contrary to what some people believe, the Simla Agreement signed on July 2, 1972 had nothing to do with the Pakistani POW that Bangladesh wanted to prosecute because it was an issue between Dhaka and Islamabad. But Bhutto played his devilish card by making the 400,000 Bangladeshis who lived in West Pakistan hostage.