While memory serves

Pakistan Army, had surrendered & civil servants, Mufti included, had been herded & pushed into Intercontinental Hotel.

Who has the leisure in the din of rumours today to pause and think about four decades ago? How many of us remember what happened or worry whether or not we are on course to repeating our history?

Going through Masud Mufti’s latest book, Chehray aur Mohray, I am amazed at how the gentleman is unable to forget the episode. True, he was part of all that went on but then there were so many others in Dhaka and East Pakistan who went through the same ordeal.

Pakistan Army, led by Gen Niazi, had surrendered and the civil servants, Mufti among them, had been herded around and pushed into Intercontinental Hotel. Many who shared his experiences have passed away. Others have developed new interests and let bygones be bygones. Mufti, however, is not willing to let go and has now penned another book to remind us what happened to Pakistan.

The strangest hours in the account are those after Gen Niazi had conceded defeat and signed away responsibility and the handful of civil officers and some distinguished citizens awaited their fate. In theory, Intercontinental Hotel was a neutral zone. The Indian army had to come for them and take them in custody as prisoners of war. However, rumours were rife that Mukti Bahini was in pursuit. Would they beat India soldiers to the neutral zone?

The day is also recounted in Hassan Zaheer’s Separation of East Pakistan. Mufti’s account is confined to what was happening at the hotel. Zaheer, in his prologue, also provides glimpses of what he saw from a window of his 11th storey room: how a group of Bengali youth removed Pakistan’s flag from the Radio Pakistan building and replaced it with one of Bangladesh; how a small group of Bihari volunteers walked past armed Mukti Bahini men shouting Pakistan Zindabad; and how some jawans in a Pakistan Army truck took a hostile posture when stopped by the crowd, but after some warning shots an escalation was avoided.

Meanwhile, there was celebration at the hotel as well as outside. As the majority congratulated one another, the few people from West Pakistan – confused and worried – watched from the sidelines. Next, the Red Cross personnel arrived and explained the Geneva Conventions to the refugees. The ministers and civil servants from West Pakistan would be taken into Indian Army custody but no Bengalis. Many, declared traitors by Mukti Bahini, disappeared in the night after being informed that the Geneva Conventions afforded them no protection.

When he recounted the story on his return to Lahore at a Pakistan Council meeting, I remember, many in the audience cried for the suffering. It was the same place where spouses and families of the POWs used to gather for support. Many writers and artists had then come together and through Radio Pakistan broadcasts called on their counterparts in India in the name of shared humanity to help in the release of the prisoners. The job is always left to artists and writers as politicians move on.

His touching account of four decades ago is the first part of Chehray aur Mohray. The second part carries excerpts from the Humoodur Rehman Commission Report and raises question like why none of the Pakistani governments ever allowed its publication. It finally became public when it was serialised in some Indian newspapers.

But the lay public are sentimental. They may get quite emotional about such things but they also forget the biggest national tragedies. This makes things easier for the politicians. So how many of us remember December 16 besides Mufti?

*Translated from Urdu

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2011.