NOVANEWS
Sajjad Shaukat
Having pro-Indian tilt, since Bangladesh’s Awami League came into power, Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina Wajid has started a deliberate propaganda campaign against Pakistan, its army
and especially Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
In this context, on the direction of India, unlike the past years, a ceremony was held in Dhaka on
March 24, 2013, with full pump and show to honour ‘Foreign Friends of Bangladesh Award,’
in relation to the crisis which led to the separation of East Pakistan in 1971. For this purpose,
several foreign friends who included various institutions and media anchors from various
countries, particularly India were invited. Besides other renowned persons, the recipients of
awards from Pakistan were mainly those personalities whose deceased fathers had opposed army
action in the East Pakistan and had totally ignored the Indian supported secessionist movement
led by Mukti Bahini. Notably, on the instruction of New Delhi, in December, 2012 when the
names of participants in the said ceremony were announced, Bandladeshi Prime Minister Hasina
Wajid had refused to attend D-8 conference in Islamabad unless Pakistan tendered apology for
the alleged genocide of Bengalis.
In this regard, in the recent past, a book titled, “Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: The Unfinished
Memoirs” written by a Bengali as his autobiography has been simultaneously released in
Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. The book left no stone unturned in distorting Pakistan’s history
and tarnishing the image of Pakistan’s armed forces regarding the separation of East Pakistan.
Without grasping reality, the book explained that it was not Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and
Bengalis who wanted to break up Pakistan, but actually created Pakistan. In fact, the political
intrigues and blunders of military dictators broke up Pakistan—Majib was arrested and a military
operation started in East Pakistan. Bengalis were massacred and their women were raped.
While speaking in line of the book, and concealing the real facts, senior media anchor, Hamid
Mir who also received the award, reproduced its contents in his article, “Mujib’s Memoirs,”
published in a leading daily, on November 24 praised Mujibur Ranman and implicated Pak
Army. He wrote, “It is time now to apologise officially to the people of Bangladesh.”
Notably, a renowned Bengali journalist Sarmila Bose authored a book, “Dead Reckoning:
Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War” after thorough investigation. Her book was published in
2011. While countering exaggerations of the Indian and Bengali Journalists, Bose argues 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 Punjabis, Biharis, Pashtoons and Balochis.
Everyone knows that Majib was already in connivance with India for separation of East Pakistan.
Therefore, when East Pakistan was occupied by Indian Army in 1971, he stated with pleasure
that his 24 years old dream of an independent Bangladesh had been fulfilled. He had earlier
developed his contacts with Indian rulers and training camps of Mukti Bahini, established by
Indian army and RAW which also funded Mujibur Rehman’s general elections in 1970.
Now, India is employing various tactics through Prime Minister Hasina Wajid who has become
a tool in accelerating propaganda against ISI. Just like the Indian leaders of the ruling party,
Congress and the fundamentalist parties, especially BJP, who have made ISI, a scapegoat for
the forthcoming elections of India, Prime Minister Ms. Wajid including workers of the Awami
League has been following the same pattern by propagating against this spy agency.
As a matter of fact, the government led by Awami League has brought about political instability,
social strife and financial problems of grave nature in Bangladesh. Owing to incompetence,
flawed policies, its leader Prime Minister Hasina Wajid has totally failed in resolving the
problems of the impoverished masses. Therefore, present scenario in Bangladesh presents poor
governance, while the government is generally known as an Indian puppet.
Nevertheless, resultantly political turmoil and social disorder with its negative impact go on
haunting the socio-political milieu of Bangladesh. Lack of political vision and inefficiency of
the government headed by PM Ms. Wajid and the ministers have turned the Awami League
into a corrupt clique of politicians who are totally insensitive towards real issues faced by
people of the country, as they remain focused in promoting their self-interests. Hence, party’s
popularity considerably declined. As the country enters into new phase of elections, its leaders
have developed irrational fears and sense of proportion speculating that they will be rejected by
the voters. In this context, political experts indicate that Bangladeshis have lost hope in Awami
League—bringing about any positive change in their poverty ridden socio-economic standing
and status of deprivation. The political awareness of the fiercely independent and patriotic
Bangladeshis has caused them to lose faith and respect for Awami League which has made their
country the subservient of New Delhi and collaborator of Hindu extremists.
So, in this deteriorating situation, Awami League’s leadership has developed a psychological
obsession with preconceived ideas to appease Indian government and extremist Hindus by
propagating against Pakistan and particularly ISI.
It is mentionable that, in the election-campaign, Awami League’s rival party, Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP) led by Begum Khaleda Zia is likely to challenge the current problems,
created by Awami League. Fearing the impending loss in the polls and feeling the pinch of the
likelihood of losing to BNP, the Awami League has launched a vile propaganda campaign to
malign BNP by linking it with ISI. In this venomous campaign, Awami League is being guided
It is notable that Tarique Rehman who is son of the BNP Chairperson Ms. Khaleda Zia is likely
to take over the leadership of BNP from his mother and is a strong contestant to win elections
in the country. In this respect, the content analysis of recently published propaganda reports
in Bangladesh’s print media revealed that Tarique Rehman has contact with ISI for getting
financial support. But some Bangladeshi sources disclosed that Bangladesh’s intelligence agency
provided false data about Tarique Rehman to India for initiating a slanderous campaign against
him in Indian media—quickly linking him with ISI for maintaining contact and allegedly getting
financial support. However, the government of Hasina Wajid’s move is aimed at appeasing
Indian leaders and diverting the attention of the Bangladeshi people from the real crises in order
Overtly, Indian rulers declare that they will not interfere in Bangladesh’s forthcoming elections,
covertly; they have been using all means in meddling in the politics of that country. Alarmed
with power-loss in Bangladesh, Indian top officials have started maligning BNP and ISI, and the
same is being done by those of the Awami League.
Unfortunately, nervous and confused leaders of the Awami Legue use Indian style propaganda to
implicate BNP and damage its repute with a view to win elections. They intentionally indulge in
targeting ISI so as to create hatred against Pakistan and its primary security agency, ISI.
Although the people of Bandladesh are facing poverty due to the flawed polices of the PM
Hasina Wajid, yet politically, they are matured to understand the manipulation by her party’s
politicians who are playing in the hands of New Delhi.
Nonetheless, Pakistan’s media must assert upon Bangladesh’s writers and analysts to maintain
their sense of proportion and stop propagating against Islamabad and ISI, especially when fresh
elections in that country are likely to be held in the near future. Pakistan respects the sovereignty
of Bangladesh by expecting the same from it. While exposing the Awami League’s connections
with India, our media and politicians must condemn slanderous expressions against Pakistan’s
Returning to our main discussion, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina lacks political vision and
competence to address the real concerns of the poor masses of Bangladesh, as her only priority is
to soothe Indians by showing Pakistan in bad light. The inefficiency and corrupt practices of her
party’s leaders are known to everybody both inland and abroad. Consequently, they have hardly
any chance to be re-elected and hence, have started propagating against ISI.
