50 years of 1971 war | 'Genocide', a Pakistani journalist's account of the bloodshed in Bangladesh

“Abdul Bari had run out of luck

Like thousands of other people in East Bengal, he had made the mistake, the fatal mistake of running within sight of a Pakistani army patrol. He was 24 years old, a slight man surrounded by soldiers. He was trembling, because he was about to be shot.”

This article written by Anthony Mascarenhas, a Pakistani journalist of Goan descent and published in The Sunday Times in June 1971 played a crucial role in alerting the world about the atrocities committed by the Pakistani army on the minorities in what was then East Pakistan.

“‘Why kill him?’ I asked with mounting concern. ‘Because he might be a Hindu or he might be a rebel, perhaps a student or an Awami Leaguer. They know we are sorting them out and they betray themselves by running.’”

A BBC reports says that the then editor of Sunday Times Harold Evans even recalled that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi told him that she was deeply shocked by what she read, setting her on track to prepare for India’s intervention. Across the world, especially in the sub-continent, the article was received in differently.

"But why are you killing them? And why pick on the Hindus?" I persisted. "Must I remind you," Rathore said severely, "how they have tried to destroy Pakistan? Now under the cover of the fighting we have an excellent opportunity of finishing them off."

Mascarenhas, along with other journalists, was taken on a tour of East Pakistan by the military where he said he saw crimes being committed against the people with his own eyes. Being well aware that publishing an article that would expose the establishment was not possible with the military censor in Pakistan, Mascrenhas, who worked for The Morning News (Karachi), approached The Sunday Times to have his article printed.

“I was getting my first glimpse of the stain of blood which has spread over the otherwise verdant land of East Bengal. First it was the massacre of the non-Bengalis in a savage outburst of Bengali hatred. Now it was massacre, deliberately carried out by the West Pakistan army.”

“The West Pakistani soldiers are not the only ones who have been killing in East Bengal, of course. On the night of March 25 -- and this I was allowed to report by the Pakistani censor -- the Bengali troops and paramilitary units stationed in East Pakistan mutinied and attacked non-Bengalis with atrocious savagery.”

Anthony Mascarenhas had to arrange for his family to leave Pakistan before the article was out. He took them to London. The day after the family reached England, the article was published on July 13, 1971.

“‘We are determined to cleanse East Pakistan once and for all of the threat of secession, even if it means killing of two million people and ruling the province as a colony for 30 years,’ I was repeatedly told by senior military and civil officers in Dacca and Comilla.”

Once it was out, it caused huge uproar across the world and changed the course of the War.

By Bangladesh, Mascarenhas is still remembered fondly and the article is still on display in the nation’s Liberation War Museum.

“Everywhere I found officers and men fashioning imaginative garments of justification from the fabric of their own prejudices. Scapegoats had to be found to legitimise, even for their own consciences, the dreadful "solution" to what in essence was a political problem: the Bengalis won the election and wanted to rule.”

To Pakistan, it was a huge betrayal, as army officers deeply trusted Mascarenhas and had discussed everything openly in front of him, as written in ‘Genocide’. Anthony Mascarenhas was accused of being an enemy agent. The country denied claims made in the article and went on to blame Indian propaganda.

“Officials privately justify what has been done as retaliation for the massacre of the non-Bengalis before the army moved in. But events suggest that the pogrom was not the result of a spontaneous or undisciplined reaction. It was planned.”