Book & Author
Qutubuddin Aziz: Blood and Tears
By Dr Ahmed S. Khan
Chicago, IL
What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world.
- General Robert E. Lee (letter to his wife, 1864)
The breakup of Pakistan and the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971 — an outcome of total leadership failure in all domains of governance — remains a sad saga of South Asian politics. Many eminent scholars and historians have written about the human suffering aspect of the Dacca debacle. Qutubuddin Aziz was the first author to record the eyewitness accounts of the massacres of non-Bengalis by the Bengalis.
Blood and Tears (1974) by Qutubuddin Aziz chronicles 170 eyewitness accounts of the atrocities committed on West Pakistanis, Biharis, and other non-Bengalis and pro-Pakistan Bengalis in 55 towns of East Pakistan by Awami League militants and other rebels in March-April, 1971. The author has dedicated the book to hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children who were killed or maimed in the Awami League’s rebellion and genocide and the Mukti Bahini's reign of terror in East Pakistan. The book is available on the Internet in pdf format.
Shortly after the fall of East Pakistan, Qutubuddin Aziz launched a research project to record the untold stories of the massacre of more than half a million non-Bengalis and pro-Pakistan Bengalis by the Awami League-led insurgents in East Pakistan. The details of the genocide were concealed from the people of West Pakistan by the then federal government to prevent reprisals against the local Bengali population and also not damage the prospects of a negotiated settlement with the Awami League.
Qutubuddin Aziz picked 170 eyewitnesses from 5,000 families who were repatriated to Pakistan from Bangladesh between the autumn of 1973 and spring of 1974. They hailed from 55 towns of East Pakistan. In Blood and Tears, the author in addition to eyewitness accounts also cites dispatches of foreign newsmen from other places, overall covering 110 places where the massacre of the innocent took place. The majority of eyewitnesses consist of the parents who saw their children slam, the wives who were forced by the rebels to witness the murder of their husbands, the girls who were ravished, and the rare escapees from the rebel-operated human slaughterhouses. The book also highlights the bravery and heroism of many Bengalis who saved their non-Bengali friends from the fire and fury of the bloodthirsty insurgents.
Qutubuddin Aziz (1929 -2015) BA (Hons.), MA (Madras) was a multifaceted person —a scholar, a diplomat, a historian and a journalist par excellence. He was born in Lucknow, where his maternal grandfather, Nawab Abdullah Khan, owned and edited the Urdu Daily Hamdam. Aziz was educated in New Delhi, Simla, Hyderabad Deccan, and Madras. He served as the vice president of St George’s Grammar School Students Society, and Nizam College Students' Union, Hyderabad. He started writing weekly column at the age of 15 in Hyderabad Bulletin, an English daily of Hyderabad State, where his father, Mr Abdul Hafiz, was Bureau Manager of an Indian News Agency, United Press of India, and his mother, Begum Hafiz, was a member of the State Legislature.
After arriving in Pakistan, Begum Hafiz became a champion of social work and organized many programs for the uplift of girls and women. The family resided in Nazimabad — an intellectual hub of Karachi. Qutubuddin Aziz studied International Relations at London School of Economics and trained in Journalism in Fleet Street, London. He served as the managing editor of United Press of Pakistan, a news service which he and his father founded in late 1949. He was an avid Radio commentator on international and national affairs since 1954. He also served as the special correspondent in Pakistan for US international daily, Christian Science Monitor, since 1965. He was a member of the standing committee of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper editors, and vice president of Karachi Union of Journalists.
Qutubuddin Aziz was a prolific writer, his major works include: The Prophet [Pbuh] Of Islam: A Blessing to Mankind ,Quaid-i-Azam Jinnah and the Battle for Pakistan,The Murder of a State: A Graphic Account of India's Military Invasion of The Muslim-Ruled State of Hyderabad in September, 1948, Jinnah and Pakistan , Pakistan and the British Media , Exciting stories to remember: a thrilling and fascinating view of some of the exciting international and national events and episodes between 1948 and 1994, and Mission to Washington: An Expose of India's Intrigues in the United States of America in 1971 to Dismember Pakistan .
Qutubuddin Aziz presents accounts of 170 eyewitnesses belonging to 55 towns of East Pakistan in 33 Chapters:
Chapter 1 presents details of General Yahya’s National Assembly postponement broadcast — Awami League’s rebellion and parallel government in East Pakistan — non-Bengalis kidnapped for ransom — London’s Sunday Times says 100,000 non-Bengalis massacred — hostage escapes death in Jagannath Hall abattoir — journalist’s wife describes husband’s murder.
Chapter 2 surveys terror in Narayanganj Killer gangs on the loose — slaughter in Fabric Factory — two non-Bengali captive girls raped in a bus — rebels march 500 wailing Bihari women and children.
Chapter 3 covers Human Abattoirs in Chittagong Massacre of non-Bengalis in Wireless and Ferozeshah Colonies, Raufabad, Halishahar, Pahartali, Kalurghat and Dotala — M. R. Siddiki, the “Butcher of Chittagong” — corpses flung into Karnaphuli River or burnt — slaughterhouses in Ispahani Jute Mills and Awami League HQ — mass sex assault chambers for ravishing non-Bengali captive girls — foreign press reports on Chittagong killings — Pro-Pakistan Bengalsi murdered at Port—rescue of incarcerated Bihari women from dungeon.
Chapter 4 describes episodes of Massacres in Chandraghona, Rangamati Widow tells of husband’s kidnapping — burning and looting of non-Bengali houses — captive women and children, herded in Camp for slaughter, rescued by Pakistan Army — killings in Paper and Rayon Mill.
Chapter 5 narrates stories of Fire and Death in Khulna Telephone Exchange wrecked by rebels — non-Bengali hotel burnt — March 23 massacre in non-Bengali settlements — foreign press reports — slayings in Daulatpur and Khalispur — Riverside slaughterhouses and human abattoir in jute mill — torture methods such as eye-gouging —killings in Pholtala, Bagerhat.
Chapter 6 covers episodes of Satkhira Aflame Indian help to rebels — armed infiltrators — captive, bleeding Sub-Divisional Officer dragged through streets — killer gang hurls non-Bengalis into blazing jute godown — rebels carve “Joi Bangla” on foreheads of captive women — rebels flee to India.
Chapter 7 describes details of Hell in Dinajpur Mob burns non-Bengalis in bus — postal van ambushed — gruesome murder of 250 Pathans by rebels of East Pakistan Rifles — killings in Neelmati—rebels parade 400 naked, captive Bihari women — Army rescues girl survivors — slayings in Paharpur— slaughterhouse on bank of Kanchan River — fiendish torture methods— Hindu militants in killer gangs— Rebels torture Bengalis who protected non-Bengali friends — killings in other towns.
Chapter 8 presents stories of Carnage in Parbatipur Non-Bengali Railway employees and families butchered — killings in train from Ishurdi — mass slaughter of non-Bengalis early in April — Mukti Bahini slayings in December — terrorized women flee to Saidpur.
Chapter 9 describes details of Slayings in Thakurgaon, Hilli Massacre of non-Bengalis in Rahmatganj — killing in Mosque — Bengali saves non-Bengali friend — murders in Hilli, Phulbari, Ponchagarh and Chaur Kai — April 6 London Times reports on Hilli murders.
Chapter 10 narrates stores of Slaughter in Laksham, Rajbari Butchery in non-Bengali settlements in Laksham — Killing of non-Bengali Railway employees — killer gang kidnaps non-Bengali girls in Rajbari —terrorized non-Bengali women flee to Goal undo — terror in Faridpur.
Chapter 11 highlights details of Brutality in Kushtia Genocide against non-Bengalis — mass murders in Harding Bridge Colony — corpses thrown in Ganges River — dramatic breakthrough of captive Bihari women and children, herded in school building — slaughter in Arwapara and Thanapara — massacre of non-Bengali men in Kushtia Jail — sadists singe skin of non-Bengali victims with burning cigarettes — wombs of pregnant women ripped open.
Chapter 12 presents gruesome details of Butchery in Chuadanga Slayings in Murghi Patti colony — rebel attack on Railway station and slaughter of non-Bengali staff — assault on captive non-Bengali girls in school building — torture of West Pakistani Officer.
Chapter 13 covers doings of Killer gangs in Meherpur, Zafarkandi Slaughter of non-Bengalis in Jute Mill in Meherpur —killer gangs machine-gun victims escaping from blazing houses — non-Bengali girls kidnapped, raped and shot —non-Bengali population liquidated in Zafarkandi.
Chapter 14 provides details of Mass Murder in Ishurdi -Very few survived carnage of non-Bengalis — anti-Bihari slogans on placards atop mounds of non-Bengali corpses — slaughter in Pachchum Tengri Colony.
Chapter 15 covers persecution in Paksey agony of wailing non-Bengali widows and orphans herded in a mosque — 15-year-old boy escapes massacre with little sister — adult male non-Bengalis killed.
Chapter 16 presents details of terror Rule in Noakhali Operation loot, burn and kill against non-Bengalis — butchery in apartment house — Bengali shelters non-Bengali from rebels.
Chapter 17 provides doings of the Sylhet Awami Leaguers who incite tea garden labor to kill non-Bengalis — rebels butcher non-Bengali couple but Bengali maid servant shields their children.
Chapter 18 summarizes shootings in Molvi Bazar, Bheramara Rebels force victims to dig graves before liquidation — non-Bengalis herded at riverbank and gunned — young widow tells of husband’s murder and her rape by killers — butchery in Narkuldanga.
Chapter 19 covers details of death Stalks Rangpur Carnage in Alamnagar Colony — Bihari settlements wiped out — non-Bengali women survivors herded in Iqbal High School, some raped and many shot by rebels.
Chapter 20 covers stories of gunfire in Nilphamari, Saidpur Brutal killings of non-Bengalis — horror in Kopilmoni — bodies of ravished, dead girls float in tanks — non-Bengali railway employees in Saidpur massacred.
Chapter 21 presents details of Killings in Lalmonirhat Killer gangs stage bloodbath in non-Bengali settlements — Bengali neighbors plead for non-Bengali friends — murders in trains— Mukti Bahini terror reign.
Chapter 22 covers details of inferno in Jessore Slaughter of non-Bengalis in derailed train — carnage in Jhumjhumpur Colony, Taraganj, Hamidpur, Ambagaon. Bachachar and Puratan Qasba — Pogrom against non-Bengalis in Mobarkganj, Kaliganj. Kotchandpur and Tafsidanga — foreign press reports on Jessore genocide — East Bengal Regiment rebels murder West Pakistani officers — Hindus and armed Indian infiltrators abet murder of non-Bengalis— blockade of Army cantonment —Bengali rebels kill Italian Priest Rev Mario Veronesi.
Chapter 23 presents episodes of suffering in Narail Hindus helped rebels in slaughtering non-Bengalis - Islam-loving Bengalis butchered by rebels — non-Bengalis liquidated in Mujgunni and Sonadanga — very few non-Bengalis survived massacres.
Chapter 24 covers details of decimation in Bejardanga, Jhenidah Rebels liquidate non-Bengali railway employees and their families at Railway station — rail track wrecked — raids on non-Bengalis in Cadet College at Jhenidah.
Chapter 25 presents details of bloodbath in Noapara, Darsana all non-Bengali staff in Carpeting Mill at Noapara slaughtered — Bengali family shields daughter of murdered non-Bengali friend — march of captive non-Bengali girls in Noapara Bazar — ransom from kidnapped non-Bengali businessmen — non-Bengali settlements in Darsana wiped out.
Chapter 26 summarizes episodes of destruction in Barisal Mid-stream massacre of non-Bengalis in steamer — Bengali bargeman saves lone woman survivor — carnage in Kurmitala in Jhalokathi — march of naked non-Bengali captive women in Bazar — rebels’ genocidal frenzy.
Chapter 27 covers details of genocide in Mymensingh Massacre of West Pakistani military personnel and their families in Cantonment by Bengali rebels — carnage in Shankipara Bihari settlement — foreign press reports on bloodbath in Mymensingh — mass butchery in Mosque — heroism of Bengali priest who saved 500 Bihari women and children from death in Mosque — rebels burn bodies of Bihari victims — execution of 70 Punjabi families by rebels — mass murder scenes — field day for firing squads and vultures — open-air, slaughter-houses — Bengali widow sobs out story of husband’s murder by rebels.
Chapter 28 sheds light on pogrom in Rajshahi, Natore Indian military aid to Bengali mutineers — terror in Rajshahi University Campus — rebels draft Indian Radio Engineer to help commission damaged Rajshahi Radio station — dead bodies of non-Bengalis floated in river — carnage in Sarda and Nawabganj.
Chapter 29 summarizes details of bloodshed in Pabna, Serajganj non-Bengali girls kidnapped and ravished — corpses flung into river —350 non-Bengalis burnt alive —Army found heaps of mutilated dead bodies.
Chapter 30 covers episodes in Comilla — Rebels red-marked non-Bengali houses before burning them and slaying occupants — slaughter in New Market — Hindus desecrated Mosques — Government treasury looted — rebels seize telephone exchange — killings in Akhaura.
Chapter 31 presents details of grief in Brahmanbaria Rebels wipe out 500 Bihari women and children herded in dingy jail — carnage of non-Bengalis — hatchet men escape to India — Sunday Times of London reports Brahmanbaria massacre of non-Bengalis.
Chapter 32 covers turmoil in Bogra, Naogaon non-Bengali shops, houses looted and burnt — Pakistan Army rescues 700 non-Bengalis herded in jail for murder — pregnant women bayoneted — carnage of non-Bengalis in Naogaon — rebels barricade streets — rebels’ parade 50 captive non-Bengali women in the nude.
Chapter 33 highlights episodes of horror in Santahar Slaughter scenes in non-Bengali settlements — survivor hides in graveyard for days to escape killer gangs — wailing non-Bengali women marched to torture camp — their rescue by Pakistan Army — Mukti Bahini terror in December 1971.
In the epilogue the author summarizes details of Awami League’s genocide against non-Bengalis was started long before federal Army’s March 25th 1971 action — Awami League’s deception on electorate, switch from autonomy to independence — White Paper — Agartala Conspiracy — India’s generous aid to Awami League in 1970 polls — India’s massive military aid to rebels — Indian-sponsored Bangladesh Government in Calcutta in April; 1971 — Indian preparations for armed grab of East Pakistan — inflated refugee figures — falsity of Awami League’s charge that Pakistan Army killed 3 million Bengalis and raped 200,000 Bengali girls.
In the introduction, the author remembering the first week of 1971, observes: “When the Awami League had fired the first salvo of revolt in East Pakistan and it triggered off a forest fire of lawlessness, arson, loot and wanton murder all over the province, a senior official of the federal Information Ministry instructed me that my news service should not put out any story about the atrocities that were being committed on non-Bengalis by the rebels in the eastern half of the country. All other press services and newspapers in West Pakistan were given similar instructions.”
Commenting on the government’s censorship about atrocities being committed in East Pakistan, and the arrival of non-Bengali people in Karachi, the author notes: “Early in the third week of March, a shipload of some 5,000 terror- stricken West Pakistanis and other non-Bengalis reached Karachi from Chittagong. Not a word of their plight filtered into the daily press in West Pakistan. In fact, one of the local newspapers had the audacity to report that the arrivals from Chittagong said that the situation in the province was normal as if this broken mass of humanity had run away from an idyllic state of blissful normalcy. For days on end all through the troubled month of March 1971, swarms of terrorized non-Bengalis lay at the Army-controlled Dacca Airport, awaiting their turn to be wafted to the safety of West Pakistan. But neither the world press nor the press in West Pakistan reported the gory carnage of the innocents which had made them fugitives from the Awami League's grisly terror. Caskets containing the mutilated dead bodies of West Pakistani military personnel and civilians reached Karachi with the planeloads of non-Bengali refugees from Dacca and their bereaved families milled and wailed at the Karachi Airport. But these heart-rending scenes went unreported in the West Pakistan newspapers because of the federal government’s order to the Press not to mention the slaughter of the non-Bengalis in East Pakistan.”
Discussing the coverage of atrocities in the Western press, the author observes: “Skimpy references to the bloodletting of untold proportions, undergone by the non-Bengalis during the Awami League’s March 1971 uprising in East Pakistan, percolated into the columns of some newspapers in Western Europe… in the first week of April 1971. The Times of London reported on April 6th, 1971: ‘Thousands of helpless Muslim refugees settled in Bengal at the time of Partition, are reported to have been massacred by angry Bengalis in East Pakistan during the past week...’ In my dispatch on the deepening East Pakistan crisis published in the Daily Christian Science Monitor and reprinted in the Daily Milwaukee Journal of March 14, 1971, I wrote: ‘...Dacca reports say widespread mob violence, arson, looting and murders mushroomed in the wake of the Awami League's protest strike call. Destruction by Bengali militants of property owned by West Pakistanis in some East Pakistan towns has been heavy...’ ‘…The telephone link between East and West Pakistan remains nearly unusable and only a skeleton air service is being operated between Karachi and Dacca...’”
Reflecting on the publication of the book, the author notes: “ ‘Blood and Tears’ is being published at a time when all the Bengalis in Pakistan who opted for Bangladesh have been repatriated to that country and the danger of any reprisal against them has been totally eliminated. The succor and rehabilitation of the multitudes of Biharis and other non-Bengalis, now repatriated to Pakistan, is our moral and social responsibility. They have suffered because they and their parents or children were devoted to the ideology of Pakistan, and many shed their blood for it. Even as the victims of a catastrophe, not of their own making, they are entitled to the fullest measure of our sympathy, empathy and support in restoring the splintered planks of their tragedy-stricken lives….‘Blood and Tears’ is the story of the rivers of blood that flowed in East Pakistan in the infernal month of March 1971, when the Awami League’s genocide against the non-Bengalis was unleashed, and also of the tears that we shall shed for many a year to come over the massacre of the innocents and India’s amputation of our eastern wing. May 30, 1974, Karachi Qutubuddin Aziz.”
Reflecting on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s propaganda war the author observes: “Since his advent to power in Dacca, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman has drummed the phony charge that the Pakistan Army had killed three million of his countrymen in 1971. In civil strife, there is undoubtedly some loss of life on both sides. But it is unbelievable that all through the nine months of strife in East Pakistan, the Pakistan Army’s barely three divisions, thinly spread out along more than 1,800 miles of explosive, often flaming, border with India, did no other work except engage in the gory pastime of slaughtering 13,000-plus Bengalis every day. A correspondent of the daily Los Angeles Times, William J. Drummond, who toured Bangladesh in the first quarter of 1972, exposed the absurdity of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s charge. Similarly, the falsity of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman oft-repeated allegation that the Pakistani troops had raped 200,000 Bengali girls in 1971 was borne out when the abortion team he commissioned from Britain early in 1972 found that its workload involved the termination of only a hundred or more pregnancies.”
To put the conflict in perspective, the author in the Epilogue observes: “The Indian Generals, according to the ‘Lightning Campaign’ by Major-General D. K. Palit also urged the Indian Prime Minister to eliminate the possibility of Chinese or American intervention in support of Pakistan. In eight months of frenzied preparations, India’s rulers succeeded in priming their war machine for the blitz attack on East Pakistan. They signed the Indo-Soviet alliance in August 1971 to neutralize the danger of Chinese intervention in a sub-continental war. They bamboozled American public opinion with exaggerated accounts of the refugee influx and turned it against Pakistan to ensure that no American weapons would flow into Pakistan. India trained nearly 100,000 East Pakistan Bengalis in guerrilla warfare. Their harassing raids, sabotage and a virtual war of attrition bled Pakistan economically and weakened it under the strain of a costly anti-insurgency operation. In spite of Pakistan’s repeated offers to take back all the refugees who had gone to India, India’s rulers deliberately did not permit them to return to East Pakistan because that would have deprived India of a deceptively humanitarian excuse, initially, to milk the world for hundreds of millions of dollars in compassionate aid, and subsequently, to invade East Pakistan.”
Blood and Tears by Qutubuddin Aziz is an important book that covers the genocide of non-Bengalis by Bengalis in East Pakistan. It is essential reading for students of history and international affairs.
