Unity, Faith, Genocide

In Pakistan's first city Karachi, the beautiful seaside suburb of Clifton is home to the rich and famous. Sandy beaches, trendy shopping, high fashion, fine dining and booming real estate define it. It is the place to see and be seen. Clifton also houses a monument to one of the nation's darkest, deepest and best-kept secrets.

A false slogan.

Driving through Clifton, you will inevitably stumble upon Teen Talwar Chowrangi or in English, the Three Swords Roundabout. There is a trio of large, marble structures resembling swords in the middle of this intersection, and inscribed upon them are three words: "Unity", "Faith" and "Discipline." This moniker was a brainchild of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, considered to be the father of Pakistan, who asserted that the country was founded on these principles. This enormous landmark, commissioned by former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is considered to be symbolic of both military might and high moral standards.

The reality is quite different. And in solemn irony, this statue was erected after a series of events that counter those very concepts. A story that if properly recounted would change the engravings on these shiny, tall spears to "Murder", "Rape" and "Genocide." Certainly not a story of unity. Undoubtedly, not of faith. And unquestionably, not one of discipline.

Genocides and massacres are often give the neat title of "operation"--a nice, clean household term palatable for the general public. Operation 14[F]13 in Nazi Germany sent unfit-for-labor, Jewish prisoners to gas chambers for "special treatment." Israeli Operation Cast Lead aimed to kill Palestinian civilians and destroy Gazan infrastructure under the pretext of self-defense. Operation Murambatsvina in Zimbabwe displaced hundreds of thousands, leading to the silent genocide caused by disease and starvation. Other military exercises such as Operation Menu, the US bombing of east Cambodia during the Vietnam War led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge, and its subsequent genocidal activities.

Operation Searchlight is Pakistan's contribution to genocides that chronicle the history of man. In March of 1971, the West Pakistan-based central government began a reign of terror on their eastern, ethnic Bengali population to curb a separatist movement. According to Anthony Mascarenhas, author of The Rape of Bangla Desh, systematic murder by the Pakistani Army targeted five distinct groups:

[1] Bengali (East Pakistani) soldiers and militia
[2] Hindus
[3] Political party members of the Awami League
[4] College students
[5] Intellectuals

A high-ranking US official told Time magazine in an article printed in August 1971, "It is the most incredible, calculated thing since the days of Nazis in Poland." Operation Searchlight and its spillover into the Bangladeshi Liberation War left behind a ghastly number of victims. Estimates vary widely, but actions of the Pakistani Army and its paramilitary forces resulted in 200,000 to 3,000,000 dead. Pakistan's official investigation puts the figure at 26,000 civilians--which is widely, and summarily disregarded. Most experts feel the number is in seven figures and that quite possibly, the Bengali national estimate of 3 million may be accurate. Eight to ten million refugees fled to India. Rape figures against East Pakistani women also vary but have been reported up to 200,000 or even, 400,000. Actual statistics will never be known. But, the pillaging of East Pakistan would even make the likes of Josef Stalin proud.

Stories of horror.

Soldiers taking grown boys from their parents and bayoneting them in the stomach, letting them bleed to death slowly, helpless onlookers arrested. Mothers suffocating their own crying infants to death, in order to silence them, to save large groups of refugees hiding in the fields, well in earshot of advancing troops. Setting the Old City of Dhaka ablaze by flamethrowers, and subsequently machine-gunning thousands as they attempted to escape the burning fires. Men, women, children, babies.

These kinds of blood stains don't just go away.

Pakistan and its ally, the United States refuse to use the term genocide--although internal memos contradict this public stance. Bengali institutions, press, and publications refer to the events of 1971 as a genocide. As do scholars on the subject, and the Guiness Book of World Records which has listed it as one of the top 5 genocides of the 20th century. A century that also saw death and destruction in Rwanda, the Holocaust and Pol Pot's "Year Zero."

No apologies.

Perhaps as sad as the loss of life and shattering of dreams in Bengal, is the refusal of the Pakistan government to recognize the atrocities it wreaked. Generals and officers guilty of the worst of war crimes are instead lauded as heroes and architects of freedom, defenders of honor. Their names are on highways and government buildings. These myths are perpetuated through all levels of society, a combination of ignorance and denial. Entire generations of school children are brainwashed. But eyewitness accounts, refugee crises and mass graves tell a different tale.

So the next time you happen to be in sunny Clifton, driving down Abdullah Haroon Road approaching the roundabout with Bath Island and Chartered Accountants streets, feel the breeze off the Indian Ocean. And look up at the giant, white swords and take time to reflect on the horrors that were carried out under the guise of these fallacious ideals.