On 16 December 1971, the nine months nightmare ended with the surrender and humiliation of the Pakistan army. It was an army under the dictatorship of General Yahya Khan that launched a completely unnecessary, bloody war on 26 March 1971 against a section of his own country, the eastern wing of the then Pakistan, that caused deaths and destruction for nine months.
The unnecessary, bloody war was initiated to silence the demands of the Bengalis of East Pakistan for equality, justice and the implementation of the 1970 election result, which would have made Sheikh Mujib (lovingly and willingly called Bangabandhu by the vast majority of the people of the then East Pakistan) the ruler of the whole Pakistan.
In their arrogance – partly the result of the British classification of the subcontinent’s people into martial and non-martial races, which defined Bengalis as non-manly and cowardly people – and being trained in the British Army as part of the martial races, serving for a long time including fighting in the Second World War, the Pakistani military leadership thought that they would be able to easily subdue the Bengali people with a period of a blitz of violence and threats and crush the just aspirations of the Bengalis.
The Bengalis, at that time, were ready with inspirations from many sources, including from the heroic struggles of the Vietnamese against the USA military, national liberation movements around the world and speeches of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to resist and overcome the violent onslaught of the Pakistani army. The Bengalis of Bangladesh proved, over nine months, that they are not a pushover nation anymore, and sacrificed much with the help of many nations of the world, particularly India, to achieve independence, creating a new country on 16 December 1971.
Bangladesh belongs to all those who live there and the Bangladeshi Diaspora around the world, and, in a different way, also those who love the country. I have met people from all sides of our political divide, know that patriotism runs deep in all our veins and we all love our country.
I pray that we can all become more united, set our differences aside and help build our country. I would like to congratulate Bangladesh on its 49th birthday and wish our country a happy, united and prosperous future.
