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| A child wears a headband of Bangladesh National Flag during victory day celebrations in Dhaka. File Photo: www.technewssource.com) |
People in Bangladesh celebrated their 40th Victory Day last Friday. It’s a red letter day in the history of Bengali people who snatched independence from West Pakistan in 1971.
The misery people went through is little known to the world, even to many in South Asian countries. There has been little effort to let the world know what actually happened in 1971.
The war began with one of the worst genocides in the history of mankind. The West Pakistan army killed three million people and ravaged more than 300,000 women in a matter of weeks and at least 10 million people took shelter in India.
The Bengali people are not by nature warriors, but they couldn’t help turning into a brave nation amid that massacre. After nine months bloody struggle they defeated the army to claim victory.
The independence of Bangladesh was, in a sense, a global war with the USA and China assisting Pakistan and Bangladesh getting support from India and Russia. It was also a war between moderate and extreme forces in Islam. This time the moderate force was victorious.
Yet after 40 years, we still have not achieved freedom.
The disparity between rich and poor has not changed. A few rich and influential people enjoy all the amenities of life while 80 percent languish in poverty.
Politics are entirely election-oriented and political leaders see it as nothing more than a rich vein to be mined. They have no hesitation in colluding with their former enemies if it suits them.
The war we fought and won was against a vulture who tried to grab our heart. There are many more evils to defeat and many more wars to win. One day the people will rise, throw away all injustice and freedom will be ours, truly.
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