পাতা:বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (চতুর্দশ খণ্ড).pdf/১০৩

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বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খণ্ড
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The Long Road To Liberation

 This isn't to say the cause of Bangladesh is finished. But if East Pakistan is ever to be independent, it won't happen through the kind of spontaneous-combustion revolution of the past four weeks. Liberation will be won over years, not weeks; by more action and less rhetoric; with guerrilla tactics, not conventional combat; and perhaps by militant leftists rather than idealistic moderates.

 Much will also depend on India-whether it will provide arms and border sanctuaries for a protracted liberation war.

 In any case, West Pakistan faces serious problems. How to deploy its army of occupation across a large, predominantly rural area, particularly with monsoons coming. How to administer what amounts to a bitter re-conquered colony. How to piece together East Pakistan's shattered economy and how to keep East Pakistan from becoming a crippling drain on limited West Pakistani resources. How to deal with India should it decides to become more heavily involved in supporting Bengali resistance.

 Pakistan's problems will be compounded if unrest develops among ethnic minorities within West Pakistan or if rival generals and politicians in the West cannot stand together in this crisis.

A Clear-Cut Struggle

 In an age of confusing liberation struggles and fuzzy moral causes, the issues at stake in this war seem relatively clear-cut. When England granted its Indian empire independence in 1947, the subcontinent was divided along religious lines rather than by any ethnic or geographic logic. The new Moslem nation of Pakistan was split into two halves, separated by 1,200 miles of Hindu India. The Pakistani nation came to be dominated-politically, economically and militarily-by the Punjabis of West Pakistan, and the more populous Bengalis have felt exploited.

 In elections last December for a National Assembly the East Pakistanis bloc-voted overwhelmingly for the Bengali nationalist Awami League of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The League won an absolute majority in the Assembly, meaning power would have swung to Bengali East Pakistan under a democratic regime. Sheikh Mujibur, a somewhat pro-Western moderate socialist, demanded autonomy for the East except in defense and foreign affairs. The politicians and generals of West Pakistan balked, for economic and other reasons.

 Under cover of negotiations, West Pakistani troops and military supplies were slipped into East Pakistan. The night of March 25, these troops struck swiftly and savagely in Dacca, the East Pakistan capital, brutally suppressing Bengali demonstrators. The army took over in Dacca and the port of Chittagong, and the war was on.

 In other towns the Bengalis rose in defiance and proclaimed independence. It was a story-book sort of revolution, with thousands of Patrick Henrys issuing courageous calls to arms and thousands of Betsy Rosses sewing little red, green and yellow Bangladesh flags. The civil service, and East Pakistan EPR (a Bengali military attached to the