93,000 Pakistani soldiers did not surrender in 1971 because….?
Dr. Junaid Ahmad|
December 16, 1971, was an ominous day for Pakistan, because the
Pakistani army divisions confronting internal insurgency supported by Indian
war machine finally decided to surrender. But the exact numbers of army
personnel involved that surrendered have been widely exaggerated. It is said
that 93,000 Pakistani army personnel surrendered and were later
taken by India as Prisoners of War (PoWs).
To this day, this highly exaggerated figure is sustained by
Indian, Bangladeshi and defunct Soviet propagandists. Ironically, this
propagated number has remained unchallenged and is also widely believed in
Pakistan, as few accounts have been written to challenge it.
Actual Facts of the Soldiers on
Ground
It is a well known and recognized fact that Pakistan had only
one corps comprising three divisions in East Pakistan during 1971. The three
divisions comprised a total force of 45,000 including combatant and
non-combatant troops. Out of these, there were 34,000 combatant troops and the
remaining 11,000 were non-combatant / supporting men and CAF personnel.
This one corp was pitched against three corps of Indian Army
from the West and North West and another two corps from the North East and
East, a total of five Indian Corps plus 175,000 Indian backed and trained Mukti
Bahini and many thousands of Awami League miscreants. When there were only
34,000 fighting troops, how could 93,000 soldiers surrender?
According to Lt Gen Naizi, Corps Commander of Eastern Command in
1971.
“The total fighting strength available to me [Gen Naizi] was
forty-five thousand – 34,000 from the army, plus 11,000 from CAF and West
Pakistan civilian police and armed non-combatants”who were fighting against the
insurgents. Even if the strength of HL, MLA, depots, training institutes,
workshops, factories, nurses and lady doctors, non-combatants like
barbers, cooks, shoemakers and sweepers are added, even then the total comes to
only 55,000.
Air Marshal Rahim khan, CNC Pakistan Air Force (1969-1972), has
stated
“The number of regular Pakistani troops in East Pakistan
never exceeded 33,000-34,000. The rest is just propaganda by India and the
Awami League, to magnify their success….”
Air Marshal Zulfiqar Ali Khan, who commended Eastern Wing of
Pakistan Air Forces has asserted
“At the maximum, our regular fighting force in East Pakistan
in December 1971 stood at 34,000. This figure does not include paramilitary
personnel, military police, etc. Even if you include the auxiliaries, the total
does not cross 45,000”.
General Akhtar Abdul Rehman. Former Vice Chief of Army Staff,
speaking on the 1971 conundrum stated
“It was impossible for the 34,000 Pakistani troops in East
Pakistan or for that matter any army in the world to fight against the combined
strength of 200,000 Indian army and 170,000 Mukti Bahini, If not more, that too
in a hostile environment 1200 miles away from West Pakistan …… Keeping into
account all this, if the Indians still feel that they achieved a stunning
military victory against Pakistan, I can only say they have fallen prey to
their own propaganda”.
US congressman, Charles Wilson in a discussion with Pakistani
diplomats in Washington DC remarked.
“……In 1971, it was certainly not possible for the
35,000 Pakistani troops in Dhaka to fight against the combined strength of
200,000 Indian army and the more than 100,000 Indian-trained Bengali
guerillas.”
Another US congressman, Stephen Solarz, commenting on the War of
1971 in June 1989, remarked,
“Pakistanis are energetic, vibrant, and resilient. We must
not be misled by 1971. It was certainly not possible for the 40,000 odd
Pakistani army in Dhaka to fight against much larger Indian army and
Indian-trained Bengali Bahinis in a hostile territory ….”
K C Pant, Indian former Defense Minister in September, 1994
during a discussion on Indo-Pak relations held in New Delhi, said
“Peace is important between Pakistan and India. We respect
the professional competence of the Pakistani soldier. Had democracy continued
in Pakistan, Islamabad would not have suffered the debacle resulting in the
surrender of its 40,000 military personnel to India in East Pakistan”.
Sarmila Bose, the famous Indian Bengali writer and Associate
Researcher at Oxford University in her book Dead Reckoning published in
2011, asserts
“…… [I]t appears that while the total figure in Indian custody
is about right, to state that 93,000 soldiers were taken prisoner is wrong, and
creates confusions by greatly inflating the Pakistani fighting force in East
Pakistan”.
Javed Jabbar, former Pakistani Minister of Information in his
article, Estranged siblings-Pakistan and Bangladesh, 40 years
later, wrote
“Pakistan’s armed forces did not exceed 45,000 troops at
optimal levels. The 90,000 prisoners-of-war held by India included over 50,000
non- combatant, unarmed West Pakistani civilians.”
S. M. Hali, a well-known Pakistani analyst in his article,
Breaking myths of 1971 Pak-India war writes,
“The total strength of Pakistan Army in East Pakistan (in
1971) was 40,000….”
All the aforementioned references point toward one fact that the
number of total army personnel who surrendered were far less than 93,000. In
fact, the number of 93,000 soldiers that is talked about has been conflated
with civilians and has been deliberately floated by Indians, and later by
Bangladeshis to support their case for victimization. In reality, the actual
number of Pakistani troops who surrendered was only 34,000, after the
insurgency of 1971.
The figure of 93,000 also included children, women, civil
administration officials and staff, non-combatant troops such as nurses,
doctors, cooks, barbers, shoemakers, carpenters and others. The higher number
talked about is a deliberate attempt to defame and demoralize Pakistani army
and to show the World their exaggerated success.
Dr Junaid Ahmad, Author of ‘Creation of Bangladesh: Myths
Exploded.’ The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do
not necessarily reflect Global Village Space’s editorial policy.
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