The
Razakars.....should be specially helpful as members of rural communities, who
can identify guerrillas (freedom fighters)", an army officer (Pakistan)
said...The government says it has already recruited more than 22,000 Razakars
of a planned force of 35,000.'-New York Times, July 30, 1971
' To help control of Bengali
population, the army has been setting up a network of peace committees
superimposed upon the normal civil administration, which the army cannot fully
rely upon. Peace committee members are drawn from .....Beharis and from the
Muslim Leagues and Jamat-e-Islami. The peace committees serve as the agent of
army, informing on civil administration as well as on general populace. They are
also in charge of confiscating and redistribution of shops and lands from Hindu
and pro-independence Bengalis. The peace committee also recruits
Razakars......many of them are common criminals who have thrown their lots with
the (Pakistan) army.-The Wall Street Jornal, July 27,1971.
I
think, perhaps you remember, Fazlul Kader Chowdhiury ...an honorable person,
Sabur Khan, Monayem Khan, Maulabhi Farid Khan of Technaf.... all of them were
pro-'Pakistan. They used to see me. All of them". - Niazi "The
Betrayal of East Pakistan"
The term Razakar is originally derived from an Arabic word
meaning volunteer. In the context of Islamic history Razakars were volunteers
to defend or support Islam. But in Bangladeshi context Razakar means traitors
or collaborators of the Paki army who helped them, in our liberation war in
1971, in identifying and killing millions of Bangalees involved in or even
supporting the liberation war. The Razakars were mainly the members of
Muslim league, Jamat-e-Islam and other Islamic groups and factions. During the
liberation war the razakars:
- provided intelligence against the freedom fighters, the supporters and sympathizers of the war
- abducted, arrested and eventually killed them with the help of the Paki troops and party cadres in various army, concentration camps and killings zones
- burnt their houses and looted their properties
- kidnapped thousands of Bangalee women and trafficked them to various Paki military camps
- raped and molested 450, 000 Bangalee women.
f. How the
Razkars were created: Politically Razakar forces were created by the Paki military
intelligence (ISI-Inter Services Intelligence, and possibly with active support
from CIA) and they were the predecessors of today’s Talibans. Members of
both the forces, Razakars and Talibans, were recruited, trained and inducted in
the same process. They were recruited from lower middle class, semi illiterate,
Muslim families mostly from madrasa (parochial Islamic institutes) background.
After recruitment they were inducted to Maududi’s ideology which prescribes
extermination of non-Muslims and liberals. The razakar force was created to
serve as a tool of Paki establishment to systematically turn East Bangla (as
with Afghanistan) into a mere colony. The first step for the Paki establishment
was to destroy in order to take over the textile industries. They did it in
1964 by means of a series of communal riots, incited by the activists of Muslim
league and other Islamic parties, forcing the Bangalee Hindu textile owners to
migrate. West Pakistani capitalists, not a single Bangalee, took over all the
textile mills: the Adamjees, the Bawanis and the Ispahanis. Although missed out
on the big bites, the Muslim leaguer and Jamati thugs, however, received the
leftovers: the properties (residential and shops) left by the middle class
Hindu Bangalees.
g. Once the
Bangalee elites were kicked out, razakars were deployed to force out the
educated Hindu middle class. The reasons were: Hindu Bangalees were politically
conscious and they were the patrons of democracy and liberalism in East Bangla.
Communist party where mainly the highly educated and patriotic Hindus
congregated were banned and the members were brutally repressed by the police
forces (they were even killed in jail). Paki politicians knew very well that
they could not fool the Bangalees as easily as they could the Pakis. The Hindu
Bangalees were highly competent in parliamentary politics, a competence they
learned through anti British movement. The shrewd Paki politicians knew that
the only way to counter Bangalees politically was to rid of the Hindu middle
class by means of Islamic ideology. For this the razakars came in very handy.
They again instigated the common people against the malauns (the heathens,
Hindus). Communal riots surged, Hindu houses burnt and women kidnapped. All the
decent Hindu families left East Bangla except for the working class and a few
die hard patriots like Dhirendra Nath Datta who refused to leave his motherland
even for his life. It was a great opportunity for the Muslim Leaguers and
razakars. They not only occupied the Hindu assets and properties but also took
over their jobs, professions and trades. The janitors of Hindu trading houses
became the owners of the business, 6th grade pass peon of schools
became the headmaster and that of college became lecturers and principals. The
Hindus fought the British for their independence but kicked out of their
motherland by the Muslim leaguers and razakars who had no contribution
in anti British movement. What an irony of fate. How horrible Islam as an
ideology.
h.
Towards
the end of the liberation war, the razakars realizing that they could
not stop the liberation (thanks to Russian and Indian support and extraordinary
leadership of Tajuddin Ahmed) of Bangladesh, inflicted the deadliest blow
against the emergent nation: they killed the top Bangalee intellectuals and
professionals. The blueprint for the elimination of Bangalee intellectuals was
done even before the start of the war. The blueprint was done by the ISI headed
by its Eastern commander Gen Rao Forman Ali in collaboration with the top
Jamati / Muslim League leaders (see photo on Genocide page).
i.
The Razakars were behind the killing of a total number of 3
million Bangalees and rape and molestation of 450, 000 Bangalee women. After
independence the Awami league Government arrested most of them. But due to
political pressures from both home (Maulana Bhasani) and abroad (USA, all the
Middle Eastern countries led by Saudi Arabia) Sheikh Mujib released the minor
Razakars from imprisonment under general amnesty. But Sheikh Mujib never
forgave the top Razakars. The leader of Jamat-e-Islam Go-Azam’s citizenship was
revoked. Motya and other top leaders were in jail under trial. After the
assassination of Mujib, the whole political scenario was changed. Zia granted
Go-Azam Bangladeshi citizenship, released all the Razakars imprisoned on
various criminal charges and by amending the constitution allowed them to be
involved in politics (Mujib banned communal politics). Not only that under the
banner of his new party BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) he rehabilitated all
the notorious Razakars and Muslim Leaguers (awarded premiership to a
notorious razakar Shah Aziz)
j.
Following Zia’s lead his successor Ershad, in the midst of his
massive screw ups, kept pampering the Razakars and the Muslim leaguers. As a
result of fifteen years of pampering the once loathed Razakars now became the
most powerful people of Bangladesh, a country ironically they fought against. Being
in power they deliberately destroyed (while the BNP leaders were busy stealing
the public money to get rich) the main political / social institutions of
Bangladesh and rewrote the history of our liberation war. The 71 episode is
banished from the history texts of Bangladeshi schools. Their mentor Zia (an
ordinary major in 1971 who even helped Pakis in clearing the weapons later used
to gun down Bangalees and changed side only when he realized he was to be
disposed after the weapons were cleared) is portrayed as the leader of the
liberation war and Mujib is condemned as a traitor who betrayed the infamous
Lahore Convention- root of all political evils in Indian sub continent.
k.
Since
1947, the razakars have been doing the same thing again and again: they
are using Islamic ideology to counter democracy and liberalism; with their
usual recourse to fascism and violence they are keeping social progress at bay
(Islam represents feudalism not capitalism, although created by USA specially
the CIA, Bin Laden hates America), they are indirectly helping the capitalist
countries to keep Muslim countries as markets.
l.
On behalf of the 3 million Bangalees who gave
their lives for the liberation war and 450, 000 Bangalee women, raped and
molested by the Pakis and the Razakars, Muktadhara demands the trial of
all the war criminals and Razakars of Bangladesh liberation war.
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