Short course: animosity between Pakistan and Bangladesh

In December 2015, the Bangladeshi government recalled its High Commissioner from Pakistan. This was amidst tensions stemming from recent war-crime trials relating to the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. The two countries have hundreds of millions of dollars worth of trade every year, but still face bitter political and historical disputes. So why do Bangladesh and Pakistan hate each other?

Well, the trouble between them began even before Bangladesh became an independent country. When the British ended their rule over the Indian subcontinent in 1947, the territory was split into Pakistan and India. The two regions were divided along religious lines, with Pakistan containing the majority of Muslims, and India the majority of Hindus. The former British Indian province called Bengal was located on the opposite end of the Indian subcontinent from Pakistan, but was also divided along Hindu/Muslim lines. The Eastern portion was renamed East Pakistan, and allocated as a Pakistani province. Almost immediately, the Bengalis were subject to ethnic oppression by their new Pakistani rulers. Bengali culture was forced to submit to that of West Pakistan and there was a large effort to replace the Bengali language with Urdu. After years of Bengali calls for independence, West Pakistan began what is by many considered a genocide of the Bengali people. In March of 1971, Pakistan’s military junta enacted “Operation Searchlight”, in which soldiers rounded up and executed those of Bengali ethnicity, regardless of their religious affiliation.

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This sparked the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. For 8 months, the Pakistani military killed between half a million and three million Bengali people, and raped as many as 400,000 women. When Pakistan began bombing portions of Northern India in their campaign, India entered the war against Pakistan and ended it within a month. East Pakistan finally became the independent state of Bangladesh. To this day, Pakistan has refused to acknowledge what has been called the Bengali genocide, and the overall number of casualties. In 2000, a Pakistani diplomat was kicked out of Bangladesh for claiming that only 26,000 Bengali people had died during the war. Moreover, trials from the war are still ongoing, with two opposition figures recently executed in Bangladesh for war crimes.

Despite decades of improving trade and military links, especially as a defense against Indian supremacy in the region, the two countries continue to be divided by this question of genocide. Bangladeshis are still calling on Pakistan to recognize its atrocities and teach them as a part of its history. However, Pakistan has refused to do so, and has even referred to a militant leader executed for war crimes as being killed for his “loyalty to Pakistan”. As is the case for many countries still suffering wounds from old wars, it may take a long time for the two countries to settle their differences. Bangladesh isn’t the only country in the region that doesn’t get along with Pakistan. For decades, India has been at odds with Pakistan over a region known as Kashmir.

Articles Source: BBC
Articles Source: Open Security
Articles Source: BBC

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