Talk:1971 Dhaka University massacre

POV
Inappropriate tone. Source is written by an involved party.  YellowMonkey  ( bananabucket ) 00:47, 16 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Dear Blgnyuen/YellowMonkey, can you please specifically state which sentences/parts are pov in your opinion? Then may be we can start working towards removing the POV. Thank you. --Ragib (talk) 00:48, 16 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Also, how is the source an "involved party"? Care to explain this remark? Are you confusing Prof. Rafiqul Islam with the Mukti Bahini leader Major Rafiqul Islam? --Ragib (talk) 00:50, 16 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I don't think so. The article says "In building 24 there was Professor Rafiqul Islam of Bangla literature department", so it seems he was involved in the incident as a victim, and is not an uninvolved party.  YellowMonkey  ( bananabucket ) 01:06, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

Can we remove the "POV" tag? Most of the new sources are not from any involved party. Muntasir (talk) 07:54, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I'll take a look at the article and try to remove some of the POV terminology and polish up the prose. By that time, I hope the article will be presented in a more neutral manner. Nishkid64 (Make articles, not wikidrama) 08:43, 26 December 2008 (UTC)
 * I am removing the NPOV tag as this would actually be a dubious source, not NPOV. Two, it appears the dispute has been over for awhile.  D   rew   S    mith 03:30, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Cleanup?
There are odd repetitions of some subjects, sentences are sometimes difficult to read. All in all, despite decent information, this intriguing subject deserves a thorough (litterary) cleanup. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.246.3.74 (talk) 06:39, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

Dhaka University was home to terrorists
Both Abul Hasanat and Jyoti Sen Gupta have made pointed claims about the Pakistan Army's killing of students and teachers in the Dhaka University on the night of 26 March 1971. The fact that some of the student dormitories were transformed into arsenals and insurgency training centres [34] and a number of the university teachers were actively involved with the secessionist movement [35] were suppressed. That the secessionists were buying arms years before the Army crack down was disclosed by Gupta himself. [36] Those who were involved in organising armed training have themselves reported that at one time there as even a plan for some of them to have military training in Indonesia. [37]

-Sources-
 * 33. Syed Sajjad Husain, Ekattarer Sriti (Memoirs of 1971), Notun Safar Prakashani, 44 Purana Paltan, Dhaka - 1, 1993 : 68-75.
 * 34. I can say this from my personal knowledge of Iqbal Hall and the banglow next to it which later became Abu Sayeed Hall.
 * 35. For an account of such a teacher's secessionist activity as early as 1954 Cf. Alexander Campbell, The Heart of India, Constable & Company Ltd, London, 1958: *258-68 This Lecturer in Political Science, was rewarded by India in 1972 with an honourary doctorate and Bangladesh Government appointed him as the country's first National Professor.
 * 36. Jyoti Sen Gupta, op cit : xxiii
 * 37. Kazi Arif Ahmed's interview in The Weekly Meghna, vol.III, no. 14, Dhaka, 18 March, 1987.

Personal account of what happened at Iqbal Hall
Although Jyoti Sen Gupta avoided specifically quoting the number of those killed at Iqbal Hall (at Dhaka University), the headquarters of the secessionist student leadership, he has left ample hints that it was very high. Abul Hasanat, on the other hand, has dispensed with all these clever tricks and has given a precise figure of 200. Since at the time in question I was a House Tutor at that very hall and survived the fateful night in one of the staff quarters within the building, I can claim to be an eye witness to it all. I can categorically say that on that night student activists hurriedly evacuated the hall hours before the arrival of the Army and only one student - Chishti Helalur Rahman - was killed. Indeed, if I remember correctly, after Bangladesh came into being the hall administration had a total casualty figure of 16 from among their resident and non-resident students numbering over two thousands for the whole length of the conflict. Two of my former colleagues at Iqbal Hall - Prof. Anwarul Haque Sharif (at Jahangirnagar University) and Prof. Saefullah Bhuiya (at Dhaka University) - are still alive and can corroborate what I have said here. Besides, if Gupta and Hasanat were interested in factual truth, they could have taken the trouble of contacting either the university or the hall authorities and certainly find out the definitive figure. What stopped them from doing so one must ask?

Jagannath Hall exaggeration
Likewise, the killing at Jagannath Hall has been deliberately exaggerated. A poorly recorded video film of the Army movement within the hall premises was later produced. The video, it was claimed, showed the Army using bulldozers for digging a mass grave. Although special viewing have been arranged to show the video film in and outside Bangladesh, surprisingly up until now no one has bothered to look for the alleged mass grave. Gupta, who has shown a special interest in Jagannath Hall, would have been more believable if he had inquired about the mass grave and had ascertained from the hall authorities the total number of casualties, not only on that night but throughout the whole war. The plain and simple truth is that no such grave existed and that was the reason why the author of the 'Freedom Movement in Bangladesh' stayed away from the supposed Pakistan Army 'killing field'.

After The Fall of Dhaka & Ruqaiya Hall rapes myth
In this connection it is worth recalling that immediately after the fall of Dhaka to the Indian Army, there were newspaper reports claiming unearthing of mass graves. But, none of these were seriously followed up and later the stories of these mass graves were conveniently forgotten. Even our two authors avoided any reference to them. However, on the unearthed mass graves William Drummond reported:

"Of course, there are 'mass graves' all over Bangladesh. But nobody, not even the rabid Pakistani hater, has yet asserted that all these mass graves account for more than about 1,000 victims. Furthermore, because a body is found in a mass grave does not necessarily mean that the victim was killed by the Pakistan Army. In the days immediately preceding the March 25, 1971 crackdown by the Pakistan Army, virtual anarchy prevailed in the province. In fact a sinister suspicion has arisen since, that the bodies discovered in mass graves might well have belonged to Biharis, perhaps even Bengalis killed by other Bengalis." [38]

Unlike Iqbal Hall and Jagannath Hall, both of which at least came under fire and suffered casualties, Ruqaiya Hall did not come under the Army's attention either on the night of 25 March 1971 or at any other time. Although Gupta has not mentioned the source of his accusation, it is apparently based on a leaflet that was circulated in London. The Vice Chancellor of the Dhaka University, Syed Sajjad Husain, on his visit to London in 1971 was told about this leaflet:

''"When I went to Tanveer Ahmed's (Education Attache) room, whom I. knew before, we talked on various matters. He pulled out a leaflet written in large English letters from his drawer and showed it to me. He said a Bengali woman, who was known to him, was distributing it on the streets of London. The leaflet had it, 'If you have any conscience, then protest against the beastliness.' Under it there were a number of horrifying tales. A father was quoted saying that on the night of the 25th the Army entered the women's hall in Dhaka. There they have not only gunned down many girls, but have also committed beastly oppression on them. The homosexual Pathan soldiers have raped the girls in beastly manner. The father further said that when these were enacted on the ground floor, about fifty girls saw this from the upper floor. When they realised that their turn would come next, they committed suicide by jumping from the upper floor. Included among them was the daughter of the narrator. When Tanveer Ahmed protested and told the lady that she should know that there was no truth behind this, her reply was "Every thing is fair in love and war". I told Tanveer Shaheb that I myself have spoken to Mrs Ali Imam, the Provost of the women's hall. What I have learned from her was that after 7th March most of the girls left the hall. On the 24th there were only five girls in the hall. When rumors started spreading in Dhaka about the possibility of Army action, under Mrs Imam' s directive these girls left the hall and took shelter in the home of a House Tutor. So there could not be any question of oppression or rape being suffered by the girls of the hall."'' [39]

-Sources-
 * 38. William Drummond, The Missing Millions, The Guardian, London, 6 June, 1972.
 * 39. Syed Sajjad Husain, op cit : 65-66

Faculty deaths
Gupta's list showing 10 faculty members had been killed is largely correct. The total was nine rather than ten [40] and the responsibility for it was admitted by the Pakistan military authorities. But, strangely he has also quoted two other lists which were circulated by the Indian Government on the authority of foreign witnesses. [41] That some of the names included in those two lists were either nonexistent or suffered no harm was glossed over. That it has shown how some so-called foreign eye witnesses deliberately took upon themselves the task of spreading lies in order to inflame the situation was never pointed out. In this connection, it may be recalled that during the conflict a number of faculty members led by the Vice Chancellor issued a statement listing the correct casualty figure. Yet, some interested quarters abroad condemned their efforts as 'Pakistan Government instigated lies' and all of them were made to suffer in 'liberated' Bangladesh. [42]

-Sources-
 * 40. Syed Sajjad Husain, op cit : 65-66
 * 41. Jyoti Sen Gupta, op cit : 283;286
 * 42. Among them were Syed Sajjad Husain, Dr Mohar Ali and Dr Qazi Deen Mohammed.

The discrepancies between his own list and two other lists which he had included in his book should have made Gupta realise the gap between what was reported and what in fact had happened and led him to be more observant. Had either Gupta or Hasanat been a little more caring about the factual truth, rather than being over-sanguine in condemning Pakistan and her Army indiscriminately, they would have visited the Dhaka University. There they would have seen a comprehensive list of 'martyrs' on public display with the names of all those staffs and students of the university who had lost lives during the whole conflict. And from that plaque they could have counted that the total losses suffered was no more than. The fact that they did not, shows their buccaneer approach to truth and the utter hollowness of their casualty figures.

-Complete Sources-
 * 1. Jyoti Sen Gupta, History of Freedom Movement in Bangladesh 1943-1973: Some Involvement, NayaProkash, 206 Bidhan Sarani, Calcutta - 6, 1974 : 305.
 * 2. Disclosure at the Press Conference of the Mukti Juddha Sangsad held on 5 February 1992 and reported in all Dhaka newspapers the next day.
 * 3. Abul Hasanat, The Ugliest Genocide in History, Muktadhara [Swadhin Bangla Sahitya Parishad] 74 Farashganj, Dhaka - I, 1974: 26-34.

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