Most people have a
vague idea that in the months leading to the 1971 breakup of Pakistan
and during the savage military action in East Pakistan all the major
world powers (except China, which couldn't do anything) were severely
critical of Pakistan's policies and decisions. For the first time, this
book chronicles and records this hostility precisely, punctiliously and
extensively.
For this purpose Professor Aziz has consulted an
incredibly enormous range of source material: 152 newspapers and
magazines, 155 journal articles, 133 books, and several unpublished
radio and TV broadcast transcripts.
The focus is on the United
States, the United Kingdom and the USSR, with a brief look at the rest
of the world. A detailed chapter de-scribes the making and implications
of the lethal Indo-Soviet Treaty. The brief but explosive prologue is a
novel and damaging expose of the unpardonable mistakes made by the All
India Muslim League leadership between 1906 and 1947 which, irrevocably
and inevitably, led to the creation of Bangladesh. This investigation is
based on original and contemporary documents. To put the foreign
comments in their context, the more relevant portions of the
Hamood-ur-Rahman Commission Report are reproduced in an appendix.
This
book is a register of events, a narrative of public opinion and an
account of how the world powers saw and judged the developments of
1970-71. It is a collection of stark and brutal facts and comments upon
them. It is not a work of analysis or judgment because Pakistani
scholars are denied the freedom of expression essential for that
exercise.
As most of the material used here is available in
Pakistan but not all of it at one place anywhere, this volume is a
valuable and indispensable source book for any study of the 1971
disaster.
| Book Attributes | |
| Pages | 394 |
