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[-
IKRAM SEHGAL -] |
 REVERSE
SWING |
Major riots broke out in East Pakistan
because of the Tashkent accord between India and Pakistan
in January 1966. Bengalis vehemently and vociferously
protested the perceived sell-out of Pakistan’s
interests to India after the 1965 war. Instead of
returning to the cantonments from the borders on the
signing of the Tashkent Declaration, troops (mainly
from the East Bengal Regiment) were rushed in “aid
of civil power” to many of the major cities
of East Pakistan, Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, etc.
Alpha Company 2E Bengal, then commanded by Maj (later
Lt Gen, COAS Bangladesh Army and President of Bangladesh)
H M Ershad, with 2/Lt (later Lt Gen, COAS Bangladesh
Army) ASM Nasim as his Company Officer, was sent from
Jessore Cantonment to Khulna. Detached from Bravo
Company I was sent ahead with a wireless jeep to Khulna
as Liaison Officer (LO) attached with Deputy Commissioner
Khulna, Mr Mohammad Idris (Nasim’s father),
(then) DIG (later IG) Police Mr AKM Habibur Rahman
(father-in-law of my good friend Anwar Karim) was
the Police Chief. Tense confrontations took place
with unruly mobs all over the Province. It is an irony
of fate that in comparison protests in West Pakistan
over Tashkent were muted, if at all. It was only when
the (then) Foreign Minister late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
left the Cabinet several months later that Tashkent
was raised by him as political bogey....more
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PRESERVING
INTERNAL PEACE |
Three decades (or so) ago almost
to the day on April 13, 1975, unidentified gunmen
killed four Phalangists during an attempt on the life
of Pierre Gemayel, founder of the Lebanese (Maronite
Christian) political grouping called the Phalangist
Party. Suspecting that the assailants were Palestinian
the Phalangists retaliated later in the day by ambushing
a bus passing through the Eastern Beirut suburb of
Ain al Roumanneh, killing more than two dozen Palestinian
passengers. This incident initiated a cycle of revenge
killings that led to all-out civil war that was supposedly
between the Palestinians and Maronite Christians but
in fact became a religious strife between the Sunnis,
Shias and Druze Lebanese aiding the Palestinians and
the heavily Christian Lebanese Army (alongwith their
heavy weapons) splitting mainly in favour of the Maronites
and Catholics.
By the time the civil war ended 15
years later in 1990, many thousands and thousands
of combatants (and multiple more innocent caught in
the crossfire) had died in the fray. The “civil
war” allowed Syria to creep in as an “arbitrator”
for “peace-keeping”, creating a stranglehold
over Lebanon that has only recently been vacated after
the assassination of Rafik Hariri and the Lebanese
(and world) mass reaction to Syria’s suspected
involvement. Given refuge in Lebanon since 1969 the
stateless Palestinians (led by Yassar Arafat’s
PLO) had earlier been involved in bloody civil strife
in Jordan from where they were unceremoniously evicted
in 1970. Attempting to evict the Palestinians from
South Lebanon, the Israelis launched a massive invasion,
the massacre of Palestinians at Sabra and Chattila
refugee camps just outside Beirut were carried out
by Maronite Christian allies of the Israelis, who
remained as onlookers, intervening only after mass
killings had already taken place......more
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US,
South Asia and China |
The end of the Cold War has brought
about a flourishing relationship between the US and
the billion and a half people of South Asia, albeit
on a pro-rata basis with India as the priority. People
in this region value human rights, oppose terrorism,
and want to protect their increasingly endangered
environment. Free markets in South Asia are relatively
new, but economic reform has strong intellectual support,
and a growing middle class is committed to opening
the economies of the region. A little over a decade
ago South Asia was regarded by the United States as
a third-class backwater, today it stands on the brink
of becoming a major economic and military power. The
dependance of many multinational firms a the service
sector has made India (and increasingly other regional
countries) a permanent priority to American policy
makers.....more
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