"Excellency,
May we invite your kind attention to our letter of the 15th of the October written to you on the eve of your departure for Europe and the United States of America? Our hope was that, apart from giving consideration to our basis request for the recognition of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and its Government, out letter would also assist you in conveying the depth of our feelings and the increasing momentum of our struggle for freedom to the world leaders whom you were to meet. The reports that we received about your discussions had created the hope that the statesmen whom you met would be able to persuade President Yahya Khan to evolve a political solution to the problem of Bangladesh, in consultation with our undisputed leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and our already elected representatives.
Even while you were abroad describing the realities of the situation and emphasizing the imperative necessity of a political solution according to the declared wishes of the people of Bangladesh, we received definite indications that the military rulers of West Pakistan remain determined to continue their policy of repression and brutality against our people. President Yahya Khan's statement of the 12th of October, the increased activities of the West Pakistan Army against the civilian population in Bangladesh and his rebuffs to various overtures made by the statesmen of the world urging a national political solution on him, confirmed our assessment.
Developments especially over the last two weeks clearly show that the military rulers of West Pakistan are not open to persuasion to return to the path of reason and face the realities of the situation. Meanwhile, the exodus of our countrymen into India continues unabated, which is a direct consequence of the continuing repression of our people by the West Pakistani Army. The oppression of our people is accompanied by a deceitful policy of so-called normalization undertaken by the military junta of West Pakistan. The defeated candidates and quislings, who constitute the so-called civilian governments of East Pakistan, are sustained by a repressive martial law regime universally hated by the people of Bangladesh. Their atrocities have reached new and unimaginable dimensions in terrorizing and decimating our people in recent days. You must have seen reports about curfews and arrests, exercises in scorched earth and mass extermination undertaken by the West Pakistani Army in Bangladesh over the last fortnight. Entire villages have been razed to the ground and their populations liquidated. The West Pakistani Army had acted with such systematic brutality that millions of our countrymen wander without shelter and food within Bangladesh. According to our assessment, nearly five million citizens of Bangladesh are in this tragic and heart-rending predicament with no succor or relief. This is apart from the ten million citizens of Bangladesh who has already gone to India and who’s number is increasing everyday. The aforesaid facts lead us to the unmistakable conclusion that the military regime of Pakistan has embarked on a pre-meditated and planned extermination of our race.
The military regime of West Pakistan still refused negotiations with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the Government of Bangladesh. This has resulted in the alienation not only of the people of Bangladesh from the military regime of President Yahya Khan but also of the people in other parts of Pakistan. The people of the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan have expressed heir dissatisfaction in a manner, which has now compelled the Government of West Pakistan to ban the National Awami Party, which had won a majority in the provincial elections in these two provinces of West Pakistan.
All this only confirms our original assessment that the people of West Pakistan were never a party to the conspiracy of military oppression undertaken by President Yahya Khan in conjunction with the small coterie of Generals. President Yahya Khan's pronouncements and activities over the last month gave a clear indication of his determination to suppress the democratic aspirations not only of the People of Bangladesh, but also of the people all over Bangladesh. As we had informed in our letter of the 15th of October, the operations of the Mukti Bahini have been gathering momentum. The Mukti Bahini, with the universal support of the people of Bangladesh has achieved signal successes in regaining effective administrative control over large areas of our motherland against the military oppressor. We had informed you of our being in control of half the territory of Bangladesh in our letter of the 15th October. We have great pleasure in informing you now that our effective jurisdiction extends to two-thirds of the total area of the country. We have not only liberated this area, but also consolidated our authority and established increasingly effective civil administration in areas under our control. Even in the remaining areas, the freedom struggle with popular support has reached a stage that it has compelled the West Pakistani troops to confine themselves to a limited number of fortified positions. Our successes as well as the events in West Pakistan, with the passage of time, have convinced even the people of West Pakistan of the legitimacy of our cause. The intransigence of the military regime of West Pakistan and the programs being carried out by them against our people are indicative of the vain hope which President Yahya Khan entertains of retaining control over Bangladesh by coercive authority. This has only strengthened our determination to liberate our motherland completely and we are confident of achieving our objectives. We have become better organized and our Armed Forces are acting with discipline and determination. The ranks of the Mukti Bahini have switched with thousands of patriotic young men, dedicated to remove the colonial bondage of the people of Bangladesh once and for all. It is our unalterable intention to remove the root cause of the tragedy, which we have undergone - the oppression that we have suffered for nearly two decades, and culminating in the holocaust on March 25 and the events following it. This is a just struggle of an enslaved peopled against their exploiters.
It was our hope that our struggle would find immediate and tangible support from the international community, particularly from our great neighbor, India. Our expectations had some basis in the eloquent resolution passed by the Parliament of India on the 31st of March 1971, which expressed sympathy for and solidarity with the people of Bangladesh in their struggle for a democratic way of life. Already, eight months have gone by. Neither international pressure nor counsels of reason from the statesmen of the world have succeeded in persuading the military regime of West Pakistan to negotiate a political settlement with the people of Bangladesh through their elected and acknowledged leaders led by the President of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Nor has your tolerance and restraint made any constructive impact on the rulers of West Pakistan. To the country, apart from carrying out a systematic policy of genocide, violation of human rights and repression, the military regime of West Pakistan has sought to divert the attention of the world from the root cause of the problems by attempting to internationalize the issue by projecting it as an Indo-Pakistan dispute. We are aware of the consistent efforts that your Government has made to explain the problem in its correct perspective and to direct the attention of the international community to the realities of the situation. These attempts at a peaceful settlement of the dispute between the people of Bangladesh and the military rulers of West Pakistan have failed, and the recent pronouncements and activities of President Yahya Khan provide little hope for a political solution. In this context, it has surprised and even perturbed us that India should continue a policy of caution and restraint against the oppressive military regime of West Pakistan.
The people of Bangladesh arc conscious of the leading role that India played in eradicating the evil of colonialism from the Afro-Asian region. It was India's eloquent advocacy and consistent stand in favour of the oppressed peoples of the world, which made it the leading political force accelerating the process of de-colonization. Your Government and your people have always raised their voice where human dignity was in danger and liberties and freedoms of peoples threatened. Your consistent support to the just struggles for liberation and freedom movements of the oppressed people of the world is well known. India has been a leading exponent of the cause of freedom and upholder of liberty for those who are oppressed and deprived of their fundamental rights. You have shown unflinching support to the principles of democracy, secularism, socialism and a non-aligned foreign policy. The proclamation of independence of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and subsequent pronouncements by the Government of our country have given clear indication that we share these ideals and aspirations. We should like to reiterate here what we have already proclaimed as the basic principles of our State Policy, i.e. democracy, socialism, secularism and the establishment of an egalitarian society, where there would be no discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex or creed. In our foreign relations, we are determined to follow a policy of non-alignment, peaceful co-existence and opposition to colonialism, racialism and imperialism in all its forms and manifestations. Against the background of this community of ideals and principles, we are unable to understand why the Government of India has not yet responded to our plea for recognition.
On a more practical plane, we are conscious of the burdens imposed on your country by the massive influx of the citizens of Bangladesh in the face of the terror, which they face in their own country. We share your anxiety regarding the tensions, which the presence of millions of our countrymen on your territory can generate. The economic burden and the socio-political tensions which the large number of Bangladesh refugees in India can create are and should be the common concern of both the Governments of India and Bangladesh. With our effective control over our territory and with the establishment of organized civil administration, we arc anxious that all our fellow citizens who were forced to leave their hearths and homes after the 25'" of March, 1971, and who are now living in your country in adverse conditions despite your generosity, return to their homeland at the earliest possible date. We are also now in a position to resettle and rehabilitate them in their own homes in conditions of safety, dignity and honour. In view of the onset of winter, lime if of essence in this matter. The health and welfare, especially of the women, children and the aged, can be safeguarded only if the arrangements for their return are expedited. We would like to assure you of our Government's full cooperation in organizing he expeditious return of the refugees back to their home. Let it not be said that we failed them in their hour of need.
Your extending recognition to the Government of Bangladesh seems an imperative requisite to us to relieve the tensions and strains, which (he people of Bangladesh and India had to bear over the last eight months. The early achievement of our common objectives would also depend on your giving not only political and moral support to us, but also all essential material aid to the freedom struggle. We are convinced that your according recognition by cooperation in all aspects of our mutual relations would expedite a lasting solution to the problem of Bangladesh.
We are grateful for the continuing support that you have given to our cause and the efforts you have made on this behalf with the international community. We feel it is now necessary to giver formal political content to your support, in order that our struggle is rewarded with speedy success and our existence as a free society is recognized by the world at large. Recognition by you would give an impetus to and would be an acknowledgement of our aspirations and Tree existence. It is also our considered assessment that the granting of recognition by the Government of India to the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a most necessary and important step not only to stabilize the situation ort the sub-continent but also to ensure peace, progress and stability tot South-East Asia. May we, therefore, reiterate the request, which we made in our letter of 15th October that you accord immediate recognition to the sovereign People's Republic of Bangladesh?
Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of our highest esteem.
Sd/-
Syed Nazrul Islam
Sd/-
Tajuddin Ahmad"
May we invite your kind attention to our letter of the 15th of the October written to you on the eve of your departure for Europe and the United States of America? Our hope was that, apart from giving consideration to our basis request for the recognition of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and its Government, out letter would also assist you in conveying the depth of our feelings and the increasing momentum of our struggle for freedom to the world leaders whom you were to meet. The reports that we received about your discussions had created the hope that the statesmen whom you met would be able to persuade President Yahya Khan to evolve a political solution to the problem of Bangladesh, in consultation with our undisputed leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and our already elected representatives.
Even while you were abroad describing the realities of the situation and emphasizing the imperative necessity of a political solution according to the declared wishes of the people of Bangladesh, we received definite indications that the military rulers of West Pakistan remain determined to continue their policy of repression and brutality against our people. President Yahya Khan's statement of the 12th of October, the increased activities of the West Pakistan Army against the civilian population in Bangladesh and his rebuffs to various overtures made by the statesmen of the world urging a national political solution on him, confirmed our assessment.
Developments especially over the last two weeks clearly show that the military rulers of West Pakistan are not open to persuasion to return to the path of reason and face the realities of the situation. Meanwhile, the exodus of our countrymen into India continues unabated, which is a direct consequence of the continuing repression of our people by the West Pakistani Army. The oppression of our people is accompanied by a deceitful policy of so-called normalization undertaken by the military junta of West Pakistan. The defeated candidates and quislings, who constitute the so-called civilian governments of East Pakistan, are sustained by a repressive martial law regime universally hated by the people of Bangladesh. Their atrocities have reached new and unimaginable dimensions in terrorizing and decimating our people in recent days. You must have seen reports about curfews and arrests, exercises in scorched earth and mass extermination undertaken by the West Pakistani Army in Bangladesh over the last fortnight. Entire villages have been razed to the ground and their populations liquidated. The West Pakistani Army had acted with such systematic brutality that millions of our countrymen wander without shelter and food within Bangladesh. According to our assessment, nearly five million citizens of Bangladesh are in this tragic and heart-rending predicament with no succor or relief. This is apart from the ten million citizens of Bangladesh who has already gone to India and who’s number is increasing everyday. The aforesaid facts lead us to the unmistakable conclusion that the military regime of Pakistan has embarked on a pre-meditated and planned extermination of our race.
The military regime of West Pakistan still refused negotiations with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the Government of Bangladesh. This has resulted in the alienation not only of the people of Bangladesh from the military regime of President Yahya Khan but also of the people in other parts of Pakistan. The people of the North-West Frontier Province and Baluchistan have expressed heir dissatisfaction in a manner, which has now compelled the Government of West Pakistan to ban the National Awami Party, which had won a majority in the provincial elections in these two provinces of West Pakistan.
All this only confirms our original assessment that the people of West Pakistan were never a party to the conspiracy of military oppression undertaken by President Yahya Khan in conjunction with the small coterie of Generals. President Yahya Khan's pronouncements and activities over the last month gave a clear indication of his determination to suppress the democratic aspirations not only of the People of Bangladesh, but also of the people all over Bangladesh. As we had informed in our letter of the 15th of October, the operations of the Mukti Bahini have been gathering momentum. The Mukti Bahini, with the universal support of the people of Bangladesh has achieved signal successes in regaining effective administrative control over large areas of our motherland against the military oppressor. We had informed you of our being in control of half the territory of Bangladesh in our letter of the 15th October. We have great pleasure in informing you now that our effective jurisdiction extends to two-thirds of the total area of the country. We have not only liberated this area, but also consolidated our authority and established increasingly effective civil administration in areas under our control. Even in the remaining areas, the freedom struggle with popular support has reached a stage that it has compelled the West Pakistani troops to confine themselves to a limited number of fortified positions. Our successes as well as the events in West Pakistan, with the passage of time, have convinced even the people of West Pakistan of the legitimacy of our cause. The intransigence of the military regime of West Pakistan and the programs being carried out by them against our people are indicative of the vain hope which President Yahya Khan entertains of retaining control over Bangladesh by coercive authority. This has only strengthened our determination to liberate our motherland completely and we are confident of achieving our objectives. We have become better organized and our Armed Forces are acting with discipline and determination. The ranks of the Mukti Bahini have switched with thousands of patriotic young men, dedicated to remove the colonial bondage of the people of Bangladesh once and for all. It is our unalterable intention to remove the root cause of the tragedy, which we have undergone - the oppression that we have suffered for nearly two decades, and culminating in the holocaust on March 25 and the events following it. This is a just struggle of an enslaved peopled against their exploiters.
It was our hope that our struggle would find immediate and tangible support from the international community, particularly from our great neighbor, India. Our expectations had some basis in the eloquent resolution passed by the Parliament of India on the 31st of March 1971, which expressed sympathy for and solidarity with the people of Bangladesh in their struggle for a democratic way of life. Already, eight months have gone by. Neither international pressure nor counsels of reason from the statesmen of the world have succeeded in persuading the military regime of West Pakistan to negotiate a political settlement with the people of Bangladesh through their elected and acknowledged leaders led by the President of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Nor has your tolerance and restraint made any constructive impact on the rulers of West Pakistan. To the country, apart from carrying out a systematic policy of genocide, violation of human rights and repression, the military regime of West Pakistan has sought to divert the attention of the world from the root cause of the problems by attempting to internationalize the issue by projecting it as an Indo-Pakistan dispute. We are aware of the consistent efforts that your Government has made to explain the problem in its correct perspective and to direct the attention of the international community to the realities of the situation. These attempts at a peaceful settlement of the dispute between the people of Bangladesh and the military rulers of West Pakistan have failed, and the recent pronouncements and activities of President Yahya Khan provide little hope for a political solution. In this context, it has surprised and even perturbed us that India should continue a policy of caution and restraint against the oppressive military regime of West Pakistan.
The people of Bangladesh arc conscious of the leading role that India played in eradicating the evil of colonialism from the Afro-Asian region. It was India's eloquent advocacy and consistent stand in favour of the oppressed peoples of the world, which made it the leading political force accelerating the process of de-colonization. Your Government and your people have always raised their voice where human dignity was in danger and liberties and freedoms of peoples threatened. Your consistent support to the just struggles for liberation and freedom movements of the oppressed people of the world is well known. India has been a leading exponent of the cause of freedom and upholder of liberty for those who are oppressed and deprived of their fundamental rights. You have shown unflinching support to the principles of democracy, secularism, socialism and a non-aligned foreign policy. The proclamation of independence of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and subsequent pronouncements by the Government of our country have given clear indication that we share these ideals and aspirations. We should like to reiterate here what we have already proclaimed as the basic principles of our State Policy, i.e. democracy, socialism, secularism and the establishment of an egalitarian society, where there would be no discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex or creed. In our foreign relations, we are determined to follow a policy of non-alignment, peaceful co-existence and opposition to colonialism, racialism and imperialism in all its forms and manifestations. Against the background of this community of ideals and principles, we are unable to understand why the Government of India has not yet responded to our plea for recognition.
On a more practical plane, we are conscious of the burdens imposed on your country by the massive influx of the citizens of Bangladesh in the face of the terror, which they face in their own country. We share your anxiety regarding the tensions, which the presence of millions of our countrymen on your territory can generate. The economic burden and the socio-political tensions which the large number of Bangladesh refugees in India can create are and should be the common concern of both the Governments of India and Bangladesh. With our effective control over our territory and with the establishment of organized civil administration, we arc anxious that all our fellow citizens who were forced to leave their hearths and homes after the 25'" of March, 1971, and who are now living in your country in adverse conditions despite your generosity, return to their homeland at the earliest possible date. We are also now in a position to resettle and rehabilitate them in their own homes in conditions of safety, dignity and honour. In view of the onset of winter, lime if of essence in this matter. The health and welfare, especially of the women, children and the aged, can be safeguarded only if the arrangements for their return are expedited. We would like to assure you of our Government's full cooperation in organizing he expeditious return of the refugees back to their home. Let it not be said that we failed them in their hour of need.
Your extending recognition to the Government of Bangladesh seems an imperative requisite to us to relieve the tensions and strains, which (he people of Bangladesh and India had to bear over the last eight months. The early achievement of our common objectives would also depend on your giving not only political and moral support to us, but also all essential material aid to the freedom struggle. We are convinced that your according recognition by cooperation in all aspects of our mutual relations would expedite a lasting solution to the problem of Bangladesh.
We are grateful for the continuing support that you have given to our cause and the efforts you have made on this behalf with the international community. We feel it is now necessary to giver formal political content to your support, in order that our struggle is rewarded with speedy success and our existence as a free society is recognized by the world at large. Recognition by you would give an impetus to and would be an acknowledgement of our aspirations and Tree existence. It is also our considered assessment that the granting of recognition by the Government of India to the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a most necessary and important step not only to stabilize the situation ort the sub-continent but also to ensure peace, progress and stability tot South-East Asia. May we, therefore, reiterate the request, which we made in our letter of 15th October that you accord immediate recognition to the sovereign People's Republic of Bangladesh?
Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of our highest esteem.
Sd/-
Syed Nazrul Islam
Sd/-
Tajuddin Ahmad"
