It is understandable that Pakistan’s military establishment has scores to settle with its jailed former prime minister, Imran Khan. The ongoing exchange of tirades between the two sides is characteristic of Pakistani politics, where the world knows how directly the military involves itself in state affairs.
For people in Bangladesh, this is a foreign issue -- one that warrants little attention. But last Friday, the Pakistani military crossed a line by branding Bangladesh’s independence hero, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a “traitor.” In a press briefing, Director General of Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry insulted an entire nation and one of its founding leaders by using that label.
In the process of portraying an embattled Imran Khan as a national security threat and an anti-state actor, the ISPR chief -- a three-star general -- made an unwarranted and provocative remark. He objected to Imran Khan’s repeated references to Mujib on social media and questioned Khan’s fondness for drawing inspiration from the “nation’s known traitor,” as he termed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
We do not wish to involve ourselves in the disputes between Imran Khan and Pakistan’s defense establishment; that is simply not our concern as democracy-loving Bangladeshis. But the way Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry branded Mujib a traitor in order to denigrate Imran Khan is completely unacceptable.
The people of Bangladesh know full well how this country won its independence after 23 years of Pakistani subjugation, through a nine-month bloody war in 1971. The world witnessed the role of the then Pakistani (read: West Pakistani) leadership and military generals as they launched a genocidal campaign against unarmed civilians in East Pakistan.
It is common knowledge that leaders and generals such as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and General Yahya Khan chose armed repression instead of a peaceful political settlement in early 1971. Any novice reader of this region’s political history knows how West Pakistan denied the results of the 1970 general election, which gave Mujib and the Awami League a sweeping mandate to form the government.
The National Assembly session was abruptly postponed without justification, while Yahya Khan and the military leadership bought time under the guise of “talks” -- all the while preparing their heinous plan to annihilate the Bengalis of East Pakistan.
Thanks to the leadership of Mujib, Tajuddin Ahmad, Syed Nazrul Islam and others, a resistance movement soon took shape, eventually leading to the War of Independence. Thanks also to Major Ziaur Rahman’s announcement from a clandestine radio station, which mobilized large sections of the population and freedom fighters to defend the motherland.
Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry and others of his view would do well to revisit the Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report, which squarely blamed Pakistan’s then military leadership for the 1971 debacle. The report -- commissioned in late December 1971, when Bangladesh was already a sovereign country -- documented this in explicit terms.
Today’s Pakistani military or ISPR may attack Imran Khan for citing Mujib or referencing the Commission Report, but that will not change history.
Some excerpts from the Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report are worth recalling, if only to remind our Pakistani friends that calling a liberator a traitor does not alter what their own inquiry has already recorded.
The Report states: “We have found… that [General Yahya Khan] did not take over the country merely to restore normal conditions and reintroduce the democratic process. He did so with a view to obtaining personal power…”
On the arbitrary postponement of the National Assembly session on 1 March 1971, it adds:
General Yahya Khan “did not realise the need for an early political settlement,” and that his failure “completely alienated the sympathies of the population of East Pakistan…”
The Report further observes: “After analyzing the evidence, we concluded that the process of moral degeneration among senior ranks of the Armed Forces began with their involvement in Martial Law in 1958… and intensified after Martial Law was imposed again in March 1969…”
The Hamoodur Rahman Commission -- also known as the War Enquiry Commission -- was a judicial inquiry set up on December 26, 1971 by President ZA Bhutto and chaired by Chief Justice Hamoodur Rahman. Submitted in 1974 and declassified in 2000, it was unequivocally critical of the conduct of Pakistan’s armed forces.
Its findings accused the army of senseless arson, killings in villages, the murder of intellectuals and professionals, executing East Pakistani officers and soldiers, murdering civil servants and businessmen, widespread rape of Bengali women as a deliberate tool of terror, and the systematic targeting of Hindu civilians. It also described Yahya Khan as a womanizer and an alcoholic. Not once did it call Sheikh Mujibur Rahman a traitor.
What, then, prompted the ISPR chief in 2025 -- 51 years after the report was submitted -- to label Mujib a traitor? The question is puzzling.
To use such language in December -- our month of Victory -- is an affront to our history and the sacrifices of 1971. It is also harmful to Bangladesh-Pakistan relations, especially at a time when both countries have recently made efforts to revive ties, including reopening the Chittagong–Karachi shipping link, forming a business council, expanding trade, and hosting high-level visits and cultural exchanges.
I recall the words of Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, in an interview with this newspaper during his Dhaka visit in August: “My visit… provided an opportunity to reinforce our historical, religious, and cultural ties… We need to adopt a forward-looking approach in bilateral relations.”
Unfortunately, his country’s military leadership has chosen instead to distort the past. Calling Mujib a traitor neither heals old wounds nor helps build a future grounded in mutual respect and understanding.
Reaz Ahmad is Editor, Dhaka Tribune.
