the entire Indian strategic design has failed totally it's a thing of tremendous consequences what they built up as an anti-islamic anti-pakistan thing collapsed the bengalis are better Muslims than we are they're much more religious minded they don't have firas like we have we cannot forget the past completely but we have to put the past behind us and we have to look forward to what we can without animosity towards India if if India does allow us Transit through India good if it doesn't good what Bangladesh needs is a new crop of leaders and there are many
[Music] [Music] we have to go back to 1971 when there was a very violent and bloody Civil War in uh then East Pakistan it led to the creation of Bangladesh on 16 December uh 1971 and obviously uh that was because the majority party in Bangladesh the wami league was denied denied his power which they had got by obtaining more than 50% of the seats uh I don't want to go into the political and legal Ling of it but just to say that this is a conflict that should not have happened it could have been resolved
and even though the Bangladesh is insist uh that 300 million bangladeshis died during that time I think the figure if you include U pure bengalis and and also biharis and other nationality other West pakistanies I think about 300,000 people died 300,000 is a large figure to have died in a space of one year so I think uh if you look at it from that point of view U then fast forward uh to 1975 when Sheik mujib rman who led the at that time became the president of Bangladesh after after 16 December 71 when he was
assassinated in a coup and then which led to some coups and counter coups ultimately by the end of the year um the Aku brought Zan to power I said Zan did not l lead the cou it was a SEO light coup which brought Zan part zman thereafter became Chief martial law administrator and stayed so till for a few years till he held elections which were free and fair and he won the elections and became president of Bangladesh and thereafter he was then assassinated 2 three years later again in an attempted coup but the attempted coup
failed he even though he was killed and general Shaz who was the chief of Army staff took over even during General Zan's time the approachment with Pakistan had started and it was accelerated during General shad's time and this lasted um through when General Shad went out of par 9 10 years later beam Zan the Widow of late Zan came to par and there after H wajid came to par and it lasted throughout these years and it lasted till um 2008 2009 till that time um there was a golden period of Pakistan and Bangladesh because trade
was there direct flights were there etc etc the second time the second time Hina bajet came to par she um of course she came to par because of a major mistake on beam Zan part when she sort of you know put a 100 people uh into as candidates who were absolutely corrupt and the people voted her out of bar so at that point of time H came to rule but again haaj rule even during that time she remained even this in a second tenure she remained all right with you know there was no great this
but the Reliance on India side more and more India started asserting itself to the extent that they had um people in every Corridor of power civil and Military civil Administration and Military Administration and with the result that uh people could not be promoted people could not be posted Etc without uh the concurrence of the Indian rep and even though and I must say this even though there was a lot of development a lot of progress iomic progress during Hass abad's time the people started getting more and more you know hating her and her regime became
more and more repressive even though technically it was Democratic but it became more repressive and uh you know people start disappearing people started ending up in jails and and some people were executed also so uh there was a lot of bad feeling about this during this time India built up a propaganda wave against Pakistan that Pakistan was responsible for everything Pakistan was you had done the killings in 71 and it all culminated in 2021 in 2021 with the 50 years of uh 1971 uh the Indians went to town about the genocide about this in a
strange way what they did not realize is because the people of banglades started hating the regime and started hating India because it was not a secret that India wasn't had that thing Etc so anything that the Indians said was taken on the opposite side as a matter of fact Pakistan benefited you know in a in a in a perverse way benefited by this propaganda so but after 2021 it was just a question of Time how it came about how what the spark would be Etc but they were genuine hatred so of course I don't want
to go into the people's movement the people's movement started Etc there was no doubt that the officer core above the rank of major above the rank of major once they were into staff colle all at that point time as left Colonels and above India started interfering in their promotions also so even though they did not they always to shift out people they felt that they were pro-islamic or Pro Pakistan etc etc with the result that the higher element of the officer Corp you know was more or less only the ones who were screened by India
they may not have been Pro India let me put it to you like this they may not have been Pro India but they were screened by India as to be not anti-indian now the Indians thought now they've got the hold of the army and Frankly Speaking they did what they did not contend with was the soldiers they were not screening the soldiers and the soldiers were from the stock the native stock and the soldiers grew up with a different opinion and they did not like what was going on and up to the rank of major
so when the movement started and it was and hasaj started tracking down with the police forces and her law enforcement other agencies the uh ultimately the law enforcement agencies found themselves not able to handle it they brought in the Army the problem was up to the rank of major it was passed on to the chief Army staff Who was appointed byaj that we are not going to fire on our own crowds did not say anything El but said we not fire on our own ground they didn't say remove her they didn't say do that they
just said we will not far and you know there sort of a you know a little bit of a um um in many things that General bakaman who was the chief Army staff appointed only a month or so before by the by as went and said uh this thing now must remember even bakaran was son-in-law of a former Chief of Army staff General mustafiz rman who was also East Engineers actually but served in the Pakistan Army so you know he had a little bit of a background of the army so he have got the sense
of this thing that people are not going to support So when push came to ser and she said she actually asked for blood letting in the streets he he said to her this is not we cannot do it and he advised her to uh you know leave in a nice way and first of all but she was adamant and she would not believe it and she press him even an hour before or 2 hours before she said and actually her sister went and sat in the helicopter but she was not she was insistent that no
because she was so confident that you know she be but ultimately General bakan prevailed on her that you must go and some of her ministers prevailed on her and so she left the country and then the students who had led the Revolt the the movement they asked for a neutral person and the neutral person they found was a man who was known as the banker to the poor Mohammad yunas you know who gamine Bank Noel Prize winner Nobel Peace Prize winner so he is now the chief advisor right and he's a man genuinely liked by
everybody now obviously this was not to India's liking because the entire Indian strategic design has failed totally I mean it's it's a it's a it's a thing of tremendous consequences what they built up as an anti-islamic anti-pakistan thing collapsed the bengalis are better Muslims than we are let me tell you very frankly they're much more religious minded they're not they're not they don't have firas like we have we have too many firas and like they don't have FAS and all but the point is that thing completely collapsed now Indians went on to overdrive when they
found that the Army was not listening to them they started this thing called oh these people are attacking and it did happen Hindus were attacked at places and some Hindus went over across so they started a propaganda that Muslims were killing Hindus and which of course now is not there because you know and the regime was new uh the they could not impose their thing but now the situation is well under control and uh uh Mr yunas has said that in a year's time they will have free and fair elections and they will allow everybody
to compete in election and there is no doubt that amami league has some support but um whether a wajid or members of her family come back U I don't think so her son has no inclination of being in uh in in Bangladesh um beam Zan is also the one who's alive is in London um I don't know whether he'll come back but the point is it's good for B Bangladesh because what Bangladesh needs is a new crop of leaders and there are many they're very well they're very well educated they're very informed um I'm surprised
uh because I have the contact that I have and all that I'm surprised by their the the the amount of Education the amount of experience the amount of work they've done and I look forward to the day we can never be Pakistan one Pakistan again but we can be one country in a different way we can be two countries not one country but two countries Pakistan and Bangladesh the vision that K aam saw two countries One Nation do away with visas do away with tariffs visa on arrival no tariffs we are one country and by
the way and by the way Pakistan Pakistan at the height of the war in 1971 had three and a half lightly C divisions in Bangladesh when I said lightly equipped they didn't have their full equipment they were without their armor regiments they were without that thing Etc the Light Equipment Etc today Bangladesh has got 10 divisions out of which and there two independent armed brigades about 90% of the border is with is India so why have they got 10 divisions why have they got 10 divisions so Frankly Speaking the vision that the km thought about
in 1946 1946 it is on record it's not something I'm making up two countries One Nation it still can become we cannot we we have to um we cannot forget the past completely but we have to put the past behind us and we have to look forward to what we can do without animosity towards India without animosity towards India we have we have a huge population Muslim population in India almost 250 million to 300 million people without animosity towards India right we should we should say yes we should say that India and we should decouple
ourselves from India if India does good good if India does bad that's not our concern right but we don't want to have a bad relationship but even doesn't India does not want to have friendship with us okay so what we can exist without relationship with India in any case with Bangladesh and with Sri Lanka and with we used to have the trade through Oceano vessels we can revive that right if if India does allow us Transit through through through India good if it doesn't good but we should decouple ourselves not only for the sake of
South Asia for sake of the world we cannot be India Centric anymore we have a tremendous place in this world we have a tremendous place in this world Pakistan is one of the most potent countries in the world today we just lack leadership and the element of compromise that we need to have within our political forces
