Hamoodur Rahman Commission

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This article is about the commission chaired by the Hamoodur Rahman. For other uses, see Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report.

Pakistan in Asia: Pakistan's historical map before or prior to 1971. 1. West Pakistan 2. East Pakistan

The Hamoodur Rahman Commission (otherwise known as War Enquiry Commission

1947 to 1971.[2] The commission was set up on 26 December 1971[1] by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto the then President of Pakistan and chaired under Chief Justice Hamoodur Rahman.[2]

Constituted to prepare strictly germane report on "full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the

Eastern Military Command, surrendered the Eastern contingent forces under his command laid down their arms."[2]

The commission's final report was very lengthy and provided an analysis based on extensive interviews and testimonies. Its primary conclusion was very critical of the role of Pakistan's

Indian agents all along the borders of East Pakistan.[3]

Originally, there were 12 copies of the report. These were all destroyed; except the one that was handed over to Government who disallowed its publication at the time. In 2000, parts of the commission report were leaked to

newspapers.[4]

The full report was thought to be declassified by the government in 2000, along with other reports concerning the year 1971.

prisoners of war (POWs) was published, and the key portion of the report concerning the political and military issues remained classified and marked as "Top secret."[2][4]

Historical background

Formation of commission

In 1971, East Pakistan seceded from Pakistan and declared independence as Bangladesh. The resulting civil war ended with the signing of a Pakistani surrender after the military intervention of India.[5]

Upon consolidating the

senior justices in December 1971.[2] Constituted upon the request from the President, the Commission conducted evaluated and analytical studies to inquire into and find out "the circumstances in which the Commander, Eastern Command, surrendered and the members of the Armed Forces of Pakistan under his command laid down their arms and a ceasefire was ordered along the borders of West Pakistan".[1]

Initially, the commission was known as the War Enquiry Commission but gained notability as "Hamoodur Rehman Commission" across the country.

senior justices of the Supreme Court, and military officials as its advisers.[6]

The commission had consisted of both civilian and military officials that investigated the political and military failures based on the interviews and testimonies provided by the POWs, politicians, activists, military leaders, and journalists for two years.[citation needed] The commission submitted its final report in 1974.[7]

Commission members

Interviewees and testimonies (1972–74)

The commission interviewed and stored testimonies in both first and supplementary reports. In 1972, it was reported that around 213 officials were interviewed and testified, including Yahya Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.[9] In 1974, the Commission again resumed its work and interviewed 300 freed POWs and recorded 73 more bureaucrats' testimonies that served on government assignments in East Pakistan.[9]

Note that the list of interviewees is incomplete.

First report

The M.I map of insurgents and military activities in East Pakistan, provided by Brig Siddique Salik in Witness to Surrender.

In July 1972, President

Abdul Rahim Khan (Chief of Air Force), Muzaffar Hassan (Chief of Navy), Bhutto, senior commanders, activists, journalists, and various political leaders.[2]

The Commission considered this initial report as "tentative" as it had not been able to interview many

courts-martial for the senior staff officers.[10]

It has been theorized that the first report is so critical of the Pakistan Army's actions in East Pakistan that publication could have weakened the army's influence.[11] The first report also made many insightful recommendations for reorganizing the military physicals, tradition, and their syllabus and training agenda as well as promoting the sense of democratization environment in the political system of the country.[10]

The first report is never published and kept as highly classified documents because of its potentially adverse effects on the military's (at that time) low-institutional morale and fear of a backlash.[10] The government and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto himself maintained that the first report was classified to "save its [the military's] honour".[10]

Supplementary report

In 1974, the Commission reopened its enquiry offering an opportunity to the prisoners of war who

had been freed by India and Bangladesh by then and others repatriated from East Pakistan to furnish such information as might be within their knowledge and relevant to the purposes of the commission.[12]

Commission held an informal meeting at Lahore on 3 June 1974 to consider various preliminary matters and then decided to resume proceedings at Abbottabad from 16 July 1974.[citation needed] After the investigation resumed in 1974 the commission interviewed with seventy–three more East Pakistani bureaucrats and high-ranked military personnel.[12][9]

The Commission examined nearly 300 witnesses in total, hundreds of classified documents and

military responsible for the atrocities committed in East Pakistan in 1971.[citation needed
]

The commission also held that the families of West Pakistani service members in East Pakistan were subjected to inhumane treatment by Bengalis.

militants– the Mukti Bahini.[2]

The final report, also called the supplementary report, was submitted on 23 October 1974, showed how political, administrative, military and moral failings were responsible for the surrender of Pakistani forces in East Pakistan.[8] It remained classified and its contents were guessed from the revealing of different military officers.[2] The report was organized into Five Chapters and an annexure.

  1. Chapter One – The Moral Aspect
  2. Chapter Two – Alleged atrocities by the Pakistan Army
  3. Chapter Three – Professional Responsibilities of Certain Senior Army Commanders
  4. Chapter Four – Conclusions
  5. Chapter Five – Recommendations

Findings

Burma
also visible.

The commission challenged the claims by

Pakistani military and 200,000 women were raped.[14] The commission put the casualty figure as low as 26,000 killed.[15] The issue is controversial; an independent 2008 study estimated that around 269,000 people perished due to war in 1971 in what is now Bangladesh.[14]

Volume I of the supplementary report dealt with the

surrender in East Pakistan and the aspects in morality.[2]

The Commission found that when the tales of slaughtering of

Western Pakistanis reached to Pakistani soldiers stationed in East, they reacted violently, and in the process of restoring the authority of the government, committed severe excesses on the local Bengali population.[2]

Both the first and the supplementary report's findings accused the

Hindu minority.[2]

The report accused the army generals of what it called a "premature surrender" and said the military's continued involvement in running the government

after 1958 was one reason for the corruption and ineffectiveness of senior officers.[2] The report maintained that: "Even responsible service officers have asserted before us that because of corruption resulting from such involvement, the lust for wine and women and greed for lands and houses, a large number of senior army officers, particularly those occupying the highest positions, had lost not only their will to fight but also their professional competence."[16] The report said Pakistan's military ruler at the time, General Yahya Khan, who stepped down after Pakistan's defeat in December 1971, "permitted and even instigated" the surrender, and it recommended that he be publicly tried along with other senior military colleagues.[16]

The report accused General Yahya Khan, of being a womanizer and an alcoholic.[3] According to the report "Firm and proper action would not only satisfy the nation's demand for punishment where it is deserved but would also ensure against any recurrence of the kind of shameful conduct displayed during the 1971 war".[17]

Recommendations

Many insightful recommendations were made by the commission as it recommends to hold the

A.A.K. Nazi, Mohammad Jamshed, M. Rahim Khan, Irshad Ahmad Khan, B.M. Mustafa and Brigadier-Generals G.M. Baquir Siddiqui, Mohammad Hayat and Mohammad Aslam Niazi.[18]

According to the Commission General Mustafa's offensive plan aimed at the capture of the Indian position of Ramgarh in the Rajasthan area (Western Front) was militarily unsound and haphazardly planned, and its execution resulted in severe loss of vehicles and equipment in the desert.[18]

In the supplementary report section in "Higher Direction of War act" of the HRC report, it strongly called for the establishment of

Chief of Air Staff. It was mandated to have a collective responsibility of national defence and mechanism of plans based on joint objectives.[19]

The chairmanship was to be rotated between each inter-services, irrespective of the personal ranks in each service.

foreign intrusions and makes more thoughtful recommendations about the defense of the country as a whole.[19] The Commission called for restoring the rule of law according to the Constitution and establishing the writ of government through the Constitution.[19]

In the end, the commission opined in the report that the nation would learn the necessary lessons from these tragic events and that effective and early action will be taken in the light of the conclusions reached.[2]

Aftermath

The supplementary report was submitted by Chief Justice Hamoodur Rahman to Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on 23 October 1974. Bhutto classified the report because, according to journalist Salil Tripathi, he was concerned that it would demoralize the military and might trigger unrest therein.[12] In 1976, Rahman asked Bhutto what was being done about the report. Bhutto replied that the report was missing; it was either lost, or stolen, and was nowhere to be found.[12]

Upon hearing the fate of the report, Chief Justice Rahman asked the

Army GHQ or the National Archives of Pakistan.[20]

In the 1990s, the curiosity over the report grew with the

Joint Staff HQ in Rawalpindi.[4]

Contents of the report were published by the Dawn and the India Today and rumored to be the first report, in August 2000.[2] However, it was revealed that this was the supplementary report that was presumably published.[2][8][17][21] Soon after the revelation, the India Today willfully suppressed its own publications as if the surrender was its own scandal.[4]

No action was ever taken based on the report, the report was classified and its publication disallowed at the time.

Judge Advocate General in the light of the Hamoodur Rahman Commission in 1972.[4]

President Pervez Musharraf reportedly commented in October 2000 that the incidents in 1971 were a political as well as a military debacle, and that calls for the military generals to be tried were not fair.[16] Subsequently, Bangladesh requested a copy of the report.[17] In December 2000, 29 years after the inquiry was completed, the War Report was finally declassified in Pakistan by President Musharraf.[3]

Former Pakistan Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa blamed the 1971 Bangladesh war debacle on the country's politicians.[22] Former Pakistan PM and PTI founder Imran Khan urged the nation to read Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report to know who was responsible for East Pakistan debacle.[23]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report" (PDF). Dunya News. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t "Hamoodur Rahman Commission reports". Story of Pakistan. January 2000. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  3. ^ a b c Pakistan declassifies 1971 war report, BBC News, 2000-12-31
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-81-7062-133-1
    .
  5. ISBN 978-1-4422-4148-0
    .
  6. ^
    Pakistan Peoples Party
  7. ISBN 978-1-60127-075-7
    .
  8. ^ a b c Behind Pakistan's Defeat, India Today, 2000-08-21
  9. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8223-5038-5
    .
  10. ^
    ISBN 9780674419773
    . Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  11. ISBN 9781851098019
    .
  12. ^
    ISBN 978-0-300-21818-3
    .
  13. ISBN 0300101473
    .
  14. ^
    ISBN 978-0-415-56566-0
    . Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  15. ^ Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report Archived 16 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, chapter 2 Archived 12 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine, paragraph 33
  16. ^ a b c d e Local Elections in Pakistan Are First Vote Since 1999 Coup, The New York Times, 2001-01-01
  17. ^ a b c Bangladesh requests war report, BBC News, 2000-08-30
  18. ^
    ISBN 9781628941678
    . Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  19. ^
    ISBN 978-1604500202
    .
  20. ISBN 9781136517594
    . Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  21. ^ Gen Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan – 4, Dawn, 2000-09-17
  22. ^ "Former Pakistan Army chief Javed Bajwa blames politicians for 1971 war debacle". The Economic Times. 30 November 2022. Archived from the original on 6 December 2022.
  23. ^ Shehzad, Rizwan (1 June 2024). "PTI demands release of report on '71 debacle". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 2 June 2024.

External links

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