Decisive phase of Bangla war in the offing
From Our Shillong Office MAY 29 – With the second phase of the liberation war in Bangladesh over sometime back without any decisive result, the situation at present is getting ripe for the third phase. Senior commanders of the Mukti Fouj, on the basis of objective calculations mixed with a close of optimism hope that the third phase will be the last one at the conclusion of which Bangladesh will become indisputably free.
The intensive guerilla activities now going on inside Bangladesh, a senior commander of the Mukti Fouj in the Sylhet sector, Captain Mutalique, told this correspondent, were more for preparing the ground for the forthcoming third phase of the liberation war than for causing temporary and minor harassment to the invading Khan army. This third and final phase of the liberation war would begin, he said, within another two or three weeks. The commander looked very confident about the outcome of the coming phase of the war and the freedom fighters constantly coming and going during the interview somewhere inside Bangladesh were in very high spirits.
Asked whether this proposed third phase of the liberation war would be led by “General Monsoon”, the commander smiled and said, “Well, we hope to have him on our side, but there are other more effective weapons in our arsenal”.
Booms of guns, even heavy guns and bone-chilling loud shrieks of mounting barrages interrupted the interview frequently.
The freedom fighters of the coming days were being given intensive training in the camp which with its marshy ground, canals, a river and a few hillocks perfectly resembled the topography of the area where they were being proposed to be deployed in the crucial days.
Captain Mutalique cooly explained the outcome of the first two phases of liberation war–he was neither dejected nor desperate, but he failed to hide his subdued sense of regret. “Our first mistake”, he said, was to hand over the advantages of starting the war, which was inevitable, to the enemy. If we had begun it in the beginning of March instead of a month later, when we were made more to defend ourselves, then by now the war could decisively be won for Bangladesh. Being what we were, we thought that the despot would not decide to be so despotic and allowed him the time for a massive reinforcement. That was the first mistake for which we have already paid very heavily. We could have saved many of our intellectuals if we had kept the initiative of the first few days of the war with us. It was a big irony that those, who laid the foundation for this great movement and for whose deep-rooted groundwork we are going to win this war, had to be sacrificed almost en masse in the first few hours of the war.
Captain Mutalique repressed a sleigh and immediately picked himself up, then added “But now we know our adversaries better and the next time we are going to make them pay for their perfidy”.
Those were the days of the phony war, he said. One of us asked the commander whether there also was a phony war before the real one. “The phony war”, he replied, “was going on from the early fifties when the later martyred intellectuals began to give their lives. But that is a long story meant for historians.”
“Early in April we were told of course by the booms of the guns of the invaders, that we were at war. By then the first phase of the war was unfortunately lost. The real war, the first phase of the war, began in late March or early April after the political talks had been concluded. It was a bit too late for us by then.”
“In the first phase of the war,” the commander said, “The invaders were in very poor morale in spite of the guns they had.”
“During the first few days of April the entire country of Bangladesh was with us accepting a few cantonment areas. The invaders were retreating at the time everywhere. They got scared, abandoned more important cantonments like Khadimnagar, and took refuge in the airfields guarding their vital and only link of communication by air. They were short of supplies and lived literally from hand to mouth. They were so cowed that they would not dare to move out from their hideouts even by
mistake.”
“Those were the finest hours for the liberation war in Bangladesh. If we could immobilier some of their airports at that time-and we could do that easily if we had a few pieces of heavy artillery then the Pakistani army could never stage a comeback.”
He said that the local commander did i immobilize Shalikar airport in Sylhet for four days. But the shells they used were too weak to make the damages to last for reasonably long. The invaders repaired the runway and the watch tower and reinforcements again began to flow in. At that time, he said “we did not have enough shells even to continue with our operations. All our hopes that the democratic world will come to our help proved vain.”
“But now we know better”, the commander added and knows what to expect from which quarter, what to expect from our enemies and finally what we are really up against. When we hit back next time, and that will come sooner than you expect, we will hit for success.”
It was late afternoon and we got up to get back to India. One batch of trainees was coming back after a grueling day. The boys were tired and exhausted, but greeted us with great enthusiasm. Another batch was leaving the camp to learn the intricacies of night operation. We exchanged greetings and before we could wish them success for their noble struggle they wished us cheerfully with the words-better news next time.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 30.05.1971