1971 Bangladesh Atrocities - Violence Against Alleged Collaborators

Violence Against Alleged Collaborators

In 1947, at the time of partition and the establishment of the state of Pakistan, Bihari Muslims, many of whom were fleeing the violence that took place during partition, migrated from India to the newly independent East Pakistan. These Urdu-speaking people held a disproportionate number in the new country's population. Biharis were adverse to the Bengali language movement and the subsequent nationalist movements as they maintained allegiance toward West Pakistani rulers, causing anti-Bihari sentiments among local nationalist Bengalis. B When the war broke out in 1971, the Biharis sided with the Pakistan army. Some of them joined Razakar and Al-Shams militia groups and participated in the persecution and genocide of their Bengali countrymen including the widespread looting of Bengali properties and abetting in other criminal activities against them. R J Rummel estimated that 150,000 non-Bengals were massacred by Awami League aligned militias, with a low estimate of 50,000 and a high estimate of 500,000.

There are many reports of massacres of Biharis and alleged collaborators that took place in the period following the surrender of the Pakistan Army on December 16, 1971. In an incident on December 19, 1971, captured on camera and attended by members of foreign press, Abdul Kader Siddiqui and Mukti Bahini guerrilas under his command bayoneted and shot to death a group of war prisoners accused of belonging to the Razakar paramilitary forces.