Hamoodur Rahman Commission

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.

The Hamoodur Rahman Commission (otherwise known as "War Enquiry Commission"[1]), was a judicial inquiry commission that assessed Pakistan's political–military involvement in East-Pakistan from 1947 to 1971.[2] The Commission was set up on 26 December 1971[1] by the Government of Pakistan and chaired under the Chief Justice Hamoodur Rahman.[2]

Constituted "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the atrocities and 1971 war", including the "circumstances in which the Commander of 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 extensive interviews and testimonies. Its primary conclusion was very critical of the role of Pakistan's military interference, the misconduct of politicians as well as the intelligence failures of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which permitted the infiltration of 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 Indian and Pakistani newspapers.[4]

The full report was thought to be declassified by the government in 2000, along with other reports concerning the year of 1971.[2] However, it was reported that the supplementary report based on testimonies of 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][5]

Historical background

Formation of Commission

Chief Justice Hamoodur Rahman handing over the HRC Report to Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, c. 1974.[6]

In 1971, the war between India and Pakistan witnessed the liberation of East-Pakistan, which ended with the signing of the Instrument of Surrender with the Indian Army in Dhaka.[7]

Upon consolidating the power, President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto announced to form the Commission under the Supreme Court's senior justices in December 1971.[8] 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 and India and along the ceasefire line in the State of Jammu and Kashmir."[9]

Initially, the commission was known as War Enquiry Commission but gained notability as "Hamoodur Rehman Commission" across the country.[9] The Commission was led by its Chairman, Chief Justice Hamoodur Rahman (a Bengali jurist), aided with the senior justices of the Supreme Court, and military officials as its advisers.[10]

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.[5] The Commission submitted its final Report in 1974.[11]

Commission members

Interviewees and testimonies (1972–74)

The Commission interviews and stored testimonies in both First and Supplementary Reports. In 1972, it was reported that around 213 officials were interviewed and testified that including Yahya Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.[13] 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.[13]

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, the First Report was submitted to the Presidency by the Chief Justice Hamoodur Rahman, which President Bhutto reviewed the First report. The Commission interviewed 213 persons of interest that included former president Yahya Khan, Nurul Amin, Abdul Hamid Khan (Chief of Army), Abdul Rahim Khan (Chief of Air Force), Muzaffar Hassan (Chief of Navy), Zulfikar Bhutto, senior commanders, activists, journalists, and various political leaders.[8]

The Commission considered this initial report as "tentative" as it had not been able to interview many key people who were at that time POWs in India.[10] The Commission stated: "our observations and conclusions regarding the surrender in East Pakistan and other allied matters should be regarded as provisional and subject to modification in the light of the evidence of the Commander, Eastern Command, and his senior officers as and when such evidence becomes available." Initially, the Commission interviewed 213 people involved in the debacle and made 12 copies of First Report. The First Report is said to be very lengthy and long since its evaluated and analyzed the political and military history of the country that encompasses from 1947 till 1971.[14]

It is theorized that the First Report is very critical of Pakistan military's interference in politics and misconduct of politicians in country's political atmosphere.[15][16] The First report also made many insightful recommendations for reorganizing the military physicals, tradition, and their syllabus and training agenda, educating the civil society on human rights as well as promoting the sense of democratization environment in the political system of the country.[17]

When the First Report was submitted to the then-President Bhutto, the President wrote to the Chairman of War Enquiry Commission Chief Justice Hamoodur Rahman, that the Commission has exceeded its limits.[14] The Commission was appointed to look into the military "aspect of debacle", not the aspect of political failure; therefore, Bhutto classified the publications of the Commission and marked its report as "Top Secret".[14] Out of 12 copies of the First Report, one of the copies was given to President Bhutto Bhutto and the rest were either destroyed or were stolen.[18] The First Report recognized the atrocities and systematic massacre at the Dhaka University which eventually led to recommendations of holding public trials for civilian bureaucrats and field courts-martial for the senior staff officers.[17]

The First Report is never published and kept as highly classified documents because of its potentially adverse effects on military's (at that time) low-institutional morale and fear of a backlash.[17] The Government and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto himself maintained that the First Report was classified to "save its [military's] honor."[17]

Supplementary Report

Bangladeshi propaganda posters glorifying the Mukti Bahini. The Commission asserted that Mukti Bahini's ill-treatment of Western Pakistanis led to the Pakistani military soldiers reacted violently.[8]

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.[19]

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. After the investigation resumed in 1974 the commission interviewed with seventy–three more East Pakistani bureaucrats and high-ranked military personnel.[13][19]

The Commission examined nearly 300 witnesses in total, hundreds of classified documents and military signals between East and West Pakistan. The Supplementary Report is heavily based on testimonies provided by the returning POWs and their families but held the military responsible for the atrocities committed in East Pakistan in 1971.[5]

The Commission endorsed the Pakistan's claim that: Families of West Pakistani officials in East Pakistan were subjected to inhumane treatment by their Bengali colleagues.[5] Returning Western Pakistanis and the Biharis told the Commission of awful tales of the atrocities committed at the hands of the Awami League militants– the Mukti Bahini.[8]

The Final Report, also called 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.[12] It remained classified and it contents were guessed from the revealing of different military officers.[18] 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

In 1971, Pakistan fought the war with India at two different fronts. China and Burma also visible.

The Commission challenged the claims by Bangladeshi authorities that 3,000,000 Bengalis had been killed by the Pakistani military and 200,000 women were raped.[20] The Commission, put the casualty figure as low as 26,000 civilian casualties.[21] The issue is controversial; the independent figures noted that around ~269,000 people (both Bengali and Western Pakistanis) perished prior to the military intervention by Pakistan.[20]

The Volume I of the Supplementary Report dealt with the political background, international relations, and military aspects of the events in 1971.[8] The Supplementary Report discussed its findings in the light of political events in 1971, military aspects, surrender in East Pakistan and the aspects in morality.[8]

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.[8]

Both the First and the Supplementary Report's findings accused the Pakistan Army of carrying out the senseless and wanton arson, killings in the countryside, killing of intellectuals and professionals and burying them in mass graves, killing of officers of East Pakistan Army and soldiers on the pretence of quelling their rebellion, killing East Pakistani civilian officers, businessmen and industrialists, raping a large number of East Pakistani women as a deliberate act of revenge, retaliation and torture, and deliberate killing of members of the Hindu minority.[18]

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.[8] 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."[22] 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.[22]

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 future recurrence of the kind of shameful conduct displayed during the 1971 war".[23]

Recommendations

Many insightful recommendations were made by the Commission as it recommends to hold the public trial for the President General Yahya Khan, also the Commander-in-Chief and the chief martial law administrator of both East and Pakistan in western side.[2] The Commission found suitable for field Courts-martial for Lieutenant-General Abdul Hamid Khan, Lieutenant-General Gul Hasan, Lieutenant-General SSGM Prizada and Major-General Khudadad Khan, and Major-General A. O. Mitha should be publicly tried for being party to a criminal conspiracy to illegally usurp power from Mohammad Ayub Khan in power if necessary by the use of force.[24] Five additional Lieutenant-Generals and three Brigadier-Generals were recommended to be tried for willful neglect of duty.[2] These were Lieutenant-Generals included 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.[24]

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.[24]

In the Supplementary Report section in "Higher Direction of War act" of the HRC report, it strongly called for the establishment of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC) mechanism with headquartered in MoD.[25] Per the act, the JCSC composed of a chairman, the Chief of Naval Staff, the Chief of Army Staff, and the Chief of Air Staff. It was mandate to have a collective responsibility of national defence and mechanism of plans based on a joint objectives.[25]

The chairmanship was to be rotated between each inter-services, irrespective of the personal ranks in each service.[25] The Commission also stressed for the need of stronger detterence of the country against the foreign intrusions and makes more thoughtful recommendations about the defense of the country as a whole.[25] The Commission called for restoring the rule of law according to the Constitution and establishing the writ of government through the Constitution.[25]

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 finally submitted by Chief Justice Hamoodur Rahman to Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at the Prime Minister's Secretariat on 23 November 1974.[19] Upon reviewing, the HRC Report was classified since it was very critical of the role of Pakistan's military in politics which it would contribute furthermore demoralization and humiliation in Pakistan Armed Forces.[19] In 1976, Chief Justice Rahman inquired about the report to Prime Minister Ali Bhutto on what was being done about the Report.[19] Bhutto confided to Chief Justice Rahman and told him that the Report was missing; it was either lost, or stolen, and was nowhere to be found.[19]

Upon hearing the fate of the Report, Chief Justice Rahman did asked the Chief of Army Staff General Zia-ul-Haq for the apprehension of the Report who also commented that the original report is nowhere to be found, and nobody knows where the report actually went missing– neither at the Army GHQ or the National Archives of Pakistan.[5][26]

In 1990s, the curiosity over the Report grows with the News International revealing that the Report was suppressed and was held secretly at 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][12][23][27] Soon after the revealation, 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.[22] Yahya Khan died in 1980, but some of his key colleagues were living in retirement on pensions as of 2000.[22] Tikka Khan, A.A.K. Niazi, and Rao Farman Ali were all passed away in 2004. Trials of Gul Hassan, Abdul Rahim Khan, and Muzaffar Hassan were the only trials held by the 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.[22] Subsequently, Bangladesh requested a copy of the Report.[23] In December 2000, 29 years after the inquiry was completed, the War Report was finally declassified in Pakistan by President Musharraf.[3] However, it was revealed to be an official Supplementary Report that was declassified, not the First Report.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Et. al. "The Supplement Report of the Hamoodur Rehman Commission" (PDF). www.dunyanews.tv/. Dunya News archives. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Hamoodur Rahman Commission reports". Story of Pakistan. January 2000. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 Pakistan declassifies 1971 war report, BBC News, 2000-12-31
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Bhatt, Dr Arunkumar. Psychological Warfare and India. Lancer Publishers, Bhatt. ISBN 9788170621331. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Jones, Owen Bennett. Pakistan: Eye of the Storm. Yale University Press, Jones. ISBN 0300101473. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  6. ↑ Iqbal, Mazhar. "The Summary of Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report" (in Urdu). Mazhar Iqbal (Urdu). Jang and Freelance work. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
  7. ↑ Burki, Shahid Javed. Historical Dictionary of Pakistan. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442241480. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "The Hamood-ur-Rahman Commission". storyofpakistan.com/. Nazaria-e-Pakistan Trust. 1 June 2003. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  9. 1 2 Dunya News. "Supplement Report" (PDF). dunyanews.tv. Dunya News. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  10. 1 2 Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report, Pakistan Peoples Party
  11. ↑ Schaffer, Howard B.; Schaffer, Teresita C. How Pakistan Negotiates with the United States: Riding the Roller Coaster. US Institute of Peace Press. ISBN 9781601270757.
  12. 1 2 3 Behind Pakistan's Defeat, India Today, 2000-08-21
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Saikia, Yasmin. Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971. Duke University Press, Saikia. ISBN 0822350386. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  14. 1 2 3 Cohen, Stephen P. The Idea of Pakistan. Brookings Institution Press, Cohen. ISBN 0815797613. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  15. ↑ Mohiuddin, Yasmeen Niaz. Pakistan: A Global Studies Handbook. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 9781851098019. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  16. ↑ Baig, Muhammad Anwar; Ebad. Pakistan: Time for Change. AuthorHouse. ISBN 9781477250310. Retrieved 22 August 2016.
  17. 1 2 3 4 Shah, Aqil. The Army and Democracy. Harvard University Press, Shah. ISBN 9780674419773. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  18. 1 2 3 "The Hamood-ur-Rahman Commission Report [1971]". Story of Pakistan. 1 June 2003. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Tripathi, Salil. The Colonel Who Would Not Repent: The Bangladesh War and Its Unquiet Legacy. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300221022. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  20. 1 2 D'Costa, Bina. Nationbuilding, Gender and War Crimes in South Asia. Routledge, D'Costa. ISBN 9780415565660. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  21. ↑ Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report, chapter 2, paragraph 33
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 Local Elections in Pakistan Are First Vote Since 1999 Coup, The New York Times, 2001-01-01
  23. 1 2 3 Bangladesh requests war report, BBC News, 2000-08-30
  24. 1 2 3 Jalalzai, Musa Khan. The Prospect of Nuclear Jihad in South Asia: Pakistan's Army, Extra-judicial Killings, and the Forceful Disappearance of Pashtuns and Balochs. Algora Publishing, Jalalzai. ISBN 9781628941678. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  25. 1 2 3 4 5 Pakistan, as released by the Government of (2007). "§XII:Higher Direction of War". Hamoodur Rahman Commission : supplementary report. Rockville, MD: Arc Manor. pp. 105–108. ISBN 1604500204.
  26. ↑ Khan, Naveeda. Beyond Crisis: Re-evaluating Pakistan. Routledge, Khan. ISBN 9781136517594. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  27. ↑ Gen Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan - 4, Dawn, 2000-09-17
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