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Reflection

The Truth of 1971 Unveiled

By Faizan Usmani | January 2022

The first screening of an English documentary film “Separation of East Pakistan – The Untold Story” was recently held at the Nueplex Cinema in Karachi. The documentary is produced by Ms. Erum Binte Shahid, with Senator (R) Javed Jabbar as the Executive Producer and writer, Mohammad Zeeshan as the Content Director, and Mitra Bonshahi, Mehreen Jabbar and M. Bilal as the Consulting Editors. The screening was attended by eminent scholars, intellectuals, celebrities and a large number of people from different walks of life.

Bringing out many facts previously unknown to history, the documentary film “Separation of East Pakistan – The Untold Story” discloses the lesser known reality about the fall of Dhaka in 1971 as how the history has purposefully been manipulated against Pakistan, creating strains between Bangladesh and Pakistan, to ensure continued unrest between the two Muslim nations who were once part of the same country.

Based on the views of both national and international experts, the documentary shares facts and information, busting the false narrative surrounding the separation of East Pakistan and ensuing making of Bangladesh. Other than Javed Jabbar, the documentary stars the opinions of several national and international scholars, such as Dr Yasmin Saikia, William J. Drummond, Dr Ayesha Jalal, Dr Junaid Ahmed, Dr Huma Baqai, Dr Rasul Bakhsh Rais, Dr Ian Talbot, Mujibur Rahman Shami, Dr Khawaja Alqama, Riaz H. Khokhar, Brig (retd.) Karrar Ali Agha and M. Reza Kazimi.

Before the film screening, the eminent scholar Senator Javed Jabbar briefly shared the main idea behind the making of the documentary film about the history of 1971, which has purposefully been diluted by hyperbole and false information to suit political objectives.

The first part of the film is based on acknowledging some fatal but far-reaching mistakes, which were made by the rulers and political stakeholders of the then united Pakistan. The second part of the film is aimed at demystifying the baseless propaganda peddled by Indian lobbyists, particularly with regards to the mass killing of about 3 million Bengalis in East Pakistan after the launch of the Operation Searchlight by Pakistan Army on March 25, 1971. Dr. Junaid Ahmed, the author of the book “Creation of Bangladesh: Myths Exploded” is one of the experts in Javed Jabbar’s documentary film. According to Dr. Ahmed, during the military operation which lasted for about 262 days, the horrendous level of carnage committed against the Bengalis could never be a possibility, as falsely disseminated by India.


Sharing her views in the documentary, Dr. Huma Baqai shows the audience the other side of the story to ponder upon, revealing how the issues of unequal distribution of resources and language were misused to promote a separatist politics.

The documentary reveals how Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, the leader of Awami League, did not want an independent nation and how Indira Gandhi, who served as prime minister of India from 1966 until 1977 and from 1980 until 1984, admitted to India’s active involvement in the separation of Pakistan.

Dismantling the fake news about 3 million deaths, mass plunder and 200,000 rapes in the Eastern wing of Pakistan, the documentary shows how India and the Soviet Union together played dirty politics to divide a nation to the extent of training Bengali civilians and arming them as Mukti Bahini in the camps on the Indian side of the border and initiating and supporting the Mujibur Rehman’s “6 points” agenda to ignite a separatist movement in East Pakistan.

In his documentary, Senator Javed Jabbar has shown intellectual integrity in acknowledging the fatal errors made by the Pakistani political leadership that paved the way for alienation and a lack of trust between citizens and leaders. For instance, he recognised the fact that Field-Marshal General Ayub Khan’s One Unit Policy caused political alienation of East Pakistanis, together with a litany of factors such as a growing trust deficit between East and West Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s self-centred power politics and his blatant refusal to comply with the 1970s election results as well as General Yahya Khan’s uninformed actions.

Other than busting the myths around military overreach and its opposing effects, the documentary film “Separation of East Pakistan – The Untold Story” is also aimed at improving relationships between Bangladesh and Pakistan, leading the countries towards stronger ties and mutual cooperation in different areas of development, business and cultural promotion. The documentary ends with Bertrand Russell’s quote: “The better part of human history lies not in the past, but in the future.”

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