What Was Once East Pakistan: Second Edition with a New Preface [Paperback]

This book relates the personal experiences of the author and looks at East Pakistan from his perspective. The author served in East Pakistan for two years during the crucial period of 1969 to 1971. The book also includes an account of a cyclone that hit East Pakistan in 1970. He has analysed the roles of the three major players in the game viz. General Yahya Khan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, and Mujibur Rehman and the role of the US, which has been involved in Pakistan right from the time of independence in 1947.Serving at three places in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, during the critical period between 1969 and 1971, Syed Shahid Husain saw the events unfold and presents in this book an analysis of the roles that each of the principal actorsYahya Khan, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He saw history in the making, and the five decades that have passed since have not affected his conclusions. Facts are unchangeable, and it is only the opinions that differ. As Macaulay said, 'Facts are the mere dross of history. It is from the abstract truth which interpenetrates them, and lies latent among them, like gold in the ore, that the mass derives its whole value&.' The book also contains some of his personal experiences at the time including an account of the killer cyclone that hit East Pakistan in 1970.Preface to the 2021 EditionPrefaceIntroductionPart I1. My First Visit to the Former East Pakistan (1966)2. Three Years Later (19691971)3. Killer Cyclone (1970)4. Six-point Programme5. General Elections (1970)6. An Engineered Crisis7. Yahya Panics and Postpones National Assembly Session8. Military Crackdown, 25 March 19719. Mujibs Arrest and Trial10. Military and the Constitution11. Inevitable Happens (April and December 1971)12. Sajid and his EscapePart II13. Hamood-ur-Rahman Commission Report14. Anecdotal Accounts of Atrocities15. A Typical Generals View of the Disaster16. The TragedyA Politicians View17. Who is to Blame?18. Polish Resolution19. Yahya KhanThe Arl³§