Scene 1 – Aftermath at GHQ
Rawalpindi, February 1972
A thick haze of cigarette smoke hung in the conference room at Pakistan Army's General Headquarters. The map of East Pakistan still occupied the wall, but it was dotted with red markers showing lost cities and Indian advances.
General Gul Hassan Khan, the new Commander-in-Chief, stood with a pointer in his hand.
> Gul Hassan: "Gentlemen, this war was not lost in December—it was lost in March, when political and military strategies parted ways."
Lt. Gen. Abdul Hamid: "We underestimated the Mukti Bahini. We treated them as rabble, but they became an organized guerrilla army with Indian support."
Brigadier Asif: "And we spread ourselves too thin—holding every town instead of concentrating our forces."
Silence settled. No one wanted to mention the bigger truth—that the decision to use force against the Bengali population had destroyed the possibility of reconciliation before the war even began.
---
Scene 2 – The Political Angle
Prime Minister's House, Rawalpindi
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto met with senior bureaucrats and intelligence officers. He was still balancing his role as a political leader with his control over the military.
> Bhutto: "We will not bury our heads in sand. There will be accountability, but there will also be dignity. The world is watching."
Foreign Secretary Sultan Khan: "Sir, the Indians have already shaped the narrative internationally. If we don't show some form of inquiry, it will look like we accept the blame without question."
Bhutto knew he had to walk a tightrope—too much accountability might demoralize the army; too little might destroy his own credibility.
---
Scene 3 – The Commission is Born
In January 1972, Chief Justice Hamoodur Rahman was summoned to head a judicial commission to investigate the causes of the 1971 defeat. The members included senior judges and military officers.
Hamoodur Rahman, a calm but stern man, addressed the first meeting:
> Hamoodur Rahman: "Gentlemen, our task is not to humiliate, but to reveal the truth. Only then can this nation learn."
The commission began calling witnesses—generals, brigadiers, political leaders, and surviving officers from East Pakistan. Testimonies were recorded in strict confidentiality.
---
Scene 4 – Behind Closed Doors
Confidential Session, Islamabad
A colonel who had served in Dhaka described the final days before surrender:
> Colonel (name withheld): "We had no air cover, no reinforcements, and dwindling ammunition. Morale collapsed when we realized there was no escape."
Justice Anwarul Haq: "Were you given orders to fight to the last man?"
Colonel: "Yes, sir. But without supplies, that order was meaningless."
Other testimonies were harsher—accusing some senior officers of focusing on personal luxuries and ignoring field realities.
---
Scene 5 – Public Silence, Private Anger
While the commission worked behind closed doors, the Pakistani public speculated. In Lahore tea houses and Karachi drawing rooms, conversations turned bitter.
> Elderly shopkeeper in Lahore: "We were told we were winning. Then one day—93,000 prisoners. How is that possible?"
University student: "The truth will never come out. They'll protect their own."
Newspapers were cautious—no one wanted to provoke the government or the army.
---
Scene 6 – The Findings
By mid-1974, the Hamoodur Rahman Commission completed its first report. It concluded:
Political leadership failed to negotiate with the Awami League.
Military action in March 1971 alienated the Bengali population.
Senior officers in East Pakistan displayed poor judgment and sometimes personal misconduct.
The army underestimated the scale of Indian intervention.
It recommended courts-martial for some officers, but these were never fully carried out. The report was classified—locked away from the public for decades.
---
Scene 7 – A General's Reflection
PMA Kakul, 1974
Retired Major General Rao Farman Ali addressed a class of young cadets:
> Farman Ali: "The lesson of '71 is not that we were weak—it's that we were blind. Blind to politics, blind to the will of the people, and blind to the enemy's preparation."
Some cadets nodded solemnly; others shifted uncomfortably. The war was already becoming a taboo topic in official circles.
---
Scene 8 – Wounds in the National Psyche
In Rawalpindi, a former soldier from the East Pakistan garrison sat on a park bench, staring at nothing. He had lost comrades, a homeland, and his sense of purpose.
> Old soldier to passerby: "They took East Pakistan, but they also took our pride."
The trauma ran deep—not just in the army, but in Pakistani society. Songs, films, and public speeches avoided the subject. It was easier to talk about past glories than recent defeats.
---
Scene 9 – Bhutto's Balancing Act
Bhutto often used the loss as political capital, portraying himself as the man rebuilding Pakistan from ruins. But he never allowed the full truth to reach the public.
> Bhutto (speech in Karachi): "Nations fall, nations rise again. We will rise stronger, wiser, united."
The applause was loud, but in the back rows, some veterans muttered:
> Veteran: "Wise? Not if we keep forgetting why we fell."
---
Scene 10 – Lessons Written in Silence
By the late 1970s, the 1971 war had become a wound covered but not healed. The army quietly revised training doctrines, improved logistics, and studied counter-insurgency.
But the deeper political lesson—that ignoring popular will can lead to national disaster—remained politically inconvenient.
Justice Hamoodur Rahman, in a private conversation with a colleague, summed it up:
> Hamoodur Rahman: "The greatest tragedy is not the loss of land—it is the loss of truth. Without truth, history will repeat itself."
---
Scene 11 – The Unspoken Legacy
Years later, when fragments of the commission's report leaked, Pakistanis were shocked. But by then, the events of 1971 had receded into the shadows of collective memory—remembered by veterans, avoided by politicians, and only cautiously studied by historians.
---
Closing Note:
The war of 1971 was not just a military defeat—it was a national reckoning that Pakistan never fully confronted. The silence left a void, and in that void, myths replaced facts. For some, the wounds still bleed quietly, shaping the country's politics and military thinking to this day.
---