The UK’s Sunday Times, in an article on 13 June 1971, exposed the brutality being done by Pakistan to crush the Bangladeshi uprising. The reporter who gave information about this news. His family’s life was destroyed and he was forced to hide. But this one article changed the entire history. This article is considered to be the most important in South Asian journalism of the last half century.
Pakistani reporter Anthony Mascarenhas wrote this article and it was published in the UK Sunday Times. It mentioned for the first time how Pakistan is adopting a tyrannical attitude to save its touring eastern province in the year 1971. No one knows about how many people died in the Bangladesh war, but a large number of people have lost their lives in it. Independent researchers say that about three to five lakh people died in this war.
Report changed world opinion against Pakistan
At the same time, the Bangladeshi government says that 30 lakh people have died in this war. However, there was no benefit in suppressing the voice of the Bangladeshi people of Pakistan and Bangladesh became independent. There is little doubt that the Mascarenhas report played a role in ending the war. But it helped change the world opinion against Pakistan and encouraged India to play a decisive role.
Indira Gandhi read this article and plans for armed intervention
The then editor of the Sunday Times, Harold Evans, wrote in his memoir that the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi told that this article shook him in such a deep way that he started a personal diplomacy campaign in European capitals and Moscow. The intention behind this was to prepare the ground for armed intervention in East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh). Mascarenhas had no intention about the Bangladesh war. He was just a good reporter, doing his work honestly.
Controversy started with elections
War broke out in East Pakistan in March 1971, during which time Mascarenhas was one of the respected journalists from Karachi. The conflict in East Pakistan started due to elections. Here the local party Awami League won the elections and demanded more autonomy in the region. The political parties and military of West Pakistan argued for the formation of a new government. But the Bengali people living in East Pakistan felt that West Pakistan was deliberately stopping their ambitions.
Army starts targeting members of Awami League
Gradually, the situation became violent. The Awami League launched a civil disobedience campaign and its supporters attacked many non-Bengali civilians. On the other hand, the army thought it better to leave the land as the situation was uncontrolled. Then on 25 March, the army started action against the Awami League and other alleged opponents. It also included intellectuals and members of the Hindu community.
Students and professors were killed
Like many notorious war crimes, Pakistani soldiers attacked Dhaka University. Students and professors were arrested from here and were put to death. After this, this bloody campaign of the army started going to other parts of the country. Here he fought a battle of local soldiers who started the protest.
Army pressures journalists to write false news
Foreign journalists from East Pakistan were already shown the way out. Thousands of civilians were massacred by Awami League supporters, whose loyalty they doubted. This is a war crime that is still rejected by many people in Bangladesh. In such a situation, Pakistan also had to show how the other side is creating a ruckus here. In this way eight journalists, including Anthony Mascarenhas, were given a 10-day tour of the province. When they returned home, seven of them wrote what the army had asked them to write. But one of them, Anthony Mascarenhas, refused to do so.
Arrived in London by making an excuse and met the editor of the Sunday Times
Mascarenhas told his wife that if he tried to write the truth, he would be shot. In such a situation, he made a false excuse to visit his ailing sister and traveled to London. On reaching London, he went straight to the Sunday Times editor’s office. In his memoir, Invas wrote that Mascarenhas was shocked by the Bengali outrage in March. But he said that what the army was doing there was on a completely worse and more serious scale.
Family out of Pakistan
Mascarenhas told Invas that he had witnessed the systematic killing and heard from the mouths of soldiers that people can be brought to peace only by killing them. Invas agreed to publish this story. But before that, Mascarenhas drove Yuvan and the children out of Karachi. He sent a telegram asking his wife to leave the country. Yuvan told that day she ran away from the country with only a suitcase.
News published from the headline of ‘Genocide’
On the other hand, no one is suspicious, so Mascarenhas traveled to Pakistan before the family left the country. Mascarenhas remained in the country until the family left Pakistan. Once the family left for London, he fled the country via Afghanistan. On the day the whole family met in London, the Sunday Times published this news giving the headline of ‘Genocide’ (genocide).