Timeline

The first phase of the genocide is characterized by mass incarcerations and a series of massacres. the declaration of martial law in 1958, arrest warrants were issued against numerous Bengali Hindu leaders for their alleged anti-state activities. Many were arrested and incarcerated, while others went underground. In 1959, the Elective Bodies (Disqualification) Order (EBDO) was promulgated, which barred 78 Bengali Hindu political leaders from holding public offices. The Basic Democracy introduced in 1962 provisioned for equal number of representatives from the two wings of Pakistan. The numerical edge of East Pakistan in political representation owing to its Bengali Hindu population, was thus neutralized. The Bengali Hindus who constituted almost 25% of the representation in the provincial assembly till 1958, were left with virtually no representation.

The period saw a series of gruesome massacres orchestrated by the establishment. In the Gopalganj massacre of 1961 the Bengali Hindus had initially put up some resistance and East Pakistan Rifles were deployed to crush them brutally. 500 Bengali Hindus were reported dead, injured or missing. The Rajshahi massacre in 1962 was orchestrated by none other that the Governor Lt. Gen. Azam Khan and the District Magistrate with their inflammatory speeches and deliberate failure to restrain the organized mobs. An estimated 3,000 died in the massacre.

The massacre of 1964 on the pretext of theft of a holy relic in Kashmir encompassed the entire province. In a carefully planned manner, the mill workers of Khulna and Dhaka-Narayanganj were given arms, transport and paid leaves to attack the Bengali Hindus. 30,000 Bengali Hindus were killed in the massacre and their economic backbone was destroyed. More than half a million Bengali Hindus were forced to migrate to India. The East Pakistan Disturbed Persons Rehabilitation Ordinance was enacted to prohibit the affected Bengali Hindus from selling off their properties before migrating, with the intention of vesting them with the state.

The second phase began with the proclamation of Emergency through the Defence of Pakistan Ordinance in the context of the war with India in September 1965. The Defence of Pakistan Rules passed on the same day led to mass incarceration of leading members of the Bengali Hindu society under national security law. More than 100,000 Bengali Hindus were forced to migrate to India. The Enemy Property (Custody and Registration) Order passed during the war, allowed for take over of businesses owned by ‘enemy’, defined as any person who had been to India since the outbreak of war. Under such a definition, numerous Bengali Hindu owned industries were taken over and placed under the management of Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation.

In December 1965, two general notifications directed all lands and buildings belonging to the ‘enemy’ Bengali Hindus to be vested with the Deputy Custodian of Enemy Property. The East Pakistan Enemy Property (Lands and Buildings) Administration and Disposal Order passed in January 1966 empowered the Deputy Custodian to lease out the enemy properties on annual basis. A March 1966 memorandum provided detailed instructions to Assistant Custodians on locating and taking over enemy properties.  In June 1967, a circular was issued for requisitioning enemy properties for takeover. In 1968 a series of circulars and instructions provided for disposal of movable properties, leasing out and paying dues to the government. An estimated 2.1 million acres of lands were usurped from one million Bengali Hindus in this process.

The third phase began with the lifting of Emergency and continued till the outbreak of the Liberation War. The third phase is marked by volatile political situation, the brunt of which was borne by the minority Bengali Hindus. Though the Defence of Pakistan Ordinance proclaiming the Emergency was revoked and the 1962 constitution abrogated, the Enemy Property Act continued to be in force through the Enemy Property (Continuance of Emergency Provisions) Ordinance and the Proclamation of the Provisional Constitution Order. A 1970 notification allowed for takeover of debottar properties (property dedicated in the name of Hindu god or goddess, usually housing Hindu religious monuments), something which didn’t happen even during the Emergency.

General elections on the basis of joint electorate and universal adult franchise were to be held in 1970. Islamist parties feared that the Hindu votes could go in favour of their opponents. This led a new round of persecutions leading to forced migration of more than quarter million Bengali Hindus. Later that year, the government deliberately suppressed the news of cyclone and the impending landfall from the Bengali Hindu pilgrims who had gathered in the remote island of Dublar Char for Ras Mela. An estimated 13,000 pilgrims went missing.

The second phase coincided with the Liberation War. It began with Operation Searchlight where the Pakistan Army neutralized the possible rebels and eliminated the Bengali Hindu population as they took control of all the strategic district and sub-divisional towns of the province. Then they began ‘kill and burn’ missions, where they would specifically single out the Bengali Hindu villages and neighbourhoods for exterminations. According to the military administration, the Bengali Hindus were sheltering the Muktijoddha rebels and therefore they bore the ‘collective responsibility’ for any guerilla operation by the rebels, hence deserving the punishment. Local collaborators would help the Army identify the targets and once the victims had been shot, they would loot and burn the dwellings.

10 million refugees, mostly Bengali Hindus, were forced to migrate to India to escape the genocide. Two thirds of them could be accommodated in the refugee camps, the rest were on their own, on the streets out in the open. In June, a cholera epidemic broke out claiming around 8,000 lives. 50% of the children suffered from severe malnutrition, protein and vitamin deficiency diseases like kwashiorkor, marasmus and keratomalacia. Thousands of them died.