The Hindu community members were the hardest hit..

[summer27]

aa cut mirchi batch @bhaigan @Teluguredu @tyrion123 /...

The Hindu community members were the hardest hit, Kennedy said in his report. They were “robbed of their lands and shops systematically slaughtered, and, in some places, painted with yellow patches marked ‘H’. All of this has been officially sanctioned, ordered and implemented under martial law from Islamabad.”

 

https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/345544/1971-in-us-senate-ted-kennedy-spoke-for-the

 

On the third day of May 1971, the ruthless Pakistani military of General AMA Yahya Khan was conducting the genocidal “Operational Searchlight” in East Pakistan: butchering the Bengalis across the country to suppress the War of Independence and forcing over a million people to cross the border to seek refuge.

The military was assisted by non-Bengalis and members of Jamaat-e-Islami and other Islamist parties, who formed Peace Committees, Razakar, and other militia forces to identify and kill the Awami League leaders and supporters, intelligentsia, students, police, and Hindus.

The US government kept mum on the genocide and officially termed it Pakistan’s internal affairs, but in the Senate, Democrat Senator Edward M Kennedy raised his voice: he urged the United Nations to take necessary steps regarding the crisis.

He also asked the US government to respond to the Indian government’s appeal for aid for the refugees from Bangladesh. At that time, Indian official estimations showed that 1.2 million people fled their homes in East Pakistan to save their lives.

Kennedy, the chairman of the US Senate's Judiciary Subcommittee on Refugees, was aware of the situation in Dhaka and the border areas. He had access to telegrams sent by the consul general in Dhaka, Archer K Blood.

Bangladesh posthumously bestowed "Friends of Liberation War Honour" on Kennedy and Blood for their active contributions in 1971.

After liberation and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s return, Kennedy visited Bangladesh in February 1972 and was given a jubilant reception at Dhaka University on February 15. "Even though the United States government does not recognize you, the people of the world do recognize you," Kennedy told the crowd.

Ted Kennedy was the younger brother of former US President John F Kennedy and US Attorney General and Senator Robert F Kennedy.

What did Kennedy know?

On March 27, Blood sent the first telegram, titled “Selective Genocide”, to Washington, describing the horrors in Dhaka. His telegrams created uneasiness in the Nixon administration.

 

He stated that the Pakistani authorities were killing the Awami League supporters, student leaders, Dhaka University teachers, MNAs elect, and MPAs, according to a list. With the support of the Pakistani military, non-Bengali Muslims were systematically attacking poor people's quarters and murdering Bengalis and Hindus. The streets of Dhaka were aflood with Hindus and others seeking to get out of the city.

Blood suggested that the US government express shock, “at least privately,” to the Pakistani government at this “wave of terror directed against their own countrymen by Pakistan military.”

In the second telegram sent on March 29, the US envoy said the army had been killing children and people with no provocation on the part of the Bengalis.

President Richard Nixon and his Assistant for National Security Affairs Henry Kissinger decided not to react publicly to the military repression in East Pakistan because the US needed Gen Yahya's help to establish contact with the Chinese government and was worried about Russia’s rising influence in India and would-be Bangladesh.

They kept mum even on April 2, the day the Soviet Union appealed to West Pakistan for a ceasefire.

Kennedy also obtained the dissent cable, signed by 20 other diplomats and sent by Blood on April 6, which bemoaned the US government's silence over the genocide in East Pakistan. The same day, 10 other US officials from other departments sent a letter to the State Department associating themselves with the views expressed in Blood's telegram.

And it worked like magic: the next day, April 7, the US government appealed to West Pakistan “publicly” for a ceasefire. But Blood lost his job; he was swiftly transferred to Washington, where he held a position in human resources.

Nixon’s policy

President Nixon was infuriated when he called Kissinger to inform him about the dissent cable. Kissinger’s first concern was that it would “probably get to Ted Kennedy”.

Nixon said: “I am sure it will.”

Kissinger replied: “Somebody gives him cables. I have had him call me about them.”

Nixon was angry as the dissent cable called for “condemning atrocities”. “There are pictures of the East Pakistanis murdering people,” he told Kissinger.

Kissinger replied: “Yes. There was one of an East Pakistani holding a head. Do you remember when they said there were 1,000 bodies and they had the graves and then we couldn't find 20?”

The tension escalated in late May when the US anticipated that a war could break out between the South Asian neighbours when US ally Pakistan would not survive more than a few weeks if attacked on the east and west fronts.

At that time, the Nixon administration asked India to exercise restraint and threatened aid cuts, and made sure Gen Yahya was happy.

On the other hand, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi threatened her Pakistan counterpart with tough action had he not stopped the flow of refugees, shunned the path of massacre, and chosen a political solution to the crisis by freeing the prime minister-elect, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

‘Human debris’

Senator Kennedy was vocal about Bangladesh throughout the year. In August, he traveled to India and visited refugee camps along East Bengal's entire border—from Calcutta and West Bengal in the west to the Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling districts in the north to Agartala in the State of Tripura in the east.

He regretted that they were unable to see the source of the refugee flow because the Pakistani government suddenly cancelled visits to East Bengal and Islamabad, the country's capital.

On November 1, 1971, Senator Kennedy released excerpts from his report on the crisis in South Asia and submitted the report to the US Senate along with a bill to authorize $250 million to assist the international relief effort. “This is the bare minimum, and more may be needed,” he said in his speech.

“What I saw recently in India was the human debris from that night of terror and the subsequent months of violence.

“The brutal suppression in East Bengal is the third disaster to befall that area in little more than a year. In the summer of 1970, floods destroyed crops and killed thousands of people. In November, a cyclone hit the coastal region and killed an estimated 400,000 people. Now comes a man-made disaster, whose fury is producing even greater death and widespread misery among those who survive.”

The Hindu community members were the hardest hit, Kennedy said in his report. They were “robbed of their lands and shops systematically slaughtered, and, in some places, painted with yellow patches marked ‘H’. All of this has been officially sanctioned, ordered and implemented under martial law from Islamabad.”

‘Rescue our foreign policy’

The Senator said in the report that America's heavy support of Islamabad was “nothing short of complicity in the human and political tragedy of East Bengal”.

Kennedy also criticized the Nixon administration for not putting an embargo on military supplies to Pakistan, because the Pakistan Army had launched a “systematic campaign of terror” on the night of March 25, leading to “genocidal consequences”.

He deplored the US government’s “unconscionably silent” response.

“Neither the President nor the Secretary of State nor any high official of our government has made a single public statement condemning the Pakistan government's policy of violence and repression. Not until late in the summer—months after the tragedy began—did the President publicly comment on the situation in South Asia.

“Our actions toward East Bengal have demonstrated a largely mechanistic and insensitive calculation of what is within our national interest and tradition.

“If South Asia today is on the brink of war and even greater tragedy, our government's policy bears a special responsibility. For our continued military and economic support of the military regime in Islamabad has encouraged Pakistan intransigency and fed frustrations in India and East Bengal. It is long overdue for us to rescue our foreign policy from a course that has been disastrous both to our best traditions and interests in South Asia.”

Kennedy said it was the most appalling tide of human misery in modern times and that “the problem of refugees in India and the plight of the people in East Bengal must become a matter of vital concern to the American people and their government”.

[Teluguredu]

I don't even care ,we telugu people have nothing to do with Pakistan or bangladesh .these beggar north indians are dragging us into these irrelevant conflicts.

[Joker_007]

31 minutes ago, Teluguredu said:

I don't even care ,we telugu people have nothing to do with Pakistan or bangladesh .these beggar north indians are dragging us into these irrelevant conflicts.

Yes,  Tamil will say it was not their problem when M's start killing Telugu's .. 

[Teluguredu]

Just now, Joker_007 said:

Yes,  Tamil will say it was not their problem when M's start killing Telugu's .. 

That will never happen ,all muslims in andhra are telugu people.

[Joker_007]

11 minutes ago, Teluguredu said:

That will never happen ,all muslims in andhra are telugu people.

well M's think otherwise... 

[Teluguredu]

1 minute ago, Joker_007 said:

well M's think otherwise... 

Not andhra muslims.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Joker_007]

That's good.. it is one side of coin.. why do not you research and find the other side of coin as well... 

[Teluguredu]

Just now, Joker_007 said:

That's good.. it is one side of coin.. why do not you research and find the other side of coin as well... 

There are no hindu muslim conflicts in andhra.

[Joker_007]

9 minutes ago, Teluguredu said:

There are no hindu muslim conflicts in andhra.

Ohh ... mari Patha basti allarlu.. it happened just for Fun... ? 

[Teluguredu]

5 minutes ago, Joker_007 said:

Ohh ... mari Patha basti allarlu.. it happened just for Fun... ? 

What is patha basti? You mean hyderabad? Hyderabad is not part of Andhra nor are the muslims in old city telugu.

[Joker_007]

1 minute ago, Teluguredu said:

What is patha basti? You mean hyderabad? Hyderabad is not part of Andhra nor are the muslims in old city telugu.

it was once.. so do you think it will not happen in new Andhra... 

[Teluguredu]

3 minutes ago, Joker_007 said:

it was once.. so do you think it will not happen in new Andhra... 

Hyderabad is different bro ,muslims there are not telugu people ,andhra muslims are all telugu people.

[Joker_007]

malli ade dialogue kaka.There is not harm in getting educated... 

[Teluguredu]

4 minutes ago, Joker_007 said:

malli ade dialogue kaka.There is not harm in getting educated... 

Getting educated about what?

[Joker_007]

2 minutes ago, Teluguredu said:

Getting educated about what?

about what is happening around you...