Author Description

There is very little written and published about the Pakistanis who were stranded in Bangladesh and interned in camps after the debacle in East Pakistan during 1971. This is a compilation of 170 eye witness accounts from nearly 5000 families directly affected by the crisis and repatriated to Pakistan during 1973-4. The narratives and published dispatches of international journalists quoted in this book cover 110 locations in the (former) Eastern Wing of Pakistan where the persecution and bloodshed of those loyal to Pakistan took place. The author seeks to give a human face to this tragedy to educate generations who have not been exposed to the suffering and injustice afflicted on a population whose only "crime" was loyalty to their homeland. Apart from the few thousand people repatriated to Pakistan during the last thirty-five years, most survivors of these cataclysmic events still endure segregation in Bangladesh, and await recognition by Pakistan as full citizens.