Prisoners of Pakistan: Bengali Servicemen in West Pakistan, 1971-74

This talk tells the story of one of the most understudied episodes of the 1971 war: the ‘stranded Bengalis’ in West Pakistan, whose narratives have largely been unnoticed in the broader history of the conflict inside the territorial boundaries of what is now Bangladesh. It ended with the capture of over 90,000 Pakistani prisoners of war (POWs) in East Pakistan-turned-Bangladesh, who were transferred to Indian custody, and then the Pakistan government held ‘hostage’ roughly the same number of Bengali military personnel and civil servants as a conflict bargaining counter. It unveils that while the guns had fallen silent in mid-December 1971, for the Bengalis in West Pakistan this did not imply 'peace.' Rather, it caused a period of 'purgatory' - a place/state of captivity suffering before being permitted to repatriate to Bangladesh in late 1973 onwards. By exploring their transition from citizens to internees, and ultimately their mass internment and deportation, this presentation invites us to think beyond East Pakistan as the 'war front,' and December 1971 as the ‘endpoint.’

About the speaker

Dr Ilyas Chattha currently teaches History at LUMS.  He was previously based at the Centre for Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies, University of Southampton, and has also been associated with the University of Warwick and OSAS, University of London. He is the author of The Punjab Borderland: Mobility, Materiality and Militancy, 1947-1987 (CUP 2022) and Partition and Locality (OUP 2012). Besides, he has authored numerous articles on Partition and its legacies, including one published recently titled ‘Partition’s Orphaned and Abandoned Children in Pakistan’ (2022). His upcoming work include a monograph on the 1971 wartime experiences of Bengali in West Pakistan.

Venue: Faculty Lounge, VC Office LUMS