Pakistan army acted like Nazis in 1971, says VK Singh

Drawing a parallel between atrocities committed by the Pakistani army in then East Pakistan and those by the Nazis, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh on Friday said the Pakistan army’s actions were against humanity and eventually led to its downfall in the 1971 liberation war of Bangladesh.

“The type of atrocities which went on in Bangladesh (before liberation on December 16, 1971) is something which probably the world has forgotten,” Singh said at a seminar on ‘1971 India-Pakistan War and the Liberation of Bangladesh’, organised by the India Foundation at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library here.

“I do not think the people of Bangladesh of that period have forgotten, but the coming generations probably have found it easier to put it somewhere in the corner (of their mind) and forget. Those who have probably read some of those accounts (of atrocities), they defy or belittle what the Nazis did,” Singh said.

Stating that there was a “race improvement camp” in the then East Pakistan, the former Army chief said, “I do not think we have heard of such a thing after the Nazi period, but it was there. How can we forget such atrocities?”

President Pranab Mukherjee hailed the relations between India and Bangladesh. He lauded the “able and mature leadership of Sheikh Bangabandhu (Mujibur) Rahman” and also praised the helping hand provided by India under the leadership of then PM Indira Gandhi.

Source : The Indian Express