My late grandfather Dr. AM Chaudhury was the Chairman of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission back in 1971 and was living in Rawalpindi at the time. He and many others told those of us too young to comprehend the events, that MOST then 'West' Pakistanis were deeply upset by the AL or 'Bangalee' victory at the polls, and implicitly SUPPORTED Yahya and the PPP's violent and criminal attempts to undermine the election results which inevitably led to our war of self-defense and independence.
Also, let us not forget the 'silence' of our 'West' Pakistani brothers with regards to systematic exploitation of OUR resources which financed the construction of Islamabad, the modernization of Rawalpindi and Lahore, and fattened the pockets of the Punjabi and less frequently, the Sindhi elite at the expense of our comparative underdevelopment, despite 'investments' in and around Dhaka. At the height of those 'investments' under Ayub Khan who required a "higher standard" for Bengalis than Punjabis, they spent only 40% or less on us - the majority of the population and source of jute, the main cash crop and export - of what they spent on themselves in EVERY public sector. The "industrial investments" in Bangladesh, all tightly managed by Punjabi and in some cases the Sindhi elite, were made because of reasons of financial and other logistical expediency, NOT the rightful development of the source of that wealth.
So, let's stick to the facts and not leave "the Pakistani people" out of it any more than we need to, shall we? People do good or bad things because of who they are for whatever real reasons, sadly, being 'Pakistani' is not one of them. Those who supported our just cause in the 'West' were VERY few and far between.
Peace ...
