Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s remarks, being seen as a veiled jibe on the former chief of the military, got here at a rally organised to mark the fifty fifth Foundation Day of his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
New Delhi,UPDATED: Dec 1, 2022 17:29 IST
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari mentioned 90,000 troops have been taken prisoner within the struggle as a consequence of ‘army failure’ (File)
By India Today Web Desk: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari referred to as the 1971 East Pakistan debacle a “colossal military failure”, days after Pakistan’s former Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa termed it a “political failure”. Bilawal’s remarks, being seen as a veiled jibe on the former chief of the military, got here at a rally organised to mark the fifty fifth Foundation Day of his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
To mark the event, the PPP chief revisited the historical past of his social gathering, recounting the achievements of its founder – his grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
“When Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over the government, the people were broken and had lost all hope,” he was quoted as saying by the Dawn newspaper, reported information company PTI.
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“But he rebuilt the nation, restored the confidence of the people, and finally brought our 90,000 troops – who had been made prisoners of war due to ‘military failure’ – back home. Those 90,000 soldiers were reunited with their families. And that all was made possible because of the politics of hope, of unity and of inclusion,” he asserted.
Days earlier than his retirement on November 29, Gen Bajwa referred to as the East Pakistan loss a “political failure”, and mentioned that the sacrifices of the troops have been by no means correctly acknowledged by the nation.
He rejected that 92,000 Pakistani troopers had surrendered within the struggle and claimed there have been simply 34,000 jawans, whereas the others have been all a part of completely different authorities departments.
“I want to correct the record. First of all, the fall of East Pakistan was not a military, but a political failure. The number of fighting soldiers was not 92,000, it was rather only 34,000. The rest were from various government departments,” Gen Bajwa had mentioned.
In 1971, Pakistan suffered a humiliating defeat to India in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.
(With enter from PTI)
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Published On:
Dec 1, 2022