The Eastern Command of the Indian Army has shared an old newspaper clip from 1971 that discusses how the US has been arming Pakistan for decades in the buildup for the 1971 war.
An old newspaper clip dated August 5, 1971 was shared by the Eastern Command, showing how US government has been supplying arms to Pakistan for decades.
The clip mentions the then Defence Production Minister VC Shukla’s response in the Rajya Sabha that all NATO powers and Soviet Union have been contacted regarding to arms supply to Pakistan because Pakistan had by then started its armed aggression in Bangladesh against freedom fighters.
Shukla’s reply mentioned that the Soviet Union denied supplying arms to Pakistan and the French government even stated that they won’t even make deliveries against old orders by Pakistan. However, the US government had continued its supply of arms to Pakistan.
Shukla had even mentioned that the USA and China have both been selling arms to Pakistan at throwaway prices, indicating that the Bangladesh genocide by Pakistani army and the war against India was fought by Pakistan with weapons that the USA and China gave them cheap.
The post by the Eastern Command comes in the wake of the US blaming India for buying Russian oil and ‘funding the war against Ukraine’, while the US and EU themselves continue their trades with Russia.
Pakistan’s Operation Searchlight, the violent crackdown and brutalities against Bangladeshi freedom fighters, was already underway for months in August 1971. The Bangladesh Liberation War, involving Pakistan and the people of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), began on March 25 that year. India had to finally join in, extending support to the Mukti Bahini and to put a halt into the brutalities on its neighbourhood. India officially joined in on December 3 that year, launching a full scale war against Pakistan and defeated Pakistan in 13 days.
The war ended with a humiliating defeat for Pakistan and the surrender of over 93,000 Pakistani troops on 16th December. The independent nation of Bangladesh was born soon after.
The post comes on August 5, 2025, one year after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh. In a way, the post is also a time capsule, showing how Bangladesh was born, then eventually saw a violent uprising against the elected government triggered by Islamist forces and foreign interference. The seeds of Bangladesh’s present chaos were sown decades ago when US shipped arms worth billions of dollars to Pakistan.
