The 1973–74 population exchanges
The break-up of Pakistan, the independence of Bangladesh, and the war between India
and Pakistan left thousands of individuals stranded in states of which they no longer
wanted to be a part. In March 1973, more than a year after the end of the war, Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman, by then Prime Minister of Bangladesh, wrote to UN Secretary=General
Kurt Waldheim requesting UN assistance in what was referred to as a ‘repatriation’ operation.
Some of those repatriated were people who had been stranded in one
or other half of the country during the conflict, while others chose to move from
Bangladesh to Pakistan or vice versa as a result of the changed political circumstances. In
April, India and Bangladesh made a joint statement calling for the simultaneous
repatriation of prisoners of war and of civilian internees and their families. The
statement also called for the repatriation of Bengalis in Pakistan and of Pakistanis in
Bangladesh.This proved to be a major step forward in breaking the deadlock resulting
from Pakistan’s continuing refusal to recognize Bangladesh’s independence. The
following month, the High Commissioner visited Pakistan and Bangladesh at the
request of the Secretary-General to discuss the possibility of a mass repatriation with
the governments.
On 28 August 1973, the governments of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan signed
the New Delhi Agreement, which included provisions for the simultaneous repatriation
of three primary groups. These comprised Pakistani prisoners of war and
civilian internees in India, all Bengalis in Pakistan, and ‘a substantial number of
non-Bengalis’ present in Bangladesh who had ‘opted for repatriation to Pakistan’. The
‘non-Bengalis’ were commonly referred to as Biharis, since a majority of them were
Indian Muslims originally from the state of Bihar in India who had come to East
Pakistan at the time of partition in 1947. The United Nations was requested to
provide assistance to facilitate the repatriation. Given its recent involvement as the
Focal Point, the Secretary-General asked UNHCR to coordinate all activities relating to
the humanitarian effort. In so doing, UNHCR worked closely with the International
Committee of the Red Cross.
Under the terms of the New Delhi Agreement, the return of Pakistani prisoners of
war and civilian internees was to be conducted bilaterally between India and Pakistan.
UNHCR was to assist other categories of people in their repatriation. High
Commissioner Sadruddin Aga Khan therefore launched another humanitarian appeal
for US$14.3 million on 13 September 1973, stressing ‘the role this large-scale
repatriation operation may play in creating conditions conducive to peace and stability in the
sub-continent’.24 In November, the High Commissioner visited both Bangladesh and
Pakistan again to assess for himself how the operation was proceeding.
By the end of October 1973, a huge air repatriation operation was under way
with aircraft loaned by East Germany, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom.
During November, there were six planes on mission duty, carrying an average of
1,200 people per day. By late January 1974, some 90,000 people had been transported
from Pakistan to Bangladesh, and over 44,000 from Bangladesh to Pakistan.25
In the absence of diplomatic relations and communications facilities between
Bangladesh and Pakistan, the air operation was fraught with difficulties. UNHCR had
to negotiate clearances for overflying rights over India and provisions for technical
landing.26 It had to liaise constantly with governments, airlines and other partners to
carry out the operation. In effect, UNHCR became the de facto implementing agency
for the 1973 New Delhi Agreement.
By mid-February 1974, over 200,000 people had been repatriated under the
terms of the New Delhi Agreement. The successful implementation of the agreement
played no small part in Pakistan’s decision on 22 February 1974 to recognize
Bangladesh. On 1 July 1974, in agreement with the governments concerned, UNHCR
phased out the repatriation operation which had begun the previous September. By
that time, some 9,000 people had been transported by sea between Bangladesh and
Pakistan, and some 231,000 people had been airlifted across the sub-continent. Those
airlifted included some 116,000 Bengalis who went from Pakistan to Bangladesh,
some 104,000 non-Bengalis who went from Bangladesh to Pakistan, and some
11,000 Pakistanis who were airlifted from Nepal to Pakistan, having previously fled
there overland from Bangladesh.27 It was, at the time, the largest emergency airlift of
civilians ever organized.
The Biharis in Bangladesh
One of the unresolved issues at this time was the status and citizenship of the Biharis,
which in many cases still remains unresolved. At the time of partition in 1947,
around a million Muslims from the Indian state of Bihar moved to what became East
Pakistan. Most spoke Urdu, which bound them to West Pakistan, but they fared
relatively well in East Pakistan. As tensions between West and East Pakistan increased,
however, the Biharis were perceived as being on the side of West Pakistan. During
1971, many Biharis joined Pakistani militias or collaborated with the Pakistani army.
As a result, after the surrender of the Pakistani army in mid-December 1971, the
entire Bihari community faced the wrath of Bengali nationalism and Biharis were
viewed as collaborators of the Pakistani administration and troops. Many Biharis were
killed and much of their property was seized.
Although Biharis were among those accepted by Pakistan under the August 1973
repatriation accord, Pakistan was slow in giving clearances.
28: (UNHCR Branch Office, Dacca, to UNHCR HQ, cable, 16 Feb. 1974, 1/9/1/SCSU/PAK, F/HCR 11.1)
At a further meeting of the three countries’ foreign ministers in New Delhi in April 1974, a new tripartite
agreement on a second phase of repatriations was reached. More than 170,000 Biharis
moved to Pakistan under the terms of these agreements.29 But Pakistan interpreted the
categories of ‘non-Bengalis’ set out in the agreement restrictively and did not take back
all Biharis. In addition to this earlier movement, between 1977 and 1979 nearly 9,900
Biharis repatriated to Pakistan followed by another 4,800 Biharis in 1982. Finally, in
1993, 53 Bihari families were accepted by Pakistan before protests there stopped the
process.
Observers attribute Pakistan’s reluctance to accept the Biharis, who have always
regarded themselves as Pakistani nationals, to the fear that their presence might
exacerbate already existing ethnic and political tensions in Pakistan. In Bangladesh, the
Biharis have encountered problems acquiring citizenship, as Bangladeshi citizenship
provisions dating from 1972 deny citizenship to someone who ‘owes, affirms or
acknowledges, expressly or by conduct, allegiance to a foreign state’.30 Although many
Biharis have in practice been accepted in Bangladesh, in 1999 over 200,000 Biharis
were still living in 66 camps with poor facilities scattered around Bangladesh. Their
