Pakistan still bears scars of its painful birth
Muhammad Nehal, about 78
Born in the Patna area of Bihar, north India, Muhammad Nehal, who is about 78, is the eldest of four children. His father worked as a watchman for the British and then in a locomotive factory.
“I am among those hundreds of thousands of people who suffered twice from Partition, first in 1947 and then in the partition of Pakistan in 1971.
“I was about seven or eight in 1947. While most of the Muslims from Indian provinces, such as Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, moved to West Pakistan, my family decided to move to East Bengal [now part of Bangladesh], because it was nearer. West Pakistan was very far from Bihar. In East Pakistan, our people came to be known as Biharis. In Pakistan they still call us Biharis today.
“My parents used to tell us that there was harmony in our village in Bihar between Muslims and Hindus. But with Partition came rumours of Hindus looting and killing Muslims fleeing to Pakistan. Because of that, we left our homes with just the clothes on our backs. We walked to the border at Birol.
“In East Pakistan, our family set up makeshift houses in Parbatipur and my father got work in a jute mill. We had some relatives in Bihar, so we used to visit regularly by train and without visas, but that ended in 1965 when war broke out between India and Pakistan.
“My parents missed Bihar very much.The graves of their grandparents were there. But after 15 in years in East Pakistan, the situation was worsening for Urdu-speaking non-Bengalis and Bengali nationalist parties in East Pakistan started a hate campaign against the dominance of West Pakistan.
“In our village, we used to study in Urdu-medium Jinnah schools. We learnt to speak and understand Bengali, but not to write it.
“In the 1970 general election, Biharis supported the proWest Pakistan political party rather than the Bengali nationalist party, the Awami League. After that, Bengali nationalist groups started a separatist movement for East Pakistan and began attacking Biharis for supporting West Pakistan.
“I joined the Pakistani army in 1968 and fought for nine months in the 1971 war against India. I was one of 93,000 taken prisoner by the Indian army. At that time, I did not even know the whereabouts of my family. My father later told me a number of our close relatives were killed by Bengalis in the insurgency.
“After my release, I moved to Lahore in 1974 and went back to being a soldier in Punjab and later Karachi..
“Now my community is facing more discrimination in Pakistan. The government is blocking citizenship for people who migrated before or after 1970 from East Pakistan. It is extremely unfair because we are true Pakistanis who made huge sacrifices for the country. We did double migration, left our homes twice, yet still, in Pakistan, we face discrimination and difficulties.”