Murder of 23 Bengali civilian pilots during the 1971 war by Pakistan.
- by 1971 War Book Series
1. This is a picture of the so-called one of the best International Airlines of the world - the Pakistan International Airlines with its smartly dressed pilot and cabin crew.
But even this so-called finest airlines, has a dark history in the initial days of the launching of the henious Operation Searchlight in Dacca.
The incident to be described has been described more perfectly by Lieutenant Colonel Quazi Sajjad Ali in the Bangladeshi online newspaper "The Daily Star", and has been published in the book- "In Quest of Freedom, The War of 1971", written by Major General Ian Cardazo long back, so this write up will be in a far shorter jist.
Back in 1971, the Pakistani International Airlines (PIA), had quite a few number of Bengali pilots serving. It was a journey of a large number of hurdles for a Bengali from Bangladesh under Pakistani rule to be a pilot because of the racist attitude of the PIA officials towards Bengalis. Starting from the West Pakistani civilian passengers to numerous military personnel flying with the PIA- the PIA used to have complaints filed on then for having to fly in an aircraft flown by a Bengali pilot.
Such was the racist attitudes towards Bengalis.

2. Anyways, the Bengali pilots in the PIA were always kept under strict surveillance and were never allowed to organize themselves and speak up about the injustices happening with them. The PIA also never allowed Bengali pilots to be posted or fly in sensitive areas.
Not even the PIA Pilot's Association, cared about them.
But still, an underground organization of a collection of Bengali pilots in the PIA were working to bring their issues out and on the February of 1971- a month before Operation Searchlight, these Bengali pilots got a chance.
This underground organization was named as the EPALPA- the East Pakistan Airlines Pilot Association. The EPALPA organization was first formed by a committee of only 10 pilots, all from the PIA. They were named as-
1) Captain WR Chowdhury
2) Captain Abdul Khaleque
3) Captain ATM Alamgir
4) Captain Alamgir Sattar
5) Captain Zahir
6) Captain Rafi
7) Captain Abu Salem
8) Captain Monowar
9) Captain Khondokar
10) Captain Shahabuddin Ahmed
11) Captain Zaman

3. The Committee was headed by Chairman Captain WR Chowdhury alongside General Secretary Captain Alamgir. In Dacca's Old Airport Road- the Committee functioned from a room in Awlad Hossain Market and enjoyed secret, yet widespread support from every Bengali pilot in the PIA.
This EPALPA organization of Bengali pilots got to know that the Managing Director of the PIA- Shahkur Ullah Durani, was coming to Dacca. The Bengali pilots got news that he was in Dacca's Intercontinental Hotel, and hearing this, they didn't waste any time to go meet him. Durrani appeared welcoming and friendly to these pilots, and hearing of their grievances, he ordered them to submit their names along with their complaints in writing.
Overjoyed that somebody was finally going to do something for them, the pilots did exactly what he asked for and thanked him for hearing them out.
But Durrani was a snitch.

4. What the Bengali pilots overlooked was the fact that Durrani had once served in the Pakistani army for 3 years as an officer and was still a Liason officer for the Pakistani army. They trusted him for his welcoming attitude and this made Durrani get their details and identify possible adversaries because he knew that soon, the entire country of Bangladesh was going to be up in flames.
And as the Bengali pilots left, Durani submitted their details to the Pakistani army. The EPALPA was now under the eyes of the ISI.
After meeting Durani, the EPALPA organization held some of their meetings in the house of Captain Alamgir in 9/6 Mohammadpur road in Dacca. Soon, the ISI got a lock on this house and started monitoring it everyday.

5. Captain Khaleque - the Vice chairman of the EPALPA, had flown off for a duty to Karachi, but when he came back in mid-February, he informed his shocked colleagues that he had reports of a massive build up of troops in West Pakistan.
Soon, the reality of the situation started to strike these Bengali pilots. Pakistan had launched Operation Searchlight in the night of 25th March, but from February, they had been setting off this henious mission in motion by already flying off flights to Dacca, that only had Pakistani troops in the flights. Some Bengali pilots, flying those PIA planes from Lahore and Rawalpindi, coming to Dacca, noticed that it was mostly night time when these flights were landing in Dacca and inside those flights - Pakistani soldiers dressed in civilian uniforms, were the only cargo.
These flights were coming from Pakistan via China and Burma to Dacca.

6. Captain Khaleque himself had been ordered to fly these "special cargo", and reported to have at times, flown the aircraft by sitting in the jump seat!
These were all hints of an impending serious military operation to be launched in Dacca.
So, the EPALPA, ordered Captain Sattar to report all of these to Awami league leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
And on 1st March, they informed the Sheikh of the arrival of troops and soon, the Bengalis started to know what was coming. Dacca University students, the Police and civilians soon started their preliminary weapons training to deal with the situation, though, a large section of the residents of Dacca didn't want to believe that the Pakistani army was indeed coming to actually murder them in cold blood.

7. From the first days of March, the PIA started imposing restrictions on all Bengali pilots and servicemen to enter the airports without any prior clearance. Even inside, their work and movements were heavily monitored, followed by casual racism of the Pakistani officials.
Soon, the Bengalis, alongside the EPALPA started their non-cooperation movement against the Pakistani officials. The EPALPA demanded that unless the rights of Bengali pilots and staff were restored and improved- not a single Bengali pilot would fly any aircraft!

8. At first, the Pakistani officials didn't care but soon they saw their heavy reliance on Bengali pilots. Pakistani pilots were brought in to meet the requirements for the PIA in Dacca.
But the PIA was in a mess by then.
And after the historical speech of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Dacca's Racecourse- alongside every Bengali in the country, Bengali officers and pilots went on their permanent strike against Pakistan.
But the EPALPA had something further in mind as well.
They were the first ones to notice the enormous build up of Pakistani troops, so they soon realized that sooner or later, the Bengalis have to fight out a war with the Pakistani army.

9. So, on 22nd March, just 3 days before Operation Searchlight, the EPALPA prepared a report of 44 pages to prepare the Bangladesh Airforce on their own. They planned to hide a few aircrafts in the hangars of the abandoned runways of Dacca Airport.
But, Operation Searchlight struck them before they could go ahead with anything. For ISI's constant surveillance, in the night of Operation Searchlight, the Pakistani army managed to locate every single one of them except for Captain Nazrul and Khaleque, and that very night when Dacca was bleeding to death- the Pakistani murdered them all in cold blood.

10. Captain Nazrul was saved because he was in his home back in the village and Captain Khaleque had managed to escape in time. Captain Khaleque later served in the making of the Bangladesh Airforce under the guidance of the Indian Airforce and fought enough as an air warrior to be awarded the Bir Protik by the Bangladeshi government.
Alongside the 23 Bengali pilots of the PIA who were killed by the Pakistani army, more Bengali officers and pilots were also made to meet the same fate later on. At the end of the war- the Pakistani army murdered a Bengali DMD and the best Bengali instructor pilots so that no one can raise new Bengali pilots in liberated Bangladesh.
Ends