JEDDAH, 11 September 2004 — The Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) organized a function here on Monday to mark the Defense Day of Pakistan. Tributes were paid to those who laid down their lives to protect the integrity of the country in 1965.
Mohammad Latifur Rahman of the Muslim Welfare Development Organization, who presided, said the nation demonstrated unprecedented unity and solidarity with the armed forces to repel aggression by India. However, in December 1971, the country was dismembered and our army was forced to surrender, thanks to the vested interests of the politicians. It left hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis homeless who continue to live in miserable conditions in Bangladeshi refugee camps. It is our moral duty to help repatriate them to Pakistan, he added.
Abu Farhan Siddiqui, also of MWDO, paid tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for the country. He urged Pakistanis to help the stranded people financially.
Mohammad Jamil Rathore of the Pakistan Journalists Forum said the entire nation demonstrated exemplary unity during the 1965 war. “We should also not forget those patriotic Pakistanis who sided with our army in the 1971 war and now continue to live in the Bangladeshi camps in a very pathetic condition. We must take measures to help these stranded Pakistanis return to their homeland.”
Ehsanul Haque, convener of PRC, said Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s principles of unity, faith and discipline were the jingle of the 1965 war. However, the same nation failed to protect the country’s integrity and sovereignty in the 1971 war because vested interests of the politicians, he added.
Syed Mahtab Ahmed, Rauf Tahir and Omar Ansari also paid tributes to the martyrs of the 1965 war.
Nasim Sehar, Abdul Qayyum Waseq, Mohsin Alavi and Asad Khan recited their poems.