The Runaway Ansars

Ziauddin M. Choudhury

The following narrative was triggered by the efforts on Iraq police rebuilding by the US
forces in 2004 following the invasion of Iraq. The comments expressed in the US press
about loyalty of some of the new recruits to the Iraqi government brought to my mind an
interesting parallel with the efforts made by the Pakistan army in rebuilding para police
forces in then East Pakistan in 1971, and the mind set of the new recruits to this force.

One of Pakistan government actions following the rebellion by police and ansars in
Dhaka in March 1971 was total dismantling of the Ansars as an auxiliary police force.
Toward the middle of 1971, however, facing a tremendous need to augment the police
force in then East Pakistan, the provincial government decided to reorganize the Ansar
force with fresh recruitment from ground up. This required a country-wide recruitment
effort from a population that was daily facing atrocities from the Army. This was a
daunting task, but every Army commander from Division to Sub division level was under
tremendous pressure to recruit Ansars to buttress the already decimated police force, and
to replace para military forces imported from West Pakistan .

The district and the subdivision administrations were ordered by the provincial
government to provide a helping hand in the recruitment of ansars. However, in most
cases the local army commands did not seek such help as the local administrators were
suspects in their eyes. In Manikganj the local Sub-Zonal Martial Law Administrator took
the matter into his own hands. He asked the officers in charge of every police station to
help him in this recruitment since it was the local Army commander who would also have
to arrange training of these recruits and later deploy them in aid of the armed forces.

As expected the recruitment was not a big success as majority of the targeted young
population stayed away from volunteering. However, after several weeks of head
hunting the police officers were able to gather about two hundred men of different age,
most of who were destitute and were unable to flee the villages. They were put in a camp
in Manikganj stadium for an accelerated training course, mostly in handling rifles, and
some amount of physical training by the army. The objective was to put them in different
thanas to support police and visiting armed forces to combat rising rebel activities.

There was a small ceremony of “passing out” of the Ansars, which was attended by the
Zonal Martial Law Administrator from Dhaka, and the Superintendent of Police, Dhaka
(who was seconded from West Pakistan). As the local SDO I was also asked to attend
the ceremony, where for the first time I saw the sorry bunch of recruits. Their age ranged
from 30 to 50, and most of them looked awkward in pants—a big jump from their
traditional outfit of lungis. The parade was quite pathetic as most had yet to learn how to
match steps with each other. Nonetheless, the Zonal Administrator had to give them their
passing out certificates as he was under pressure to deploy these new recruits to the
dangerous tasks ahead. As I witnessed the recruits I was pondering over their fate as
there was little chance that any of them would survive an armed encounter with the forces
that were supposed to confront. My worries would prove wrong later.

A common freedom fighter action in the middle of 1971 was raid of police stations in the
rural areas. The recurring story of these raids was looting of the rifles with no resistance
from the police. When army would investigate the incident, the frequent yarn was that
the police force was simply overpowered by superior fire power. Obviously, the army
did not believe the story, but they had no alternative as it was physically not possible for
the small army company in sub division head quarters to guard each thana. With the
newly recruited ansars, the army authorities thought they could augment the police force
in each thana.

In late August Daulatpur, a thana neighboring Tangail district was raided by the freedom
fighters in the classic pattern. The Sub-Zonal Martial Law Administrator decided to send
one hundred newly recruited Ansars to Daulatpur immediately. The ansars were all
equipped with automatic rifles, and I was told a small machine gun was also added as a
bonus. The officer in charge of Daulatpur police station arranged their accommodation in
a local school, and other logistics. There the recruits would support police and possibly
army action against the freedom fighters.

Two weeks later I got a call from the Circle Inspector of Police, Manikganj, that
Daulatpur police station was attacked by the freedom fighters previous night and that he
feared some lives were probably lost—most likely from among the new ansar recruits. He
also said that he was leaving for Daulatpur in the company of the Army Commander who
wanted to visit the spot right away. The CI told me he would report to me on his return.

Meanwhile I contacted the Circle Officer of Daulatpur who confirmed that Daulatpur
police station was attacked by the freedom fighters. He also added that all ansars were
missing, but he could not confirm if any of them were dead. I would have to wait for the
Circle Inspector to get the full story.

The Circle Officer returned next morning and upon entering my office closed the door.
In a hushed voice he narrated the happenings in Daulatpur.
The attack on Daulatpur was well coordinated between the freedom fighters and the
ansars. As soon as the thana was struck by the first bullet, the ansars joined the freedom
fighters with their own guns and descended on the thana. A surprised police force had no
alternative but to surrender their guns to the very people they were supposed to get help
from. A handful of freedom fighters and 100 odd ansars decamped with the rifles and
ammos, their own and those acquired from the thana in the same motor launch that had
brought the ansars to Daultapur from Manikganj. The newly recruited ansars—the hope
of the local army command for supporting the army—joined the other side to swell the
ranks of the freedom fighters with more men and weapons. The remaining ansars in
Manikganj were not deployed by the army.

The writer was Sub-Divisional Officer of Manikganj in 1971