Dr Ayesha Jalal's "Struggle for Pakistan" recounts how the country's two wings - separated by a thousand miles of hostile territory - had an uneasy relationship from the beginning. Tensions began brewing when East Pakistan pressed for Bangla to be recognized as a national language. The West Pakistani elite chose to ignore the cultural and economic needs of their brethren in the East, which culminated in the language riots of 1952.
In the video, an excerpt from Dr. Jalal’s book states that “Bengalis were dead against Urdu-only language policy. They complained of being ruled by an unpopular and incompetent provincial government and were resentful of the free rein given to West Pakistani bureaucrats who arrogantly lorded over them.” The language policy was the original issue. Starting from Jinnah, Pakistani leaders insisted on having Urdu as Pakistan's official language.
When the Awami League in the East won a majority in the 1970 elections, Yahya Khan's military junta dithered and refused to hand over the reins of power to Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. Bhutto's PPP was deliberately pitted against Mujib's Awami League.
Dr. Jalal states, “On the event of partition Jinnah himself had given his blessing to the idea of a united and independent Bengal commenting that he was certain it would be on excellent terms with Pakistan. On February 28 1971, Bhutto went on a verbal rampage… and threatened to break the legs of anyone, whether from the PPP or any other West Pakistani party, who attended the national assembly session in Dhaka. Yahya used this as a pretext to refuse a transfer of power.”
Mujib had gone as far as to propose a confederation setup, which would have given East Pakistan a separate constitution. Even Bhutto endorsed this proposal. Any devolution of power to the East was anathema to the thinking of the military high command in the West. The military started an operation against the Bengali population where Dhaka University was stormed and there was indiscriminate killing of civilians in particular Hindus and intellectuals., India intervened and the resulting war led to a humiliating surrender by the Pakistani Army on December 16, 1971. Pakistan broke apart, and East Pakistan gained independence from Bangladesh.