Padma Shri, also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. It is awarded by the Government of India every year on India’s Republic Day. Wikipedia
According to news sources, n 1971, a former Pakistani soldier allegedly risked his life by crossing to India to help liberate Bangladesh during the war that year. Lt Col Qazi Sajjad Ali Zahir’s name was recognized by many, including the President, Ram Nath Kovind, who recently presented one of the highest civilian honors in India to Zahir at the Padma awards. However, this award remains a means of controversy. Was it awarded for bravery or betrayal?
In the past, Zahir’s name was shielded because of confidential reasons, but recently, his story was brought forward, and people declared his “contribution” to Indian intelligence and the Bangladesh freedom movement worth the fourth highest civilian award in India.
So what exactly did Zahir do that he is praised for this much in India yet remains under the radar when Pakistan is brought forward? Lt Col Qazi Sajjad Ali Zahir was only 20 years old and an ordinary officer posted in Sialkot. During that time, war prevailed, and danger spread on all grounds. Zahir knew this but decided to take the easy way out to save his own life. Since he was young and recently appointed to Pakistan’s military, it seems expectable but in no way dismissive.
Zahir crossed over to India and was immediately captured and assumed to be a spy. To prove his decision to betray, he presented a series of confidential documents of the Pakistan Army to secure his life when he realized the mistake he made by crossing over. As a result, he was sent to a safe house in Delhi, where he stayed peacefully until the war was over. It is quite natural for him to be sentenced to a punishment that any other person in his place would receive for this act of betrayal.
When he realized that there was no going back, he decided to pose as Pakistan’s enemy in order to preserve the security he had been getting. So, he trained the Mukti Bahini in guerilla warfare to battle Pakistan once again ironically instead of fighting against bloodshed, which he claims to always have stood up for.
Indians morphed the situation to portray him to be a hero. In fact, his actions resulted in further bloodshed instead of the preservation of human rights that he claimed to be running after while he remained under the security of a safe house. Zahir seems to have played the victim in order to gain security and turned against the Pakistan he once stood up for with aspirations like the prevention of bloodshed and preservation of rights that seemed to disappear when it came to Pakistani people.
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