Yahya Khan

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General

Yahya Khan
یحییٰ خان
Yahya Khan (cropped version).jpg
3rd President of Pakistan
Chief Martial Law Administrator
In office
25 March 1969 – 20 December 1971
Prime MinisterNurul Amin (1971)
Preceded byAyub Khan
Succeeded byZulfikar Ali Bhutto
5th Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army
In office
18 June 1966 – 20 December 1971
DeputyGen. Abdul Hamid Khan
Preceded byGen. Muhammad Musa
Succeeded byLt. Gen. Gul Hassan
Personal details
Born
Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan

(1917-02-04)4 February 1917
Chakwal, Punjab, British India
Died10 August 1980(1980-08-10) (aged 63)
Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan
NationalityBritish Indian (1917–1947)
Pakistani (1947–1980)
Political partyNone (martial law)
Domestic partnerAqleem Akhtar (1967–1972)
Noor Jehan (1971)
EducationColonel Brown Cambridge School, Dehradun
Alma mater
Civilian awards
Military service
Branch/service
Years of service1938–1971
RankOF-9 Pakistan Army.svg General
Unit4th Battalion, 10th Baluch Regiment (S/No. PA–98)
Commands
C-in-C, Pakistan Army
  • 7th Infantry Division, Peshawar
  • 15th Infantry Division, Sialkot
  • 14th Infantry Division, Dacca
  • 105th Independent Brigade
Battles/warsWorld War II

Indo-Pakistani War of 1965

Bangladesh Liberation War

Military awardsHilal-Jurat Ribbon.gif Hilal-e-Jurat (withdrawn)

Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan NePl (Urdu: آغا محمد یحییٰ خان‎; 4 February 1917 – 10 August 1980), widely known as Yahya Khan, was a Pakistani general who served as the third President of Pakistan, serving in this post from 25 March 1969 until turning over his presidency in December 1971.[1][2]

Having participated in the Mediterranean theatre of World War II on behalf of Great Britain's British Indian Army, he opted for Pakistani citizenship and joined its military after the United Kingdom partitioned India in 1947, and helped in executing the covert infiltration in Indian Kashmir that sparked the war with India in 1965.[3] After being controversially appointed to assume the army command in 1966, Yahya Khan took over the presidency from unpopular former dictator and elected President Ayub Khan, who was not able to deal with the 1969 uprising in East Pakistan, forced to resign by protests and offered him the office. Yahya Khan subsequently enforced martial law by suspending the constitution. Holding the nation's first nationwide elections in 1970, 23 years after independence, he delayed the power transition to victorious Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from East Pakistan, which further inflamed the civil violent unrest in the East, and authorized the East Pakistani authorities to violently suppress the rebellion. Around 10 million people took refuge in India. According to independent researchers, between 300,000 and 500,000 people died in what is today widely considered the 1971 Bangladesh genocide.[4]

Pakistan suffered a decisive defeat in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, resulting in the dissolution of the Eastern Command of the Pakistan Army and the secession of East Pakistan as Bangladesh – thus Yahya Khan's rule is widely regarded as a leading cause of the break-up of the unity of Pakistan.[5][6] Following these events, he turned over the leadership of the country to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the leading politician from West Pakistan, and resigned from the command of the military in disgrace, both on 20 December 1971.[clarification needed][1] He was then stripped of his service honours and put under house surveillance for most of the 1970s.[1][2]

After being released from these restrictions in 1977, he died in Rawalpindi in 1980.[7] He is viewed largely negatively by Pakistani historians and is considered among the least successful of the country's leaders.[2][better source needed]

Early life[]

Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan was born in Chakwal, Punjab, British Indian Empire[2] on 4 February 1917, according to the references written by Russian sources.[8][9] He and his family were of Karlani Pashtun origin.[10][11][12][13][14]

Few Pakistanis knew anything about Yahya Khan when he was vaulted into the presidency two years ago. The stocky, bushy–browed Pathan had been the army chief of staff since 1966...

— Editorial, Time, 2 August 1971[15]

According to Indian writer Dewan Berindranath's book Private Life of Yahya Khan (published in 1974), Yahya's father worked in the British Indian Police, in Punjab province. He joined as a head constable and retired as a deputy superintendent. Yahya's father was posted in Chakwal, Punjab, British India when Yahya Khan was born. Yahya studied in the prestigious Col. Brown Cambridge School Dehradun and later enrolled at the University of Punjab from where he graduated with a B.A. degree.[1][16]

Military career[]

Career before Pakistan's independence[]

Yahya Khan was commissioned into the British Indian Army from Indian Military Academy, Dehradun in 1938.[1][2] An infantry officer from the 4th/10th Baluch Regiment (4th Battalion of 10th Baluch Regiment, later amalgamated with the modern and current form of Baloch Regiment, 'Baloch' was spelled as 'Baluch' in Yahya's time), Yahya saw action during World War II in North Africa where he was captured by the Axis Forces in June 1942 and interned in a prisoner of war camp in Italy from where he escaped in the third attempt.[2]

Yahya Khan served in World War II as a lieutenant and later captain in the 4th Infantry Division (India). He served in Iraq, Italy, and North Africa. He was a POW in Italy before returning to India.[1]

After birth of Pakistan[]

After the partition of India, he decided to join the Pakistan Army in 1947, he had already reached to the rank of Major (acting Lieutenant-colonel). In this year he was instrumental in not letting the Indian officers shift books from the famous library of the British Indian Army Staff College (now Command and Staff College) at Quetta,[1] where Yahya was posted as an instructor at the time of the partition of India. At the age of 34, he was promoted to Brigadier and is still considered the youngest one-star officer in the history of Pakistan Armed Forces.[1] He was appointed as commander of the 105 Independent Brigade that was deployed in LoC ceasefire region in Jammu and Kashmir in 1951–1952. He was described[by whom?] as a "hard drinking soldier" who liked young women's company and wine, though he was a meritorious and professional soldier.[citation needed]

Later Yahya Khan, as Deputy Chief of General Staff, was selected to head the army's planning board set up by Ayub Khan to modernize the Pakistan Army in 1954–57. Yahya also performed the duties of Chief of General Staff from 1958 to 1962 from where he went on to command two infantry divisions from 1962 to 1965 including one in East Pakistan.[citation needed] Yahya also renamed the Command and Staff College from 'Army Staff College' in Quetta, Balochistan.[2] He played a pivotal role in sustaining the support for President Ayub Khan's campaign in the 1965 presidential elections against Fatima Jinnah.[8] He was made GOC of 7th Infantry Division of Pakistan Army, which he commanded during the 1965 war with India. At this assignment, he was not instrumental in planning and executing the military infiltration operation,[citation needed] the Grand Slam, which failed miserably due to General Yahya's delay owing to change of command decision[citation needed], the Indian Army crossed the intentional border and made a beeline for Lahore[citation needed].

Despite his failures, Yahya Khan was promoted to lieutenant-general after his promotion papers were personally approved by President Ayub Khan in 1966, at a stint as an appointed Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the army with no experience of commanding a field corps. He was appointed as commander-in-chief of Pakistan Army in March 1966 and took command in June. At promotion, Yahya Khan superseded two of his seniors: Lieutenant-General Altaf Qadir and Lieutenant-General Bakhtiar Rana.[17][1]

After becoming the commander-in-chief of the army, Yahya energetically started reorganizing the Pakistan Army in 1966.[1] The post-1965 situation saw major organisational as well as technical changes in the Pakistan Army. Until 1965, it was thought that army divisions could function effectively while getting orders directly from the army's GHQ. This idea failed miserably in the 1965 war and the need to have intermediate corps headquarters in between the GHQ and the fighting combat divisions was recognised as a foremost operational necessity after the 1965 war. In 1965 war, the Pakistan Army had only one corps headquarters (the I Corps).[17]

Soon after the war had started the United States had imposed an embargo on military aid to both India and Pakistan. This embargo did not affect the Indian Army but produced major changes in the Pakistan Army's technical composition. US Secretary of State Dean Rusk well summed it up when he said, "Well if you are going to fight, go ahead and fight, but we’re not going to pay for it".[18]

Pakistan now turned to China for military aid and the Chinese tank T-59 started replacing the US M-47/48 tanks as the Pakistan Army's MBT (Main Battle Tank) from 1966. 80 tanks, the first batch of T-59s, a low-grade version of the Russian T-54/55 series were delivered to Pakistan in 1965–66. The first batch was displayed in the Joint Services Day Parade on 23 March 1966. The 1965 War had proved that Pakistan Army's tank-infantry ratio was lopsided and more infantry was required. Three more infantry divisions (9, 16 and 17 Divisions) largely equipped with Chinese equipment and popularly referred to by the rank and file as "The China Divisions" were raised by the beginning of 1968. Two more corps headquarters: the 2nd Corps Headquarters (Jhelum-Ravi Corridor) and the 4th Corps Headquarters (Ravi-Sutlej Corridor) were raised, also in East Pakistan a corps-sized formation titles as the Eastern Command was created.

President of Pakistan[]

Pakistani President Yahya Khan with United States President Richard Nixon in October 1970

Ayub Khan was President of Pakistan for all part of the 1960s decade, but by the end of the decade, popular resentment had boiled over against him. Pakistan had fallen into a state of disarray, and the long civil unrest in East Pakistan had evolved into a mass uprising in January of the year of 1969. After he[who?] had unsuccessful talks with the opposition, Ayub Khan handed over power to Yahya Khan in March 1969, who immediately imposed martial law.[clarification needed] When Yahya Khan assumed the office on 25 March 1969, he inherited a two-decade constitutional problem of inter-provincial ethnic rivalry between the Punjabi-Pashtun-Mohajir dominated West Pakistan and the ethnically-Bengali Muslim East Pakistan. In addition, Yahya also inherited an 11-year problem of transforming a country essentially ruled by one man to a democratic country, which was the ideological basis of the anti-Ayub movement of 1968–69. As an army chief, Yahya had all the capabilities, qualifications and potential, but he inherited an extremely-complex problem and was forced to perform the multiple roles of caretaker head of the country, drafter of a provisional constitution, resolving the One Unit question, satisfying the frustrations and the sense of exploitation and discrimination successively created in the East Wing by a series of government policies since 1948.[3][1]

The American political scientist Lawrence Ziring observed :

Yahya Khan has been widely portrayed as a ruthless uncompromising insensitive and grossly inept leader.... While Yahya cannot escape responsibility for these tragic events, it is also on record that he did not act alone.... All the major actors of the period were creatures of a historic legacy and a psycho-political milieu which did not lend itself to accommodation and compromise, to bargaining and a reasonable settlement. Nurtured on conspiracy theories, they were all conditioned to act in a manner that neglected agreeable solutions and promoted violent judgments.[19]

Yahya Khan attempted to solve Pakistan's constitutional and inter-provincial/regional rivalry problems once he took over power from Ayub Khan in March 1969. The tragedy of the whole affair was the fact that all of the actions that Yahya took were correct in principle but too late and served only to further intensify the political polarization between the East and West wings:

  • He dissolved the one unit and restored the pre-1955 provinces of West Pakistan.[3]
  • He promised free fair direct one-man one-vote,[3] elections on adult franchise, a basic human right that had been denied to the Pakistani people since the pre-independence 1946 elections by political inefficiency, double games and intrigue, by civilian governments from 1947 to 1958 and by Ayub's one-man rule from 1958 to 1969.

However, the dissolution of one unit did not lead to the positive results that it might have occurred earlier.[3] Yahya also made an attempt to accommodate the East Pakistanis by abolishing the principle of parity in the hope that a greater share in the assembly would redress their wounded ethnic regional pride and ensure the integrity of Pakistan. Instead of satisfying the Bengalis, it intensified their separatism since they felt that the west wing had politically suppressed them since 1958, which caused the rise of anti-West Wing sentiment in the East Wing.

In 1968, the political pressure exerted by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had weakened President Ayub Khan, who had sacked Bhutto for disagreeing with Ayub's decision to implement on Tashkent Agreement, facilitated by the Soviet Union to end the hostilities with India.[20] To ease the situation, Ayub had tried reaching out to terms with the major parties, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Awami League (AL), but remained unsuccessful.[20] In poor health, President Ayub abrogated his own constitution and suddenly resigned from the presidency.[21]

On 24 March 1969, President Ayub directed a letter to General Yahya Khan, inviting him to deal with the situation, as it was "beyond the capacity of (civil) government to deal with the... Complex situation."[22] On 26 March 1969, General Yahya appeared in national television and announced to enforce martial law in all over the country. The 1962 constitution was abrogated, the parliament was dissolved, and Ayub's civilian officials were dismissed.[22] In his first nationwide address, Yahya maintained, "I will not tolerate disorder. Let everyone remain at his post."[23][1]

With immediate effect, he installed a military government and featured active duty military officials:

Yahya Khan administration
Ministers Portrait Ministries and departments Inter-services
General Yahya Khan[24] President and Chief Martial Law Administrator
Information and Broadcasting
Law and Justice
Foreign and Defence		  Pakistan Army
General Abdul Hamid Khan[24] Deputy CMLA
Interior and Kashmir Affairs		  Pakistan Army
Vice-Admiral Syed Mohammad Ahsan[24] Deputy CMLA
Finance and Planning Commission
Statistics, Commerce, and Industry		 Naval Jack of Pakistan.svg Pakistan Navy
Air-Marshal Nur Khan[24] Noor khan.jpg Deputy CMLA
Communications and Health
Labour and Science and Technology		  Pakistan Air Force

National Security Council and Legal Frame Order[]

Yahya was well aware of this explosive situation and decided to bring changes all over the country. His earlier initiatives directed towards establishing the National Security Council (NSC), with Major-General Ghulam Omar being its first advisor.[25][26] It was formed to analyse and prepare assessments towards issues relating the political and national security.[25]

In 1969, President Yahya also promulgated the Legal Framework Order No. 1970, which disestablished the One Unit programme, which had formed West Pakistan.[27] Instead, it removed the prefix West but instead added Pakistan.[27] The decree has no effect on East Pakistan.[27] Then, Yahya announced general elections to be held in 1970 and appointed Judge Abdus Sattar as Chief Election Commissioner of the Election Commission of Pakistan.[20] The changes were carried out by President Yahya Khan to return the country towards parliamentary democracy.[20]

Last days of East Pakistan[]

1970 general elections[]

By 28 July 1969, President Yahya Khan had set a framework for elections that were to be held in December 1970.[3][26] Finally, the general elections were held all over the country. In East Pakistan, the Awami League, led by Mujibur Rahman, held almost all seats but no seat in any of four provinces of West Pakistan. The socialist Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had won the exclusive mandate in the four provinces of Pakistan but none in East Pakistan. The Pakistan Muslim League (PML), led by Nurul Amin, was the only party to have representation from all over the country, but it had failed to gain the mandate to run the government. The Awami League had 160 seats, all won from East Pakistan, the socialist PPP 81, and the conservative PML 10 in the National Assembly. The general elections's results truly reflected the ugly political reality: the division of the Pakistani electorate along regional lines and political polarisation of the country between East Pakistan and West Pakistan.[26][28]

In political terms, therefore, Pakistan as a nation stood divided as a result. A series of bilateral talks between PPP and Mujibur Rahman produced no results and were unable to come to an agreement of from West Pakistan to East Pakistan's representatives on the basis of the six-point programme. In Pakistan, the people had felt that the six-point programme was a step towards the secession from Pakistan.[26]

Massacres in East Pakistan[]

While the political deadlock remained between the Awami League, PPP and the military government after the general elections in 1970, Yahya Khan began coordinating several meetings with his military strategists over the issue in East Pakistan. On 25 March 1971, Yahya initiated Operation Searchlight to suppress Bengali dissent.[26] The situation in East Pakistan worsened, and the gulf between the two wings had become too wide to be bridged. Agitation was now transformed into a vicious insurgency as Bengali elements of Pakistan armed forces and Police mutinied and formed Bangladesh Forces along with common people of all classes to launch unconventional and hit-and-run operations.[4][29] Violent disorder and chaos followed after that due to Bengalis attacking people of the non-Bengali community, especially the Biharis who had settled in East Pakistan, which also resulted in much loss of life.[26]

Both Yahya Khan and Bhutto flew to Dhaka and tried negotiations one more time, but they did not succeed and reached a deadlock.[26]

Operation Searchlight was a violent planned military pacification carried out by the Pakistan Armed Forces to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in erstwhile East Pakistan in March 1971.[1][30] Ordered by the government in Pakistan, it was seen as the sequel to Operation Blitz, which had been launched in November 1970. The Pakistani government's view was that it had to launch a campaign to neutralise a rebellion in East Pakistan to save the unity of Pakistan. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman proclaimed the independent state of Bangladesh and a government-in-exile in the Indian part of Bengal.[26]

The Pakistan Army was unable to stop the fighting. In addition, Indian forces began to supply the rebels and their organised force, Mukti Bahini.[26]

The original plan envisioned taking control of the major cities on 26 March 1971 and then eliminating all opposition, political or military[31] within one month. The prolonged Bengali resistance had not been anticipated by Pakistani planners.[32] The main phase of Operation Searchlight ended with the fall of the last major town in Bengali hands in mid-May.

The total number of people killed in East Pakistan is not known with any degree of accuracy.[33] Bangladeshi authorities claim that 3 million people were killed,[34] while the Hamoodur Rahman Commission, an official Pakistan Government investigation, put the figure as low as 26,000 civilian casualties.[35] According to Sarmila Bose, between 50,000 and 100,000 combatants and civilians were killed by both sides during the war.[29] A 2008 British Medical Journal study by Ziad Obermeyer, Christopher J. L. Murray, and Emmanuela Gakidou estimated that up to 269,000 civilians died as a result of the conflict; the authors note that this is far higher than a previous estimate of 58,000 from Uppsala University and the Peace Research Institute, Oslo.[36]

According to BBC News website, "Nobody knows exactly how many people were killed, but certainly a huge number of people lost their lives. Independent researchers think that between 300,000 and 500,000 died."[4]

Yahya Khan arrested Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on charges of sedition and appointed Brigadier Rahimuddin Khan (later General) to preside over a special tribunal dealing with Mujib's case. Rahimuddin awarded Mujib the death sentence,[citation needed] and President Yahya put the verdict into abeyance. Yahya's crackdown, however, had led to a Bangladesh Liberation War within Pakistan and India drew into the war and fought on behalf of Bangladeshis against Pakistan which would later extend into the Indo-Pak war of 1971.[28][26]

The aftermaths of this war were mainly that East Pakistan became independent as Bangladesh and India captured approximately 15,000+ square kilometres (5,000+ square miles) of land of West Pakistan (now Pakistan). Though the captured territory of West Pakistan was given back to Pakistan in the Simla Agreement signed later on 2 July 1972 between Indira Gandhi and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.[37]

The 1971 war led to increased tensions between the countries but nonetheless Pakistan accepted the independence of Bangladesh. But this event led to high tensions between Pakistan and India.

US role[]

Main article: Pakistan–United States relations

The United States had been a major sponsor of President Yahya's military government. American journalist Gary Bass notes in The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide, "President Nixon liked very few people, but he did like General Yahya Khan."[38] Personal initiatives of President Yahya had helped to establish the communication channel between the United States and China, which would be used to set up the Nixon's trip in 1972.[39]

Since 1960, Pakistan was perceived in the United States as an integral bulwark against global Communism in the Cold War. The United States cautiously supported Pakistan during 1971 although Congress kept in place an arms embargo.[40] In 1970, India with a heavily socialist economy entered in a formal alliance with the Soviet Union in August 1971.

Nixon relayed several written and oral messages to President Yahya Khan, strongly urging him to restrain the use of Pakistan forces.[41] His objective was to prevent a war and safeguard Pakistan's interests, though he feared an Indian invasion of Pakistan that would lead to Indian domination of the subcontinent and strengthen the position of the Soviet Union.[42] Similarly, President Yahya feared that an independent Bangladesh could lead to the disintegration of Pakistan. Indian military support for Bengali guerrillas led to war between India and Pakistan.[43]

In 1971, Richard Nixon met Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and did not[citation needed] believe her assertion that she would not invade Pakistan;[44] Nixon did not trust her and even once referred to her as an "old bitch".[45] Witness accounts presented by Kissinger pointed out that Nixon made specific proposals to Prime Minister Gandhi on a solution for the crisis, some of which she heard for the first time, including a mutual withdrawal of troops from the Indo-East Pakistan borders. Nixon also expressed a wish to fix a time limit with Yahya for political accommodation in East Pakistan. Nixon asserted that India could count on US endeavors to ease the crisis within a short time. But, both Kissinger and Gandhi's aide Jayakar maintained, Gandhi did not respond to these proposals. Kissinger noted that she "listened to what was, in fact, one of Nixon's better presentations with aloof indifference" but "took up none of the points." Jayakar pointed out that Gandhi listened to Nixon "without a single comment, creating an impregnable space so that no real contact was possible." She also refrained from assuring that India would follow Pakistan's suit if it withdrew from India's borders. As a result, the main agenda was "dropped altogether."[46]

On 3 December 1971, Yahya preemptively attacked the Indian Air Force and Gandhi retaliated, pushing into East Pakistan.[47] Nixon issued a statement blaming Pakistan for starting the conflict and blaming India for escalating it[47] because he favored a cease-fire.[48] The United States was secretly encouraging the shipment of military equipment from Iran, Turkey, and Jordan to Pakistan, reimbursing those countries[49] despite Congressional objections.[28] The US used the threat of an aid cut-off to force Pakistan to back down, while its continued military aid to Islamabad prevented India from launching incursions deeper into the country. Pakistan forces in East Pakistan surrendered on 16 December 1971, leading to the creation of the independent state of Bangladesh.[50][1][26]

Fall from power[]

When the news of the surrender of Pakistan reached through the national television, the spontaneous and overwhelming public anger over Pakistan's defeat by Bangladeshi rebels and the Indian Army, followed by the division of Pakistan into two parts boiled into street demonstrations throughout Pakistan. Rumors of an impending coup d'état by junior military officers against President Yahya Khan swept the country. Yahya became the highest-ranking casualty of the war: to forestall further unrest, on 20 December 1971 he handed over the presidency and government to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto— the ambitious leader of Pakistan's powerful and popular (at that time) People's Party.[1]

Within hours of Yahya stepping down, President Bhutto reversed Judge Advocate General Branch (Pakistan)'s verdict against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and instead released him to see him off to London. President Bhutto also signed orders for Yahya's house confinement, the man who imprisoned Mujib in the first place. Both actions produced headlines around the world.[1]

Personal life[]

Yahya is said to have had a relationship with Akleem Akhtar but he was never married.[51]

Death[]

Yahya remained under house arrest until 1979, when he was released from the custody by martial law administrator General Fazle Haq. He stayed out from public events and died on 10 August 1980 in Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan.[1][2]

Dates of rank[]

Insignia Rank Component Date of rank
British Army OF-1a.svg Second Lieutenant British Indian Army 15 July 1938[52]
British Army OF-1b.svg Lieutenant British Indian Army 30 November 1938[52]
British Army OF-2.svg Captain British Indian Army 15 August 1940 (acting)
15 November 1940 (temporary)
16 August 1942 (war-substantive)
30 August 1944 (substantive)[52]
British Army (1920-1953) OF-3.svg Major British Indian Army 15 November 1940 (acting)
16 August 1942 (temporary)[52]
British Army (1920-1953) OF-4.svg Lieutenant-Colonel Pakistan Army August 1947 (acting)
British Army (1920-1953) OF-5.svg Colonel Pakistan Army April 1948 (acting)
British Army (1920-1953) OF-3.svg Major Pakistan Army 28 December 1949
OF-3 Pakistan Army.svg Major Pakistan Army February 1950 (change in insignia)[citation needed]
OF-4 Pakistan Army.svg Lieutenant-Colonel Pakistan Army February 1951
OF-5 Pakistan Army.svg Colonel Pakistan Army 1 July 1951
OF-6 Pakistan Army.svg Brigadier Pakistan Army 1951 (acting)
13 March 1957 (substantive)
OF-7 Pakistan Army.svg Major-General Pakistan Army 16 December 1957 (acting)
1962 (substantive)
OF-8 PakistanArmy.svg Lieutenant-General Pakistan Army 1966 (substantive)
OF-9 Pakistan Army.svg General
(Commander-in-Chief of the army)		 Pakistan Army 18 September 1966 (substantive)

Notes[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Yahya Khan: president of Pakistan on Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved 22 July 2020
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h "General Yahya Khan | Former Army Chief of Pakistan enforcing Martial Law in 1969". Story of Pakistan website. 26 October 2013. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Shaikh Aziz (25 December 2011). "A chapter from history: Yahya Khan's quick action". Dawn. Pakistan. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c Mark Dummett (16 December 2011). "Bangladesh war: The article that changed history". BBC News. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  5. ^ Shah, Mehtab Ali (1997). The Foreign Policy of Pakistan: Ethnic Impacts on Diplomacy 1971–1994. I.B.Tauris. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-86064-169-5.
  6. ^ Raghavan, Srinath (2013). 1971: The Global History of Creation of the Bangladesh. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674731271.
  7. ^ Ahmed, Munir (2001). "خان کی کہانی ان کے بیٹے علی یحٰیی کی زبانی". جنرل محمد یحٰیی خان: شخصیت و سیاسی کردار (in Urdu). Lahore, Pakistan: آصف جاوید برائے نگارشات پبلشرز. p. 240.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b Mikaberidze, Alexander, ed. (2011). Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World a Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIOm 2011. ISBN 978-1598843378.
  9. ^ Democracy, security, and development in India. By Raju G. C. Thomas.
  10. ^ Tinker, Hugh (1990). South Asia: A Short History. University of Hawaii Press. p. 248. ISBN 978-0824812874.
  11. ^ Wolper, Stanley (2010). India and Pakistan: Continued Conflict or Cooperation?. University of California Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0520948006.
  12. ^ Burki, Shahid Javed (2015). Historical Dictionary of Pakistan (4 ed.). Rowman & Littlefield. p. 596. ISBN 978-1442241480.
  13. ^ Jaffrelot, Christophe (2015). The Pakistan Paradox: Instability and Resilience. Oxford University Press. pp. 226–227. ISBN 978-0-19023-518-5. Pashtuns (the community from which hailed the country's first four commanders-in-chief from Ayub Khan to Yahya Khan and Gul Hassan Khan, with the exception of Mohammad Musa)
  14. ^ Hiro, Dilip (2015). The Longest August: The Unflinching Rivalry Between India and Pakistan. Nation Books. p. 183. ISBN 978-1568585031. A burly, double chinned, bushy-browed slothful Yahya Khan was, like Ayub Khan, an ethnic Pashtun.
  15. ^ "Good Soldier Yahya Khan". Time. 2 August 1971. p. 32. Archived from the original on 8 April 2008. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  16. ^ Berindranath, Dewan (2006). Private Life of Yahya Khan. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers. p. 14.
  17. ^ Jump up to: a b A.R. Siddiqi (25 April 2004). "Army's top slot: the seniority factor (scroll down to read this section and title)". Dawn. Pakistan. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  18. ^ Dennis Kux, India and the United States: Estranged Democracies (Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 1992), 239.
  19. ^ Ziring, Lawrence (1980). Pakistan: The Enigma of Political Development. Dawson. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-7129-0954-9.
  20. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Akbar, M.K. (1997). Pakistan from Jinnah to Sharif. New Delhi: Mittal Publications. ISBN 978-8170996743.
  21. ^ Peter R. Blood (1996). Pakistan: A Country Study. United States: Diane Publication Co. ISBN 978-0788136313.
  22. ^ Jump up to: a b Omar, Imtiaz (2002). Emergency powers and the courts in India and Pakistan. England: KLUWER LAW INTERNATIONAL. ISBN 978-9041117755.
  23. ^ KrishnaRao, K.V. (1991). Prepare or perish : a study of national security. New Delhi: Lancer Publ. ISBN 978-8172120016.
  24. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Dr. GN. Kazi (21 May 2008). "Pakistan's Smallest Cabinet". Dr. GN. Kazi. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  25. ^ Jump up to: a b PILDT. "The Evolution of National Security Council in Pakistan". Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency. PILDT. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  26. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k From disunion through the Zia al-Huq era Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 22 July 2020
  27. ^ Jump up to: a b c Newberg, Paula R. (2002). Judging the state : courts and constitutional politics in Pakistan (1st paperback ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521894401.
  28. ^ Jump up to: a b c Gandhi, Sajit (16 December 2002). "The Tilt: The U.S. and the South Asian Crisis of 1971". The National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 79. The National Security Archive (United States). Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  29. ^ Jump up to: a b Ian Jack (21 May 2011). "It's not the arithmetic of genocide that's important. It's that we pay attention". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  30. ^ Bose, Sarmila (8 October 2005). "Anatomy of Violence: Analysis of Civil War in East Pakistan in 1971". Economic and Political Weekly. Archived from the original on 1 March 2007. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  31. ^ Salik, Siddiq (1997). Witness to surrender. Dhaka: University Press. pp. 63, 228–9. ISBN 978-984-05-1373-4.
  32. ^ Pakistan Defence Journal, 1977, Vol 2, p2-3
  33. ^ Bass 2013, pp. 350–351 reviews the various estimates here [1].
  34. ^ White, Matthew, Death Tolls for the Major Wars and Atrocities of the Twentieth Century
  35. ^ Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report, chapter 2, paragraph 33
  36. ^ Obermeyer, Ziad; et al. (June 2008). "Fifty years of violent war deaths from Vietnam to Bosnia: analysis of data from the world health survey programme". British Medical Journal. 336 (7659): 1482–1486. doi:10.1136/bmj.a137. PMC 2440905. PMID 18566045.
  37. ^ "A leaf from history: Simla Agreement, at last". Dawn. Pakistan. 23 September 2012. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
  38. ^ Bass 2013, p. 7
  39. ^ Kissinger's Secret Trip to China
  40. ^ Mosleh Uddin. "Personal Prejudice Makes Foreign Policy". Asiaticsociety.org.bd. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  41. ^ Black 2007, p. 751
  42. ^ "The Kissinger Tilt". Time. 17 January 1972. p. 17. Archived from the original on 6 November 2012. Retrieved 30 September 2008.
  43. ^ "World: Pakistan: The Ravaging of Golden Bengal". Time. 2 August 1971. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 28 March 2011.
  44. ^ Black 2007, p. 752
  45. ^ 'Indira Gandhi' is A Bitch … The Indians Are Bastards (Nixon-Kissinger conversation in the White House) Outlook (India magazine), Published 30 June 2005. Retrieved 17 July 2020
  46. ^ Jayakar, Indira Gandhi, p. 232; Kissinger, White House Years, pp. 878 & 881–82.
  47. ^ Jump up to: a b Black 2007, p. 753
  48. ^ Black 2007, p. 755
  49. ^ Black 2007, p. 756
  50. ^ Black 2007, p. 757
  51. ^ Nadeem F. Paracha (28 March 2014). "The fascinating tale of General Rani". The Friday Times (newspaper). Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  52. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Indian Army List for October 1945 (Part I). Government of India Press. 1945. p. 224.

References[]

Bibliography[]

  • Sharlach, Lisa (2000). "Rape as Genocide: Bangladesh, the Former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda". New Political Science. 1 (22): 89. doi:10.1080/713687893. S2CID 144966485.
  • Sajjad, Tazreena (2012). "The Post-Genocidal Period and its Impact on Women". In Samuel Totten (ed.). Plight and Fate of Women During and Following Genocide (Reprint ed.). Transaction. pp. 219–248. ISBN 978-1-4128-4759-9.

External links[]

Military offices
Preceded by
Sher Ali Khan Pataudi 		Chief of General Staff
1957–1962 		Succeeded by
Malik Sher Bahadur
Preceded by
Muhammad Musa 		C-in-C of the Pakistan Army
1966–1971 		Succeeded by
Gul Hassan Khan
Political offices
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Ayub Khan 		President of Pakistan
1969–1971 		Succeeded by
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Chief Martial Law Administrator
1969–1971
Preceded by
Mian Arshad Hussain 		Minister of Foreign Affairs
1969–1971
Preceded by
Afzal Rahman Khan 		Minister of Defence
1969–1971
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