BENGALIS BOOTED OUT IN BIG PURGE IN PAKISTAN
A PURGE of Bengalis from Pakistan’s Armed Forces and key civil service posts was reported under way yesterday.
Sources said the aim was to remove “unreliable elements” from every aspects of the military government’s drive against independence-seeking Bengalis of East Pakistan.
The purge has hit all ranks of the armed services, and particularly the Air Force, the sources said.
Hundreds of Bengali servicemen have been sent on leave in West Pakistan but forbidden to return to their homes in the troubled eastern province.
About 20 Bengali civil servants in top posts under President Yahya Khan’s military government in West Pakistan have either lost their jobs or been given lesser positions without major influences, the sources said.
The victims
The victims include the director-general of Radio Pakistan, Mr. Mafeesur (Mafizur] Rahman, and the secretary of the Information Ministry, Syed Ahmad.
nother Bengali, State Bank Governor Mr. Rashid Ahmad, has been deprived of all decision-making power and will be relieved of his post shortly, the sources said.
Also listed for removal, according to sources, is Mr. Shafiul Azam, who was chief secretary of the East Pakistan administration.
Mr. Azam, is reported to have neglected to greet Lieut. Gen. Tikka Khan, on his arrival in Dacca on March, 9, and was seen here as a supporter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League.
Detained
One report said Mr. Azam may be put on trial along with Sheikh Mujib.
Brigadier Hai Ansari, the only Bengali of such rank in the Pakistan Army, was reported under detention in the west after allegedly leading his East Pakistan regiment into revolt against the federal regime in Chittagong late last month.
Refugees from the east told newsmen Bengali troops killed all seven of the regiment’s Punjabi officers with their wives and children, then held out for two weeks before the Pakistan Army moved in and massacred the rebellious soldiers.
Meanwhile Lieut.-Gen. Tikka Khan last night appealed to “patriots” in the province to help the armed forces to “fulfil their mission of restoring law and order.”
In a broadcast over Dacca Radio he warned people not to harbour “miscreants.”
An appeal
He said the Armed Forces wanted to avoid loss of life, but “miscreants” often took shelter, forcing action in which the innocent suffered.
General Tikka appealed to absentees from the Armed Forces, the police and the para-military East Pakistan Rifles to return to their duties.
Some of them, he said, had been “misled by unscrupulous seniors”, but they would be treated with compassion if they now reported to their nearest army post.
Gen. Tikka said there was no food shortage in East Pakistan and more food was on the way, but he warned against any interference with food convoys.
He also told civil servants they must devote themselves to the service of the people now that “miscreants and fascists had been subdued.”
He urged patriots who had belonged to the banned Awami League to help restore the situation to normal.
ref. Straits Times, 20.4.1971