Far From The Holocaust
Nicholas Tomalin, after seeing the horror of the East Pakistan fighting, visits the spruce modern capital in West Pakistan. He finds a complacent refusal to recognise the tragedy and its social and economic repercussions.
General Yahya Khan, President of Pakistan and Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistani Army, is a good man and an intelligent soldier. It was a simple sense of duty (and catastrophic intelligence misinformation) which persuaded him three weeks ago to order his troops to restore law and order in East Pakistan.
Because he is a decent orthodox army man, who acted according to orthodox army logic, General Yahya thinks he has succeeded, and can now continue as leader of a united nation. He is still unaware that his attempted coup was the worst military crime of recent years, and probably the biggest political blunder.
Islamabad, the West Pakistani capital, is full of noble-looking soldiers like General Yahya. They stride around the orderly streets with a fine, proud bearing; they play polo as if nothing had happened to disturb their sport. It is strange to arrive here and see them. so remote from the piles of dead in East Pakistan.
The officers’ wives complain that the emergency has caused the cancellation of the Islam abad gardens competition-just when the spring borders were looking their neatest. In such crisp, disciplined surroundings it gradually becomes possible to understand how-to the military mind-killing faraway people, even if they are your own countrymen, becomes a matter of removing some unfortunate untidiness.
Apart from the soldiers, Islamabad is populated by ordinary West Pakistani citizens who read daily in their censored newspapers about happiness, tranquility and joy in the East (and therefore agree the law and order operation was a great success) and the foreign community who read other newspapers (and therefore disagree).
Among Islamabad people who knew there was a civil war on-diplomats, for instance I found surprising unanimity. They believe that Pakistan, as a nation built of two halves separated by geography but united by religion, is finished. East Pakistan is doomed to many years of starvation, chaos, and bloodshed. West Pakistan is doomed to an economic crisis of considerable seriousness. The two must inevitably break apart.
“Sheer, bloody stupidity,” was the undiplomatic phrase one diplomat was driven to use. Even General Yahya’s best friends in the diplomatic corps, men who strive to explain, if not to justify, what made the General act as he did, are beginning to use words like “dementia” to describe his unwillingness to recognise the horror of what he has done, and what its consequences must be.
OF COURSE, Yahya is not the only villain in this terrible story. The vacillating, neurotic personality of the East Pakistani leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, can also be partly blamed. During the crucial negotiations Sheikh Mujib seemed to prefer the idea of prison to the awesome responsibilities of being Prime Minister of Pakistan. Nothing else explains the tame manner in which he awaited arrest in Dacca on March 25. At all events, he achieved his wish. People in Islamabad who know about such things say sheikh.
Mujib is now tucked away in a comfortable cell at the Attock Fort 50 miles from Islamabad. A real heavyweight is Mr Zulfiquar Bhutto, West Pakistan’s political leader. There is evidence that Mr Bhutto deliberately sabotaged the negotiations between General Yahya and Sheikh Mujib. He did so to protect West Pakistani interests perhaps with the connivance of the army-but it was also obvious that he did not welcome the prospect of playing second-fiddle to Sheikh Mujib in a united Pakistan.
Also part of this stage army of the bad are the hawkish army generals and Punjabi civil servants who surround Yahya, and are supposed by some to have pushed him into the bloody action to preserve their privilege and prosperity.
Five names are canvassed for places in this cabal. There is Major-General Tikka Khan, Martial Law Administrator of East Pakistan. He directed the troops during their first night’s killing in Dacca. There is Lieutenant -General Pirzada, Principal Staff Officer…
Reference: The Sunday Times, 18.04.71