who compelled me to run up the stairs

with my feet deep in the blood

of my parents,

float on rivers,

and make my bed in wild forests.

I curse them :

let them forever wander

with rotting bodies

hung around their emaciated necks.

I curse them :

when at the close of each day

they beg on their knees

for a piece of dry bread,

it will always stay ten feet away

from their outstretched palms.

their cup for quenching thirst

will always fill to the brim

with blood,

the blood with which they flooded

the soil of Bangla.

I curse them !”

I Curse Them: Shamsur Rahman

General Yahya was the president of Pakistan in 1970. He was supposed to hand the political power over to the winner of the national election of 1970: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as his Awami league won 162 seats out of 168 seats, more than double of his west Pakistani counterpart Bhutto. Sheikh Mujib’s unprecedented victory in the general election was a crushing blow to the Panjabi military -feudal axis. So they involved in a pact known as Larkana Conspiracy to shut the Bangalees by violent massacre. In this very meeting the military macho man and the Pak feudal lord planned to implement  Shahibjada Yakub’s notorious Operation Blitz on the Bangalees. They modified the plan and rendered it more destructive ( to crush the Bangalee uprising forever) and renamed it Operation Searchlight. To implement Operation Searchlight they (Bhutto and Yahya) recruited  (as both Gen Yakub and Admiral Ahsan recommended political instead of military measures to deal with the victory of the Bangalees in general election) two of their two most extremely notorious generals: General Tikka and General Niazi.

According to the plan Yahya, since early February, 1971, secretly sent Pakistani troops to Dhaka and prepared for the final crack down. When the preparation was complete, Yahya dismissed the constituent assembly. On March 25, after giving full instruction for mass killing of the inhabitants of Dhaka, at about 11 pm that night Yahya secretly left Dhaka. He went to Dhaka airport in a private car, completely unescorted in fear of identification by the airport officials. He was scared that Indian air force may stop him in the air. But Group Captain AR Khandaker saw Yahya sneaking out of the country in the dead of the night.

Soon after Yahya’s departure, the Pakistani army crashed down Dhaka city. Their main target was to devastate the center of Bangalee political strength: student halls of Dhaka university and the top leaders and intellectuals involved in nationalist movement. They crashed the whole of Dhaka city by killing thousands of innocent civilians and poor people on the street (rickshaw pullers, homeless people, day laborers, street kids etc). The casualties were more than 50, 000. They arrested Bangabondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from his resident and took him to Pakistan. Yahya’s officers also looked for other top leaders of Awami league specially Tajuddin Ahmed. But they could not find them as they, apprehensive of Pakistani military junta’s next move, disappeared from their residences. Their failure to capture top Awami leaguers fueled their hatred against Bangalees and they appeased their avenging impulses by killing them in multitudes.

After 25 March, the Dhaka crack down night, the devastation of Bangladesh topped the personal agenda of Yahya. He used all means at his disposal to crash down the Bangalees. The intensity of his personal hatred against Bangladesh rules out the ” liability theory” adopted by Pakistani bureaucrats and academics to ditch, resource less but politically less obliging, Bangladesh and Bangalees. Even when the victory of the Bangladesh liberation forces became obvious, in September, 1971, Yahya manipulated all his international connections to destroy Bangladesh:

1. Exhausted his connection with Kissinger/Nixon duo to get massive arms supply from the US and finally, on the eve of the victory, to demonstrate US nuclear threat to counter Bangladesh-India alliance, Yahya managed to bring US Seventh Fleet to crush the independence of Bangladesh.

2. He used his Chinese connection against Bangladesh-India alliance.

3. When Yahya finally realized his absolute defeat in the war, he used his loyal military officers to kill the Bangalee intellectuals to spiritually cripple Bangladesh for centuries. Yahya’s plan to eliminate the intellectuals further reinforces the fact that the Pakistani military junta did not want to ditch Bangladesh only, they intended the total destruction of Bangladesh and absolute extinction of the Bangalee race as reflected in Tikka’s war cry: ” I want land only, not people.”

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the head of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) in 1971. In the general election of 1970, Bhutto won 88 seats in West Pakistan as opposed to Mujib’s 162 seats out of 169. As per the legislation Mujib was supposed to form the government of Pakistan. According to some Pakistani high officials sources, at first president Yahya  was more inclined to hand power over to Mujib.

But Bhutto opposed Yahya’s decision. Bhutto represented the influential Panjabi civil and military bureaucrats and the  feudal lords. Pakistani military-feudal axis vehemently opposed the transference of power. They were afraid that Mujib’s democratic policies may adversely affect the existing feudal system of West Pakistan and curb the power of the top civil and military bureaucrats. So their representative Bhutto invited Yahya in the notorious Larkana meeting and together two shrewd jackals conspired to repress the Bangalees with military means and retain the political power in the hands of the West Pakistanis. This theory is plausible because such a brilliant idea is more likely to emanate from the arch machiavellian: Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Yahya is more given to kill his fellow countrymen to show off his military prowess than formulate a brilliant idea to sort all the problems together: destroy Bangladesh; keep the power in the hands of  Bhutto and him; make Niazi and the army the scapegoat of the war in order to divert the attention  of the Pakistani people. Tajuddin Ahmed was right to think that Bhutto was the deux ex machina behind the political conspiracy leading to the devastation of Bangladesh: “…..Bhutto is responsible for the unprecedented brutality unleashed nationwide. Seating with him is impossible. Pakistan can be saved only if two federations  are formed. Both the federations are to write up their separate constitutions. Then if situation permits they can write the constitution of Pakistan. In other words, confederation…….Tajuddin’s view on Bhutto as described by Rao Forman Ali.

Bhutto manipulated the military monsters (Yahya, Tikka) to secure his power and maintain his vested interest in politics. All through his political career he thrived on conspiracy and intrigues. As often the fate of such treacherous politicians  is to end up in the hands of the partners in crime, Bhutto was justified to be hanged by his own Frankenstein: General Ziaul Huq

On 11 April 1971, Yahya appointed his loyal general Tikka Khan as the  Governor General and the Chief Martial Law administrator of Bangladesh and as such he was the highest authority on both civil and military administrations. The Pakistani military junta was confident about Tikka’s ability in violent repression of Bangalee nationalist movement. Tikka Khan proved his ability as a formidable machine for massacre by killing thousands of Bangalees on 25 March, 1971. Tikka unleashed such a terrible reign of terror that even the blockheaded General Niazi, a soldier himself, was critical of his Tikka’s ruthless massacre of the unarmed civilians of Bangladesh:

“General Tikka let loose every thing at his disposal as if raiding an enemy and not dealing  with his own misguided and misled people. The military action was a display of stark cruelty, more merciless than the massacre at Bakhura and Baghdad by Changez Khan and Halaku Khan and at Jalianwala Bagh by British General Dyer”

” ….On the night (25 March, 1971) Tikka Khan ordered for action, 50, 000 people were killed”.

Niazi: Betrayal of East Pakistan

Brigadier Shah Abdul Quasim on the massacre of 25th March: “no pitched battle was fought on the 25th of March in Dhaka. Excessive force was used on that night. Army personnel acted under the influence of revenge and anger during the military operation…. mortars were used to blast two Residence Halls, thus causing excessive casualties.”

Massacre in Comilla Cantonment: On 27th/28th of March, 1971) under the orders of CO 53 Field Regiment, Lt. Gen. Yakub Malik, 17 Bangalee officers and 915 men were  slain. There was a general feeling of hatred against Bangalees amongst the soldiers and officers including Generals of Pakistan army. There were verbal instructions to eliminate Hindus. In Salda Nadi area about 500 persons were killed.

Excerpts from the book written by Mohammad Ashraf, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Dhaka in 1971, : “after the military action the Bangalees were made aliens in their own homeland. The life, property, and honor of even the most highly placed among them were not safe. People were picked up from their homes on suspicion and dispatched toBangladesh, a term used to describe summary executions. …. The victims included Army and Police Officers, businessmen, civilian officers etc. ……There was no Rule of Law in East Pakistan. A man had no remedy if he was on the wanted list of the army…. Army officers who were doing intelligence were raw hands, ignorant of the local language and callous of Bangalee sensibilities.”

General AAK Niazi (PA-477) was the chief of Eastern Command in 1971. The Yahya- Bhutto gang picked Niazi for this special mission as he was notoriously corrupted and immoral and was dumb enough to be their  scapegoat in the war. In Pakistan Niazi was involved in business with the patrons of brothels and influential business women. He was also involved in smuggling pans from East Pakistan. He found his posting as the chief of Eastern Command as a lucrative one and was certainly puffed up as, due to this promotion, he stepped ahead 12 of his senior officers.

Niazi was a soldier and as such he fought a conventional war against  Bangladeshi freedom fighters and Indian alliance forces. He was too dull to conceive the ignoble scheme to kill the intellectuals. But as he was a corrupted officer he concentrated more on looting and rapes. He made fortunes for himself and encouraged his under commands in the occupation army to loot and rape as pointed out by Mr Alamder Raja, the last commissioner of Pakistan: “……It is said that the people of West Pakistan were unaware of the terrible devastation inflicted on the Bangalees by the Pakistani occupation army. It was a sheer government propaganda. Did not we have radios those days? Before the war, Punjabi soldiers used to send  Tk 200-300 per month to their families. But in 1971, they sent about Tk 500-600 per month. Where did they get the additional money ?…..”     ,

About rapes, Mr. Raja gave an example of the brutality of the Pakistani soldiers: “…….A band of Pakistani occupation army attacked a house and killed one but all the members of the family. The only young girl of the family was kept alive for rape. The girl begged for mercy; frightened to death she cried out and said is a Muslim woman and the soldiers are also Muslim. How come Muslim men can rape a Muslim woman? …..At last, as a last resort, she put the holy Koran on the bed, next to her and said, they have to step on the Koran to rape her. The bastards kicked the Koran out of the bed and group raped her….”

Loots and rapes were so rampant that Niazi, in one of his confidential memo,  mentioned that the departing West Pakistani families were carrying looted properties with them to Pakistan. Rapes and forced pregnancy to eliminate the Hindus as a race was so wide spread that Niazi had to officially warn his officers: ….” I gather that even officers have been suspected of indulging in this shameful activity and what is worse, that in spite of repeated instructions, comdos. have so far failed to curb this alarming state of indiscipline. I suspect that cos and osc units/sub-units are protecting and shielding such criminals…”.

Lt Col Aziz Ahmed Khan, CO of 8 Baluch regiment (CO 86 Mujahid Battalion in 1971) , confessed that Niazi personally encouraged ethnic cleansing:  “Brigadier Arbbab also told me to destroy all houses in Joydebpur. To a great extent I executed this order. General Niazi visited my unit at Thakargaon and Bogra. He asked us how many Hindus we had killed. In May, there was an order in writing to kill Hindus. This order was from Brigadier Abdullah Malik of 23 Brigade.”

The notorious killer, loafer, looter and rapist of 1971, rascal Niazi now, in order to evade trial, puts on the mask of a pious Muslim.  Who would believe that the old buffoon in showy Islamic attire in the photo below was the main culprit behind the loots, rapes, arsons and massacres of the Bangalees in 1971?

Niazi the hypocrite bastard in 2000

Major General Rao Forman Ali

Major General Rao Forman Ali (PA-1364) was the chief adviser to the Governer of East Pakistan during the liberation war. Unlike Yahya, whose only known method for all transactions was  application of brutal military force, Rao was aware of the reality leading to the war and the possible impact of the war on Bangladesh and Bangalees. He served in Dhaka cantonment for more than a decade and was involved in  intelligence gathering,  making strategic decisions and formulating policies. He was also involved in buying Bangalee politicians to subvert nationalist movements.  He was the mastermind behind the massacre of 1971 as he, being in charge of the civil administration, knew about Bangladesh more than his peers. It was Forman who blueprinted the elimination of the secular minded Bangalee intellectuals. He was more of a cold blooded murderer than the haughty Yahya or bloodthirsty Tikka. His trained killers were more ruthless than the professional soldiers. Forman ran training programs in various cantonments for the forces of Al-Badr and Al-Shams to train them to torture, mutilate and slaughter the captive Bangalees’ in Islamic manner.

In his book The Betrayal of East Pakistan, General Niazi described Forman as an opportunist, a conspirator and a swindler. Niazi also said, implicating Forman’s involvement in the killing of the intellectuals, that Forman requested him (N) to send him (F) back to Pakistan, for, ” Mukti Bahini would kill him of his alleged massacre of the Bangalees and intellectuals on the night of 15-16 December. It was a pathetic sight to see him pale and almost on the verge of break down”.

Presently Forman is writing books in order to convince the world about his ignorance of independence war of Bangladesh and to clear his name off the  massacre, loot, rape and arson during the war. In his book Forman, through his subtle language and ostensibly innocent representation, pleads his innocence during the war and his ignorance of the war situation (although he was in charge of the civil administration and the chief adviser to the chief martial law administrator of Pakistan !).

Evidences against Forman’s involvement in the massacre of the Bangalees and the killings of the intellectuals:

1. When asked about Forman’s refusal to admit his involvement in the killing of the intellectuals Brigader Sidddiqui, another senior military officer during the war, said:……” He (Forman) was the major general in charge of civil administration. As such nothing would happen which he would not know. Forman is the man who should about the killing of the intellectuals. I never trusted him. He always wore a mask…”.

2. In The Separation of East Pakistan, Mr Hasan Zahir, a Pakistani civil servant wrote: ” Major General Forman Ali was the executioner of Dhaka part of ” Operation Searchlight”. He succedded in ‘shock action’ by concentrated and indiscriminate firing on target areas…….”

3.  Siddiq Salik in his book,  Witness to Surrender ( p.71), wrote: ….”The plan for operation Searchlight-1 visualized the setting up of two headquarters. Major General Forman with 57 Brigade under Brigadier Arbab, was responsible for operations in Dacca city and its suburbs while Major General Khadim was to look after the rest of the province. In addition lieutenant General Tikka Khan and his staff were to spend the night at the Martial Law Headquarters in the Second Capital to watch the progress of action in and outside Dacca……”

4. According to Mr Altaf Gaohar, a leading Pakistani journalist, Forman was the mastermind behind the killing of the intellectuals. In this connection Mr Gaohar recounted an incident from his memory. One of Gaohar’s  friends told him that a hit list had been drawn up for elimination of certain Bangalees. A friend of his was also in the list and he requested Gaohar if he could do something to save his friend. Gaohar then took the matter to one of his friends who was also common friend of Forman. Gaohar’s friend then saw Forman and requested him to drop the name from his hit list. ” Forman brought, said Gaohar’s friend, a diary out of his drawer and crossed the name out. The name was of Mr Sanaul Huq and he was spared.” After independence Forman’s diary was recovered from the ruins of the Governor’s house. The copy of a page from the diary shows the list of intellectuals from Dhaka University. 14 of them were killed on 14 December, 1971:

5. A close reading of Forman’s book in self defense, How Pakistan Got Divided, shows that Forman had deeply ingrained prejudice against the Bangalees. Like Hitler, Forman the ignorant fool, suffers from the purity complex. He believes that due to the Hindu influence Bangalees are not pure Muslims. But the rascal forgot that it was due to the Bangalee majority that made for Pakistan. It was people, not bloody military, who made Pakistan. Forman firmly believed that the impurities of the Bangalees can be  mended if they are absolved of the Hindu influence. This was the conviction that motivated Forman to ruthlessly eliminate the Bangalee intellectuals. Behind all elements of Bangalee nationalism Forman discovered Hindu phantasm. He was less critical of Sheikh Mujib but an arch enemy of Tajuddin Ahmed. If arrested Forman, as his comment on Tajuddin testifies, would not have spared Tajuddin: …..” Tajuddin, the die hard pro Indian Awami leaguer, came in and sat down. He hated West Pakistan and perhaps Pakistan itself. He was reputed to have been a Hindu up to the age of 8. I do not think this story was correct but it revealed his mental make up”.

6. The group photo with Golam Azam and puppet governor Malek below shows that Forman is discussing the plan for elimination of the Bangalee intellectuals. Golam Azamm and Forman is alleged to have jointly prepared the list of names of Bangalee intellectuals for elimination to absolve Bangalees  of Hindu influences.

7. Excerpt from the report on the excavation of Jalladkhan mass grave carried out by Bangladesh Liberation War Museum (LWM). The excerpt underscores the extreme brutalities showed by Forman’s special forces in torturing and killing the Bangalees:

..”The Jalladkhan (slaughter house) located also in Mirpur (Section 10 Block D)…….. selected for immediate excavation and exhuming of remains of the martyrs of 1971. ……….The excavation began on  November 15 1999 and the exhuming ended on  23 November with the recovery of 70 skulls and 5392 various human bones. Most of the skulls revealed sign of being severed from the shoulder with a sharp weapon and some bore marks of being struck by heavy weapon and one had a bullet hole shot from a close range. Other bones also showed signs of being hit by a heavy weapon…..”

The old fox (Rao Forman Ali) in 2000

Please also visit Collaborators and Martyred Intellectuals page for details of Rao Forman Ali’s war crimes

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(Muhammad Zakar Khan, Arty)

Pakistan Air Force

Pakistan Navy