Bilal9
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(Pasted verbatim from website with grammar corrections)
By Safwan Zahid February 21, 2017
Pakistani Army not only killed the Bengali civilians, but also they killed some of their Bengali officers. In a research, it was proven that the army killed 43 of their own officers who were Bengali. Some of these Bengali officers were in the rank of Major and Lieutenant colonel.
Pak army started their killing from 25th march, 1971. But the planning started a long ago. As the plan was top secret and confidential, most of the Pakistani army officers didn’t know about this killing before 25th march when the authority officially ordered them to eliminate the Bengali officers.
In this post, I am recounting how 3 High ranked Pakistani military officials who refused to kill Bengali officers. They instead, left East Pakistan before the massacre took part.
They are :
- Vice Admiral Syed Mohammad Ahsan (3 star general of Pakistan navy)
- Lieutenant General Sahabzada Yaqub Khan (3 star general of Pakistan Army) and
- Air Commodore Mohammad Zafar Masud ( 1 star general of Pakistan Air Force )
Vice Admiral Syed Mohammad Ahsan was the former Chief of Pakistan navy. He was a very close person of President Ayub khan and was also a finance minister in that time. After ending his time as a naval chief, he then promoted to the Governor of East Pakistan. in 1970, Awami league won the majority part in the election and Yahya khan refused that. From that moment, Pakistan Army was planning to take military actions in Bangladesh.
Syed Mohammad Ahsan researched and analyzed the situation. He had very good relationship with the Awami league leaders and assured them to help them in this situation. So In February 1971, Admiral Ahsan attended the meeting with President yahya khan and offered his suggestions not to take any military actions in Bangladesh.
In that meeting, he passed a very tough time. That meeting was attended by people with anti-Bengali atmosphere and Admiral Ahsan was the only man who supported the Bengalis. He continuously asked Yahya to handle the situation politically. That meeting made him much unpopular in the Pakistan military. The generals accused him of becoming the broker (dalal) of the Bengalis.
In February 22th, he attended the last meeting with the Generals. Again he tried to convince them to handle the situations politically. But he failed. Disheartened and disappointed by his colleagues, Ahsan Resigned from his post and immediately left Bangladesh in 7th march, 1971. He knew that a planned massacre was coming. He didn’t talk a single sentence before the independence of Bangladesh. After the independence, he said that he tried several times to stop the military actions. But nobody paid any heed about his opinion. He was the only supporter for the 75 million Bengali.
Lieutenant General Sahabzada Yaqub Khan was the governor of East Pakistan and he attended that meeting with Admiral Ahsan with the same opinion. He was also against the military actions and tried to handle it politically. But he also failed. He was the only Pakistany army general who supported the Bengalis. He was highly respected by the Bengali officers of Pakistan army. He was very much fond of Bangladeshi culture and learned Bangla as well.
In that meeting, he was fierce ( হিংস্র) and strictly gave his opinion against any type of military actions in Bangladesh. He had done a lot of jobs when the Cyclone hit the country in 1970 and after that he attained much popularity among the Bangalis.
As he failed to handle the situation, he quickly gave his resignation letter and posted back to Pakistan. He retired from Army in 1972 and didn’t take participation in the war in 1971.
Air Commodore Mohammad Zafar Masud. This 1 star Pakistan air force officer was really talent and he was popular in the military. He was supposed to be the next Chief of Air staff ( head of air force). In the meeting with president Yahya khan, he continuously argued with the generals and told that the political situation of Bangladesh can not be solved by taking military actions. But nobody heard about his opinion. He was the only air force officer in that meeting to support the Bengali. After the surprising resignation of Vice admiral Ahsan, he was given the order to command the miliatry in Bangladesh. He tried his best to stop the military actions. But he failed.
He was shocked when Pakistan army started the massacre at 25th march. He immediately tried to contact Yahya Khan, but he again failed. That time, Zafar became very angry. He quickly flew to Pakistan and tried to contact with Yahya . Again he failed. Being angry and frustrated, he suddenly resigned his position and took retirement from Pakistan air force. He tried to say what is happening in Bangladesh to the newspapers, but the senior ranking officers of Pakistan Army ordered him to silence, he could not break his silence before the end of the war.
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