Yahya Khan | |
|---|---|
یحییٰ خان | |
 | |
| 3rd President of Pakistan | |
| In office 25 March 1969 – 20 December 1971 | |
| Prime Minister | Nurul Amin |
| Preceded by | Ayub Khan |
| Succeeded by | Zulfikar Ali Bhutto |
| 5th Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army | |
| In office 18 September 1966 – 20 December 1971 | |
| President | Ayub Khan Himself |
| Prime Minister | Nurul Amin |
| Preceded by | Muhammad Musa |
| Succeeded by | Gul Hassan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan 4 February 1917 Chakwal, Punjab, British India |
| Died | 10 August 1980 (aged 63) Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan |
| Resting place | Peshawar, Pakistan |
| Nationality | British Indian (until 1947) Pakistani (from 1947) |
| Political party | None (martial law) |
| Alma mater | |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  British India (1939–47) Pakistan (1947–71) |
| Branch/service |  British Indian Army Pakistan Army |
| Years of service | 1939–1971 |
| Rank | General |
| Unit | 4th Battalion/10th Baluch Regiment Now 11th Baloch Regiment (S/No. PA–98) |
| Commands | |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards | |
Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan[a] (4 February 1917 – 10 August 1980), widely known as Yahya Khan, was a Pakistani army officer, who was the third president of Pakistan from 1969 to 1971. He also served as the fifth commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army from 1966 to 1971. Along with General Tikka Khan, he was considered the chief architect of the 1971 Bangladesh genocide.[1][2]
Khan was commissioned into the British Indian Army in 1939. He fought in the Second World War in the Mediterranean theatre and was promoted to major (acting lieutenant-colonel). Following the creation of Pakistan in 1947, he advanced in the Pakistan Army. During the Second India–Pakistan War of 1965, Khan helped in executing the covert infiltration in Indian-administered Kashmir. After being controversially appointed to assume the army command in 1966, Khan succeeded to the presidency from Ayub Khan, who resigned in March 1969.
Yahya Khan's presidency oversaw martial law by suspending the constitution in 1969. Holding the country's first general election in 1970, he blocked the power transition to the victorious Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from East Pakistan. In March 1971, Khan ordered Operation Searchlight in an effort to suppress Bengali nationalism. This led to the Bangladesh Liberation War in March 1971. Yahya Khan was central to the perpetration of Bangladesh genocide, in which around 300,000–3,000,000 Bengalis were killed, and between 200,000 to 400,000 women were raped.[3][4] In December 1971, Pakistan carried out pre-emptive strikes against the Bengali-allied Indian Army, culminating in the start of the Third India–Pakistan War. The wars resulted in the surrender of the Pakistani armed forces in East Pakistan, and East Pakistan seceded as Bangladesh. After the surrender, Khan resigned from the military command and transferred the presidency to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Khan remained under house surveillance prior to 1979 when he was released by Fazle Haq. Khan died the following year in Rawalpindi and was buried in Peshawar.
Khan's short regime was regarded as the leading cause of the breakup of Pakistan. He is viewed negatively in both Bangladesh, being considered the chief-architect of the genocide, and in Pakistan.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ Totten, Samuel; Parsons, William S.; Charny, Israel W. (2004). Century of Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts. Psychology Press. pp. 295–303. ISBN 978-0-415-94430-4.
The Pakistani government (the Yahya regime) was primarily responsible for the genocide. Not only did it prevent the Awami League and Rahman from forming the federal government, but it opted for a military solution to a constitutional crisis. In doing so, it decided to unleash a brutal military operation in order to terrorize the Bengalis. Yahya's decision to put General Tikka Khan (who had earned the name of "Butcher of Baluchistan" for his earlier brutal suppression of Baluchi nationals in the 1960s) in charge of the military operation in Bangladesh was an overt signal of the regime's intention to launch a genocide.
- ^ Mishra, Pankaj (16 September 2013). "Unholy Alliances". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
The military junta—led by General Yahya Khan, who had assumed power in 1969—was reluctant to accept the election results, and Khan postponed convening Pakistan's National Assembly... On March 25, 1971, the Pakistani Army launched a full-scale campaign, known as Operation Searchlight. After arresting Mujib and abducting him to West Pakistan and banning his party, it set about massacring his supporters, with American weapons. Firing squads spread out across East Pakistan, sometimes assisted by local collaborators from Islamist groups that had been humiliated in the elections. In the countryside, where the armed resistance was strongest, the Pakistani military burned and strafed villages, killing thousands and turning many more into refugees. Hindus, who composed more than ten per cent of the population, were targeted, their un-Muslimness ascertained by a quick inspection underneath their lungis. Tens of thousands of women were raped in a campaign of terror.
- ^ "The Past has yet to Leave the Present: Genocide in Bangladesh". Harvard International Review. 1 February 2023. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
- ^ "House Resolution1430 - Recognizing the Bangladesh Genocide of 1971". United States Congress.