Mirjee ....
11 - Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan
AKA Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan
Born: 4-Apr-1917
Birthplace: Chakwal, Pakistan
Died: 10-Aug-1980
Location of death: Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Cause of death: unspecified
Gender: Male
Religion: Shia Muslim
Race or Ethnicity: Asian/Indian
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Head of State, Military
Nationality: Pakistan
Executive summary: President of Pakistan, ordered Bengali genocide
Military service: British Indian Army (1939-47), Pakistani Army (commander-in-chief)
Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan (February 4, 1917 – August 10, 1980) was the President of Pakistan from 1969 to 1971, following the resignation of Ayub Khan. He has one son, Ali Yahya and one daughter, Yasmeen Khan.
The last days of united Pakistan
Yahya announced in his broadcast to the nation on 28 July 1969, his firm intention to redress Bengali grievances, the first major step in this direction being, the doubling of Bengali quota in the defense services. It may be noted that at this time there were just Seven infantry battalions of the East Pakistanis. Yahya’s announcement, although made with the noblest and most generous intentions in mind, was late by about twenty years. Yahya’s intention to raise more pure Bengali battalions was opposed by Major General Khadim Hussain Raja, the General Officer Commanding 14 Division in East Pakistan suggesting that the Bengalis were "too meek".
Within a year he had set up a framework for elections that were held in December of 1970. The results of the elections saw Pakistan split into its Eastern and Western halves. In East Pakistan, the Awami League (led by Mujibur Rahman) held almost all of the seats, but none in West Pakistan. In West Pakistan, the Pakistan Peoples Party (led by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto) won the lion's share of the seats, but none in East Pakistan. Though AL had 162 seats in the National Assembly against 88 of PPP, this led to a situation where one of the leaders of the two parties would have to give up power and allow the other to be Prime Minister of Pakistan. The situation also increased agitation, especially in East Pakistan as it became apparent that Sheikh Mujib was being denied of his legitimate claim to be the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Yahya Khan could not reach a compromise, and instead cracked down on the political agitation in East Pakistan with a massive campaign of genocide named by "Operation Searchlight" which began on 25th March, 1971, targeting, among others, Muslims, Hindus, Bengali intellectuals, students and political activists. 3 million people in the east Pakistan were killed in the next few months. Khan also arrested Sheikh Mujibur Rahman upon Bhutto's insistence and appointed Brigadier Rahimuddin Khan (later General) to preside over a special tribunal dealing with Mujib's case. Rahimuddin awarded Mujib the death sentence, and President Yahya put the verdict into abeyance. Yahya's crackdown, however, had led to a civil war within Pakistan, and eventually drew India into what would extend into the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The end result was the establishment of Bangladesh as an independent republic, and this was to lead Khan to step down. After Pakistan was defeated in 1971, most of the blame was heaped on Yahya.
Fall from power
Later overwhelming public anger over Pakistan's humiliating defeat by India, a genocide in east Pakistan which killed over 3 million people and the division of Pakistan into two parts boiled into street demonstrations throughout Pakistan, rumors of an impending coup d'état by younger army officers against the government of President Mohammed Agha Yahya Khan swept the country. Yahya became the highest-ranking casualty of the war: to forestall further unrest, on December 20, 1971 he hastily surrendered his powers to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, age 43, the ambitious leader of West Pakistan's powerful People's Party.
On the same day that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto released Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and saw him off to London, Pakistan President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in a supreme irony, ordered the house arrest of his predecessor, Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan, the man who imprisoned Mujib in the first place. Both actions produced headlines round the world. But in Pakistan they were almost overshadowed by what Bhutto grandly called "the first steps toward an economic and social revolution.“
Yahya Khan died in August 1980, in Rawalpindi.
11 - Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan
AKA Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan
Born: 4-Apr-1917
Birthplace: Chakwal, Pakistan
Died: 10-Aug-1980
Location of death: Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Cause of death: unspecified
Gender: Male
Religion: Shia Muslim
Race or Ethnicity: Asian/Indian
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Head of State, Military
Nationality: Pakistan
Executive summary: President of Pakistan, ordered Bengali genocide
Military service: British Indian Army (1939-47), Pakistani Army (commander-in-chief)
Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan (February 4, 1917 – August 10, 1980) was the President of Pakistan from 1969 to 1971, following the resignation of Ayub Khan. He has one son, Ali Yahya and one daughter, Yasmeen Khan.
The last days of united Pakistan
Yahya announced in his broadcast to the nation on 28 July 1969, his firm intention to redress Bengali grievances, the first major step in this direction being, the doubling of Bengali quota in the defense services. It may be noted that at this time there were just Seven infantry battalions of the East Pakistanis. Yahya’s announcement, although made with the noblest and most generous intentions in mind, was late by about twenty years. Yahya’s intention to raise more pure Bengali battalions was opposed by Major General Khadim Hussain Raja, the General Officer Commanding 14 Division in East Pakistan suggesting that the Bengalis were "too meek".
Within a year he had set up a framework for elections that were held in December of 1970. The results of the elections saw Pakistan split into its Eastern and Western halves. In East Pakistan, the Awami League (led by Mujibur Rahman) held almost all of the seats, but none in West Pakistan. In West Pakistan, the Pakistan Peoples Party (led by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto) won the lion's share of the seats, but none in East Pakistan. Though AL had 162 seats in the National Assembly against 88 of PPP, this led to a situation where one of the leaders of the two parties would have to give up power and allow the other to be Prime Minister of Pakistan. The situation also increased agitation, especially in East Pakistan as it became apparent that Sheikh Mujib was being denied of his legitimate claim to be the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Yahya Khan could not reach a compromise, and instead cracked down on the political agitation in East Pakistan with a massive campaign of genocide named by "Operation Searchlight" which began on 25th March, 1971, targeting, among others, Muslims, Hindus, Bengali intellectuals, students and political activists. 3 million people in the east Pakistan were killed in the next few months. Khan also arrested Sheikh Mujibur Rahman upon Bhutto's insistence and appointed Brigadier Rahimuddin Khan (later General) to preside over a special tribunal dealing with Mujib's case. Rahimuddin awarded Mujib the death sentence, and President Yahya put the verdict into abeyance. Yahya's crackdown, however, had led to a civil war within Pakistan, and eventually drew India into what would extend into the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. The end result was the establishment of Bangladesh as an independent republic, and this was to lead Khan to step down. After Pakistan was defeated in 1971, most of the blame was heaped on Yahya.
Fall from power
Later overwhelming public anger over Pakistan's humiliating defeat by India, a genocide in east Pakistan which killed over 3 million people and the division of Pakistan into two parts boiled into street demonstrations throughout Pakistan, rumors of an impending coup d'état by younger army officers against the government of President Mohammed Agha Yahya Khan swept the country. Yahya became the highest-ranking casualty of the war: to forestall further unrest, on December 20, 1971 he hastily surrendered his powers to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, age 43, the ambitious leader of West Pakistan's powerful People's Party.
On the same day that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto released Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and saw him off to London, Pakistan President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in a supreme irony, ordered the house arrest of his predecessor, Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan, the man who imprisoned Mujib in the first place. Both actions produced headlines round the world. But in Pakistan they were almost overshadowed by what Bhutto grandly called "the first steps toward an economic and social revolution.“
Yahya Khan died in August 1980, in Rawalpindi.