A. A. K. Niazi
(PA – 477) Lieutenant General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi HJ, MC (1915 - February 2, 2004), was a general officer of the Pakistan Army. In 1971, as a Lieutenant General, Niazi was in charge of Eastern contingent of the Pakistani Army during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War. He is held responsible by some within the Pakistani Military for having surrendered his forces of nearly 93000 men to the joint forces of India and Bangladesh at a time when joint forces were preparing to lay siege on Dhaka and thus bringing to close the Bangladesh Liberation War. Niazi had, however, always insisted that he had acted according to the orders of the High Command. Following the war, Niazi was relieved of his position in the army. Throughout the remainder of his life, Niazi had sought Court-Martial to prove his innocence, but was never charged. Before his death, he authored the book The Betrayal of East Pakistan.
Early life
Born to a Pashtun family in the Punjab, Niazi enlisted in the British Indian Army as a junior officer, and fought well during World War II. During this conflict, the young Niazi would win a Military Cross and be given the nickname "Tiger" by his superior officer due to his prowess in battle against Japanese forces. His Military Cross was earned for actions along the border with Burma, in which he showed great leadership, judgement, quick-thinking, and calmness under pressure.
He would join the newly-formed Pakistani Army after independence in 1947 and quickly rose through the ranks, earning various awards including the Hilal-i-Jurat twice. He commanded 5 Punjab during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, 14 Para Brigade during operations in Kashmir and Sialkot, and martial law administrator of Karachi and Lahore.[1] By 1971 he had reached the rank of Lieutenant-General.
East Pakistan
He was sent in that year to East Pakistan in April following a Pakistani military crackdown on Bengali intellectuals. Niazi himself volunteered for the job of military commander of East Pakistan, when many other officers of Pakistan Army were cautious on the posting. The army leader in East Pakistan at that time, Tikka Khan, was thought to be behind the implementation of the crackdown. Despite this, the situation in the East was difficult, as Bengali forces in the Pakistani Army had gone into mutiny, large segments of the population were hostile, and an independence movement was gaining steam among the Bengalis. Despite this, Niazi was able to reaffirm Pakistani control over wide parts of East Pakistani territory, opening the window for a political solution to the turmoil - this would not come to fruition.
General Niazi was one of the generals who lead the occupation of Bangladesh (then, East Pakistan). There is no evidence that Niazi really condemned the crackdown of 25 March, 1971, dubbed Operation Searchlight ordered by Tikka Khan. It was only after returning to Pakistan as empty-handed prisoner of war did Niazi criticize Tikka and Rao Farman. Niazi himself admitted that he raised the Razakar forces, who were employed against the Mukti Bahini (guerilla forces) and were used to kill, terrorize people and destroy rural villages. His vows against the Indian Army and Mukti Bahini were notorious. The crackdown against the Bengalis had gone too far, and the result saw Pakistani forces involved in a guerrilla war with the Bengali Mukti Bahini, who were aided by India. This would lead to later Indian involvement in the conflict, and a full-scale invasion of East Pakistan by India, resulting in isolation for Niazi's forces, and with the absence of external aid, eventual surrender.
Surrender
On December 16, 1971, General Niazi surrendered all Pakistani forces in East Pakistan to Indian General Jagjit Singh Aurora General-Officer-Commanding In-Chief of the Indian and Bangladesh Allied Forces (a military alliance forged between the governments of India and Bangladesh). Niazi signed the instrument of surrender resulting in his surrender along with a sizeable number of Pakistani soldiers who were taken prisoners (upwards of 93,000). This was the largest number of POWs since World War II and included some government officials. Many would not be freed until two years later, with Niazi symbolically being the last prisoner of war to cross back to Pakistan. Such actions symbolized his reputation as a "soldier's general" but did not shield him from the scorn he faced upon his return to Pakistan, where he was made a scapegoat for the humiliating defeat to arch rival India.
Niazi was stripped of his military rank, and the pension usually accorded to retired soldiers. The Hamoodur Rahman Commission report revealed that Niazi was guilty of several misconducts during his tenure as martial law administrator in East Pakistan. It confirmed that the General was indulging in paan (chewing tobacco) smuggling from East to West Pakistan and sexual excesses, including, possibly rape as stated by witnesses.[2] In order to clear his name, Niazi sought a court martial, but it was never granted. The former general would try to take up politics in order to clear himself, but he was jailed in order to quell such actions. In 1998 he released The Betrayal of East Pakistan where he blamed Yahya Khan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto for the separation of East Pakistan. Niazi lived out his life in Lahore, his wife predeceasing him.
Legacy
Niazi was a mixture of the bold and pragmatic. He was also noted for making audacious statements like "Dacca will fall only over my dead body".[1] According to Pakistani author, Akbar S. Ahmed, he had even hatched a far-fetched plan to "cross into India and march up the Ganges and capture Delhi and thus link up with Pakistan."[2] This he called the "Niazi corridor theory" explaining "It was a corridor that the Quaid-e-Azam demanded and I will obtain it by force of arms".[3] In a plan he presented to the central government in June 1971, he stated in his own words that "I would capture Agartala and a big chunk of Assam, and develop multiple thrusts into Indian Bengal. We would cripple the economy of Calcutta by blowing up bridges and sinking boats and ships in Hooghly River and create panic amongst the civilians. One air raid on Calcutta would set a sea of humanity in motion to get out of Calcutta”.[3][4] A journalist from Dawn had observed him thus: When I last met him on September 30, 1971, at his force headquarters in Kurmitola, he was full of beans. Thumping his thighs in his characteristic, over-confident way, he said: "You just wait and see that I am going to make it to Calcutta one day..." He did indeed live up to his words, and made it to Calcutta less than three months later, but only as a prisoner of war.[3]
From the mass of evidence coming before the Hamoodur-Rehman Commission from witnesses, both civil and military, there is little doubt that Gen. Niazi unfortunately came to acquire a bad reputation in sex matters, and this reputation has been consistent during his postings in Sialkot, Lahore and East Pakistan. The allegations regarding his indulgence in the export of Pan by using or abusing his position in the Eastern Command and as Zonal Martial Law Administrator also prima facie appear to be well-founded, although it was not our function to hold a detailed inquiry into the matter. It is for the Government to decide whether these matters should also form the subject of any inquiry or trial which may have to be ultimately held against this officer [4].
See also
References
- ^ The Rediff Interview/Lt Gen A A Khan Niazi - Rediff February 02, 2004
- ^ Hamoodur-Rahman Commission, Chapter 1
- ^ a b The Betrayal of East Pakistan. A.A.K Niazi
- ^ Online snippets of Niazi's comments