General Tikka Clause Samples

General Tikka resorted to the killing of civilians and a scorched earth policy. His orders to his troops were: “I want the land and not the people . . .” Major General Farman had written in his table diary, “Green land of East Pakistan will be painted red.” It was painted red by Bengali blood.177 To this day most Pakistani generals remain unconvinced that their attitudes toward the Bengali population of their country were wrong, and they offer various explanations for the military’s excessive violence against the Bengalis. Lieutenant General Gul Hassan Khan, who was chief of general staff at the time and later became commander in chief, tried to explain General Tikka Khan’s actions in terms of the army’s reaction to insults by the Awami League while it effectively controlled East Pakistan during the phase of civil disobedience: 175 Siddiqi, Military in Pakistan, pp. 208-9. 176 Matinuddin, Tragedy of Errors, p. 260. 177 Niazi, Betrayal of East Pakistan, pp. 45-46. In his memoir, Major General Farman Ali Khan explained that he had just noted down a phrase from the speech of a left-wing leader reported to him over the telephone; see F. A. Khan, How Pakistan Got Divided, pp. 187-88. The Hamoodur Rehman Commission, established to inquire into the circumstances of the separation of East Pakistan, absolved Farman Ali Khan of any wrongdoing and accepted his version of events regarding this phrase. Prior to the take-over by General Tikka Khan, our troops had been confined to cantonments. Their movement was limited, owing to the insults and abuse heaped upon them and at times they were subjected to attacks by the Awami League followers. To make matters worse, their ration of fresh supplies was discontinued by Bengali contractors and their electricity and water supplies were cut off. This was a totally dismal picture. It was natural that when Army action was ordered the troops could not possibly forget the indignities they were subjected to by the Awami League minions.178 That the army may have wanted to teach the Bengalis a lesson for not treating it well is confirmed by the conversation between General Yahya Khan and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during one of their last meetings. According to Dr. Kamal Hosain, then a close associate of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and later foreign minister of Bangladesh, Yahya Khan received the Awami League leaders with a large glass of whisky in hand and said, “Sheikh Mujib, tell your boys they cannot treat the army with disrespect. We must all work for the...