December 16th, Gen Niazi and Imran Khan
December 16th is a national holiday in Bangladesh to commemorate the joint victory of the Bangladeshi freedom fighters and the Indian Army over the Pakistani armed forces in 1971. This victory day is called Bijoy Dibas in Bangladesh and Vijay Diwas in India.
The then Commanding officer of the Pakistan Army Lt. Gen Ameer Abdullah Khan Niazi had surrendered his weapon to the Indian Army Commander Lt. Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora on December 16, 1971 in Ramna Race Course Ground, which is now called Suharwardy Udyan.
December 16th is considered to be a day of grief in Pakistan because of the country’s dismemberment. Ordinary Pakistanis have been made to believe that India broke their country in 1971 with the collaboration of a Bengali traitor, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. Most Pakistanis are not aware of the fact that Sheikh Mujib of the Awami League had supported Miss Fatima Jinnah (Sister of Muhammad Ali Jinnah) in the 1965 Presidential Election against the then military dictator, Field Marshall General Ayub Khan.
Very few young Pakistanis know that Sheikh Mujib had won a majority in the first ever General Elections of Pakistan in 1970 but the then military ruler President General Yahya Khan did not transfer power to him.
This grave injustice forced him to revolt. Military dictator General Yahya Khan ordered to use force against Awami League but Lt.General Sahibzada Yaqoob Ali Khan refused to use force against his own people.He suggested a political solution.Ultimately he resigned.
The Pakistani Army subsequently launched a military operation against the majority leader who was arrested in Dacca and shifted to the Mianwali Jail in West Pakistan. The question is: Why Sheikh Mujib was shifted to Mianwali instead of any other major prison of Karachi or Lahore? He was arrested on the orders of Lt. Gen Tikka Khan who was later replaced by Lt. Gen. Niazi in April 1971.
The new Commanding officer of the Pakistan Army in Dhaka, Gen Niazi belonged to Mianwali and was glad that Sheikh Mujib was imprisoned in his hometown. Some Pakistanis still prefer to call him “Tiger Niazi”. I read an article in an Urdu newspaper Daily Dunya on December 14, 2014 in which “Tiger Niazi” was painted as a national hero.
The writer of the article never mentioned that the Pakistan government had discharged General Niazi after stripping him of his military rank, the pension usually accorded to retired soldiers, and his military decorations because a commission of inquiry had charged him with misconduct and corruption in Dhaka.
The three member commission, led by Justice Hamoodur Rehman, examined more than 200 witnesses including Niazi. The final report was submitted to Pakistan government in 1974 but it was never made public for several years. This report was released very quietly only a few years ago.
The Hamood commission had recommended a public trial of several senior Army officers and suggested a court-martial of General Niazi on 15 different charges including smuggling of Pan and involvement in immoral activities. But no government in Pakistan dared to hold his trial, which could have enlightened the people of Pakistan about the background of the surrender on December 16, 1971.
The naivety of many Pakistanis about the events of 1971 turned into an embarrassment on November 30, 2014 when a popular opposition leader, Imran Khan, announced in a big public gathering that he will shut down the country on December 16 to protest against the alleged rigging in 2013 elections.
Imran Khan faced lethal criticism not only by some federal ministers but also from by the opposition parties. Pakistan People’s Party leader and former President Asif Zardari dubbed him as “Imran Khan Niazi”, saying he knows nothing about the tragedy of December 16th.
It is just a coincidence that Imran Khan belongs to the Niazi clan of Mianwali and won his National Assembly election for the first time from Mianwali in 2002. His full name is Imran Khan Niazi. He has always criticized the military operation of 1971 and even pressed Pakistan to apologize Bangladesh for the excesses committed by its armed forces in the 1971 operation. Yet he failed to remember that December 16th is a day of shame for Pakistan.
Why? I quote page 520 of Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report which said that Lt. Gen Ameer Abdullah Khan Niazi failed to defend Dacca and agreed to a shameful and premature surrender in spite of his own assertion before the commission that Indians would have required at least a period of seven days to mount offensive and another week to reduce the defenses of Dacca.
The report added: “He (Niazi) displayed a shameful and abject attitude in agreeing to surrender when he had himself offered a ceasefire to the Indian commander-in chief; in signing the surrender document agreeing to lay down arms to the joint command of the Indian forces and Mukti Bahini; in being present at the Dacca airport to receive the victorious Indian General Aurora; in ordering his own ADC to present a guard of honor to the said General; and in accepting the Indian proposal for a public surrender ceremony which brought everlasting shame to the Pakistan Army”.
The Hamood report has mentioned an incident of December 7, 1971 when the Governor of East Pakistan Mr. Malik called Gen Niazi and asked about the situation at war front. “The Governor hardly said a few words when Niazi started crying loudly with tears”.
Tiger became a jackal.
Page 534 of Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report suggested: “If Gen. Niazi had done so and lost his life in the process, he would have made history and would have been remembered by coming generations as a great hero and a great martyr but the events show that he had already lost the will to fight after December 7, 1971”.
After being relieved, Gen Niazi wrote a book titled “Betrayal of East Pakistan” [in 1998] and criticized Justice Hamoodur Rehman because he was a Bengali. Justice Hamoodur Rehman only recorded and reproduced statements of some Army officers who served under Niazi in East Pakistan and interestingly all of them were Punjabis. Major General (Rtd) Khadim Hussain Raja was the mastermind of the military operation in 1971.
He quoted some shameful words of Niazi in his book “A Stranger in my own Country”. “One day, Niazi used abusive language and in the presence of some Bengali officers, he said in Urdu: “Main iss haramzadi qom ki nasal badal doonga” (I will change the race of the Bengalis) On April 11, 1971, Niazi asked Maj Gen Raja: “You have given me the charge of the military command I also need phone numbers of your Bengali girl friends”. Raja wrote that he walked out from his office in disgust.
To be fair, all the officers and soldiers of the Pakistan Army were not like Gen Niazi. Lt Gen JFR Jacob was the Chief of Staff of Indian Army’s Eastern Command in 1971. He finalized the surrender document with Lt. Gen. Niazi. He gave his version of the history in a book titled “Surrender at Dacca”.
He wrote: “The Pakistani Army in the East fought with courage and determination from their defensive positions”. On the same page, Jacob added: “Due credit must be given to the Mukti Bahini. Their guerilla operations isolated the Pakistanis and hampered their morale. Their contribution to the victory of joint Indo-Bangladesh forces was therefore enormous”.
Jacob disclosed that Niazi never surrendered his personal weapon to Indian Army. He surrendered a normal Army issue .38 revolver. Jacob checked the weapon himself.The barrel was choked with muck and apparently had not been cleaned for some considerable time.The lanyard was dirty and frayed in parts.This was not the personal weapon of Commanding General.More likely,Niazi had taken it from one of his military policemen and surrendered as it as his personal weapon.
Forty-four years after the fall of East Pakistan, very few Pakistanis are ready to accept that December 16th is a day of shame for them. Even Imran Khan had to reschedule his shutdown plan which was set for December 16th. Imran Khan may have realized that a day of surrender can’t become the day of his victory against the Sharif government.
The people of Pakistan need to learn lessons from the 1971 surrender of Dacca. They need to debate the Hamoodur Rehman Commission Report in the parliament. They need to know as to why the interference of the Army in national politics is bad for the country? They need to know that General Niazi saved his .38 revolver by deceiving Indian Army but he failed to save the honor of his country on December 16th, mainly because he was actually fighting not against India but against the majority population of his own country.