Yahya Khan

Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan (4 February 191710 August 1980) was a Pakistani general who served as the third president of Pakistan from 1969 to 1971, under martial law. His presidency oversaw a civil war in East Pakistan, resulting in Bangladesh's secession. He also served as the fifth commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Army from 1966 to 1971.

Khan was commissioned into the British Indian Army in 1939 and fought in the Second World War in the Mediterranean theatre. Following the partition of British India, he joined the Pakistan Army and was placed in charge of organising the Staff College in Quetta. In 1965, he played a vital role in executing Operation Grand Slam in Indian-administered Kashmir during the second Indo-Pakistani war and was assigned to assume the command of the army in September 1966 by President Ayub Khan. In the wake of nationwide protests against Ayub Khan's government, he resigned from the presidency and transferred authority to Yahya Khan in March 1969.

Upon taking over the presidency, Khan declared martial law and suspended the constitution. He issued the Legal Framework Order in July 1970 and held the country's first general election in December 1970, with which the Awami League from East Pakistan emerged victorious with a national majority. He barred power transition to the party's leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, leading to mass protests and civil disobedience in the east and a call for sovereignty. On 25 March 1971, Khan ordered Operation Searchlight in an effort to suppress Bengali nationalism which initiated a genocide; and led to the declaration of independence of East Pakistan as Bangladesh by Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, and start of a civil war in the east. He is considered a chief architect of the Bangladesh genocide along with his deputies Abdul Hamid Khan and Tikka Khan. In December 1971, Khan ordered pre-emptive strikes against the Mukti Bahini-allied Indian Army, resulting in another war with India. The two simultaneous wars resulted in the surrender of Pakistani forces in the east and Bangladesh's secession, after which Yahya Khan resigned from the army 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 brief period in power is widely regarded as a pivotal factor in the division of Pakistan. His refusal to hand over power to the Awami League, despite their electoral victory in East Pakistan, sparked political unrest. This culminated in Operation Searchlight: a brutal military crackdown resulting in the Bengali genocide and causing widespread death and displacement. Khan is viewed negatively in both Bangladesh, where he is considered the architect of the genocide, and Pakistan, where his failure to prevent the country's disintegration is regarded as a national tragedy.

Early life and education

Yahya Khan, whose full name was Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan Qizilbash, was born during the British Raj, on 4 February 1917 in the town of Chakwal. Born in a Qizilbash family from Peshawar, he was also described as a Pashtun and claimed descent from the elite soldiers of Iranian conqueror Nader Shah (). Yahya Khan also spoke Persian. Yahya's father, Saadat Ali Khan, was originally from Peshawar. According to Indian journalist Dewan Barindranath, Saadat Ali Khan worked in the Indian Imperial Police, in the Punjab Province. He joined as a head constable and retired as a deputy superintendent. He was posted in Chakwal when Yahya Khan was born. Saadat was rewarded with the title of Khan Sahib for having disposed of the bodies of many independence activists, including Bhagat Singh, as they were executed in secrecy and the colonial authorities wanted to dispose of the corpses without attracting much attention, operations Saadat Ali Khan carried out "efficiently and faithfully."

Their family house, built in 1890, is located in the Muhallah Shaikh Ul Islam street of Ganj area in Peshawar's Walled City, once serving as the main administrative area. Yahya studied in the prestigious Colonel Brown Cambridge School in Dehradun and later enrolled at the University of the Punjab in Lahore, from where he graduated with a B.A. degree, finishing first in his class.

Later Yahya Khan, as Vice Chief of General Staff, was selected to head of the army's planning board set up by General Ayub Khan to modernise the Pakistan Army in 1954–57. Yahya also performed the duties of Chief of General Staff from 1957 to 1962 from where he went on to command two infantry divisions from 1962 to 1965. He played a pivotal role in sustaining the support for Ayub Khan's campaign in the 1965 presidential elections against Fatima Jinnah.

After becoming the commander-in-chief of the army, Yahya energetically started reorganising the Pakistan Army in 1966. The post-1965 situation saw major organisational and technical changes in the Pakistan Army. Until 1965, it was thought that divisions could function effectively while getting orders directly from the army's GHQ. This idea failed miserably in the 1965 war, and the need to have intermediate corps headquarters in between the GHQ and the fighting combat divisions was recognised as a foremost operational necessity after the 1965 war. In the 1965 war, the Pakistan Army had only one corps headquarters (the 1 Corps).

Pakistan now turned to China for military aid, and the Chinese tank T-59 started replacing the US M-47/48 tanks as the Pakistan Army's MBT (Main Battle Tank) from 1966. 80 tanks, the first batch of T-59s, a version of the Russian T-54/55 series were delivered to Pakistan in 1965–66. The first batch was displayed in the Joint Services Day Parade on 23 March 1966. The 1965 War had proved that Pakistan Army's tank-infantry ratio was lopsided and more infantry was required. Three more infantry divisions (9, 16 and 17 Divisions) largely equipped with Chinese equipment and popularly referred to by the rank and file as "The China Divisions" were raised by the beginning of 1968. Two more corps headquarters: the 2 Corps Headquarters (Jhelum-Ravi Corridor) and the 4 Corps Headquarters (Ravi-Sutlej Corridor) were raised, also in East Pakistan a corps-sized formation (which was titled as the Eastern Command) was created.

Presidency (1969–1971)

A sustained anti-regime mass movement began in the fall of 1968 in West Pakistan. The uprising spread to East Pakistan and gathered strength, adding to a tense political climate that had worsened following President Ayub Khan's implementation of the 1966 Tashkent Agreement and sacking of Foreign Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Ayub Khan tried to quell the revolt by making concessions to opposition groups including the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Awami League (AL), but demonstrations continued.

Rather than resigning and allowing a constitutional transfer of power, Ayub Khan requested that Yahya Khan, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, utilise the military's supra-constitutional authority to declare martial law and take power. On 24 March 1969, Ayub directed a letter to Yahya inviting him to deal with the crisis, as it was "beyond the capacity of [civil] government to deal with the... complex situation." Some sources claim Yahya accepted Ayub's proposal on 25 March. On 26 March 1969, General Yahya appeared on national television and announced a state of martial law throughout the entirety of the country. The 1962 constitution was abrogated, the parliament was dissolved, and Ayub's civilian officials were dismissed.

Yahya Khan's new military government featured several active duty military officials:

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|+ Yahya Khan administration

! Ministers !!Portrait !!Ministries and departments !! Inter-services

|General Yahya Khan || 50px

|President and Chief Martial Law Administrator<br/>Information and Broadcasting<br/>Law and Justice<br/>Foreign and Defence ||

|General Abdul Hamid Khan In addition, Yahya also inherited the challenge of transforming a country essentially ruled by one man into a democratic country, which was the ideological basis of the anti-Ayub movement of 1968–69. Once in office, Yahya Khan was tasked with leading the country, drafting of a provisional constitution, resolving the One Unit question, and satisfying the frustrations and the sense of exploitation stirring in the "East Wing" (East Pakistan) by government policies since 1948.

Yahya Khan attempted to solve Pakistan's constitutional and inter-provincial rivalry problems once he took over power from Ayub Khan in March 1969. His earlier initiatives were directed at establishing the National Security Council (NSC), with Major-General Ghulam Omar as its first advisor. In 1971, Yahya conceded that he had failed to improve the national economy, "I inherited a bad economy, and I am going to pass it on," he noted. The military government-initiated talks with the International Monetary Fund after foreign reserves fell to $160 million. In 1968, Muhajirs from East Pakistan started Muhjairland movement for a separated province. However, Yahya Khan rejected the idea saying it would not bring them solution.

In 1969, President Yahya also promulgated the Legal Framework Order, 1970, which disestablished the One Unit Scheme that had formed West Pakistan and returned the provinces of West Pakistan to their pre-1955 configuration.

Bangladesh War

While the political deadlock continued between the Awami League, the PPP, and the military government after the general elections in 1970, Yahya Khan began coordinating with his military strategists concerning ongoing dissent in East Pakistan. Both Yahya Khan and Bhutto flew to Dhaka and tried negotiations one more time in mid-March 1971, but they ultimately yielded no results. It was seen as the sequel to Operation Blitz, which had been launched in November 1970. The Pakistani government's view was that it had to launch a campaign to neutralise a rebellion in East Pakistan to save the unity of Pakistan.

As a result of Operation Searchlight, agitation turned into full-scale civil war as Bengali members of the Pakistan Armed Forces and the police mutinied, forming the Mukti Bahini along with members of the general public, with the goal of launching unconventional and hit-and-run operations. A government-in-exile formed across the border in India and proclaimed the independent state of Bangladesh, appointing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as its head despite him being in a West Pakistan prison at the time. within one month. The prolonged Bengali resistance had not been anticipated by Pakistani planners, however. The main phase of Operation Searchlight ended with the fall of the last major town in Bengali hands in mid-May.

The total number of people killed in East Pakistan is not known with any degree of accuracy. Bangladeshi authorities claim that 3 million people were killed, while the Hamoodur Rahman Commission, an official Pakistani Government investigation, put the figure as low as 26,000 civilian casualties. In her widely discredited book Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War, Sarmila Bose said between 50,000 and 100,000 combatants and civilians were killed by both sides during the war.

General Yahya Khan arrested Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on charges of sedition and appointed Brigadier (later General) Rahimuddin Khan to preside over a special tribunal dealing with Mujib's case. Rahimuddin gave Mujib the death sentence, but President Yahya put the verdict into abeyance. Yahya's crackdown, however, had led to the Bangladesh Liberation War within Pakistan. India would eventually be drawn into said war, fighting on behalf of the Bangladeshis against Pakistan; the war would later extend into the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971.

The 1971 war led to increased tensions between Pakistan and India, although Pakistan recognised the independence of Bangladesh following severe pressure from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

US role

thumb|President Yahya Khan with United States President [[Richard Nixon in October 1970]]

The United States had been a major sponsor of Yahya's military government. American journalist Gary Bass notes in The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide, "Nixon liked very few people, but he did like General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan." Personal initiatives of Yahya had helped to establish the communication channel between the United States and China, which would be used to set up the Nixon's trip in 1972.

Since 1960, Pakistan was perceived in the United States as an integral bulwark against global Communism in the Cold War. The United States cautiously supported Pakistan during the 1971 conflict, although Congress kept an arms embargo in place. The economically-socialist India entered into a formal alliance with the Soviet Union in August 1971.

Nixon urged Yahya Khan multiple times to exercise restraint. His objective was to prevent a war and safeguard Pakistan's interests, though he feared an Indian invasion of Pakistan that would lead to Indian domination of the subcontinent and strengthen the position of the Soviet Union. Similarly, President Yahya feared that an independent Bangladesh could lead to the disintegration of Pakistan, and said publicly in August 1971 that Indian military support for Bengali guerrillas could lead to war between India and Pakistan.

In November 1971, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi met Nixon in Washington. She assured him that she didn't want war with Pakistan, but he did not believe her. Witness accounts presented by Kissinger pointed out that Nixon made specific proposals to Prime Minister Gandhi on a solution for the crisis, some of which she heard for the first time, including a mutual withdrawal of troops from the Indo-East Pakistan borders. Nixon also expressed a wish to fix a time limit with Yahya for political accommodation in East Pakistan. Nixon asserted that India could count on US endeavors to ease the crisis within a short time. But, both Kissinger and Gandhi's aide Jayakar maintained, Gandhi did not respond to these proposals. Kissinger noted that she "listened to what was, in fact, one of Nixon's better presentations with aloof indifference" but "took up none of the points." Jayakar pointed out that Gandhi listened to Nixon "without a single comment, creating an impregnable space so that no real contact was possible." She also refrained from assuring Nixon that India would follow Pakistan's suit if it withdrew from India's borders. As a result, the main agenda was "dropped altogether."

On 21 November, the Indian Army started incursions in East Pakistan. Khan responded to this by preemptively attacking the Indian Air Force on 3 December 1971, and Gandhi retaliated, pushing into East Pakistan. Nixon issued a statement blaming Pakistan for starting the conflict and blaming India for escalating it. He favoured a cease-fire. The United States was secretly encouraging the shipment of military equipment from Iran, Turkey, and Jordan to Pakistan, offering to replenish those countries' weapons stocks later despite Congressional objections. The US used the threat of an aid cut-off to force Pakistan to back down, while its continued military aid to Islamabad prevented India from launching incursions deeper into the country. Pakistani forces in East Pakistan surrendered in Dhaka on 16 December 1971, leading to the creation of the independent state of Bangladesh.

Fall from power

When the news of Pakistan's surrender was broadcast by West Pakistani media, the spontaneous and overwhelming public anger over the nation's defeat by Bangladeshi rebels and the Indian Army, and over the breakup of Pakistan into two parts, boiled into street demonstrations throughout Pakistan. Rumors of an impending coup d'état by junior military officers against President Yahya Khan swept the country. To forestall further unrest, on 20 December 1971, he handed over the presidency and government to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the ambitious leader of the (at that time) powerful and popular People's Party. Yahya became the highest-ranking official in what remained of Pakistan to be forced out due to the war.

Within hours of Yahya Khan stepping down, President Bhutto reversed the Judge Advocate General Branch's verdict against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and instead released him, allowing him to fly to London. President Bhutto also issued orders for the house arrest of Yahya, Indian journalist Dewan Berindranath argued that Yahya turned to alcohol and womanising when he gained power, as a coping mechanism to deal with stress, and that when he was a soldier he was known for being morally upright, abstaining from partying unlike other officers and instead preferring to spend time with his family and also practicing Islamic rituals such as the fast of Ramadan, He eventually quoted Ayub Khan, who said that "Give me half a dozen officers of the calibre and moral standards of Yahya Khan and I can show you what can Pakistan do as a great nation of the Islamic world."

During his rule from 1969 to 1971, Mian Tufail Mohammad, a prominent leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's main Islamist party, hailed Yahya as "the champion of Islam", as there was a general view among Islamists that he would fight leftist elements of the country (the Pakistan People's Party in West Pakistan and the All-Pakistan Awami League in what was East Pakistan and now Bangladesh) and also push for the Islamisation of the Constitution. More generally, Yahya used the intelligence services (the ISI and the IB) "to keep secular political parties under check", mobilising the Information Ministry for propaganda and pushing the idea that they put "Islam and Pakistan in danger."

Towards the end of his life, during and following his imprisonment, Yahya gradually stopped drinking alcohol as he "became very religious."

Relationships

Yahya is said to have had a relationship with Akleem Akhtar, nicknamed General Rani, but they never married. His name was linked with the singer and actress Noor Jehan as well. He also had a brief relationship with a Bengali woman called Shamim K. Hussain, also known as Black Beauty. The wife of a police officer, Yahya appreciated her company not so much for her looks but mainly because she was fluent in English and could talk about Shakespeare and Lord Byron, among his favourite poets, and she eventually became influential enough to shape the decisions of the foreign office.

Family

Yahya's older brother Agha Muhammad Ali Khan had been the Chief of the Intelligence Bureau. Having joined government service in 1935 as Police Inspector, he woud later serve as Superintendent (SP) in cities such as Lahore.

Yahya and his wife Fakhra had a son and a daughter.

Hobbies

A Time editorial writer wrote of Yahya in 1971, "His only known interest, outside of the military, is birds—all varieties." Yahya kept Australian parrots, cranes and swans at the President’s House.

However, Yahya also had a keen interest in poetry, particularly the works of Shakespeare and Lord Byron. He often engaged in discussions about these poets, especially appreciating conversations with individuals fluent in English who could converse on such literary topics.

Later years and death

House arrest

Yahya Khan was placed under house arrest by the succeeding administration of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Initially, Yahya was confined to the Banni rest-house, a forest bungalow near Kharian, without a formal detention order. This location was selected to ensure his isolation and protection as well as to facilitate his forthcoming testimony before the Hamoodur Rahman Commission, which was established on 26 December 1971, to investigate the circumstances leading to Pakistan's military and political failures in East Pakistan.

On 11 January 1972, Chief Justice Hamoodur Rahman sent a letter to Yahya, informing him that the commission would commence its proceedings on 17 January and requesting his statement by 24 January.

During his detention in Banni, Yahya was under strict surveillance. The rest-house was secured by military personnel, and his communications with the outside world were heavily restricted to prevent any interference with the confidential commission's investigation.

After approximately four months in Banni, on 20 April 1972, Yahya was transferred to his personal residence at 61 Harley Street in central Rawalpindi. His house arrest continued under lessened restrictions. The house was only thinly guarded by a few police officers.

Declining health

Yahya’s health had significantly deteriorated during his years in house arrest. He was suffering from a combination of serious medical conditions, including diabetes, a heart condition, and reports also suggest that his mental health was affected as well.

Additionally, a stroke which left him half paralysed He stayed out from public events and wrote down his memoirs in the form of notes that remain unpublished.

The funeral was held in Peshawar, where Yahya was laid to rest at Circle Road Graveyard. The ceremony was attended by senior military officials and dignitaries from the regime. It is likely that the funeral was also a gesture to emphasise continuity within Pakistan’s military leadership, despite the tensions surrounding Yahya's legacy.

Legacy

In Pakistan

Yahya Khan was awarded , but then stripped of his service honours by the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto regime. Khan is viewed largely negatively by Pakistani historians and is considered among the worst but also one of the most misunderstood of the country's leaders. His rule is widely regarded as one of the leading causes of the fall of Dhaka and the breakup of Pakistan, but not entirely of his own making.

In popular culture

In 1971, he was portrayed as a monstrous beast in "ANNIHILATE THESE DEMONS", a poster illustrated by Quamrul Hassan.
In the 2023 Indian film Gadar 2, Khan is portrayed by Manoj Bakshi.
In the 2023 Indian film Sam Bahadur, Khan is portrayed by Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub.
In the 2026 Indian film Border 2, Khan is portrayed by Madhur Arora.

Book

The Breaking of Pakistan: Yahya Speaks about the Bhutto-Mujib Interaction which Broke Pakistan, Lahore: Liberty Publishers, 1997, 184 p.