The Herald Annual, January 1999
Zaigham Khan

War of Words

Twenty-eight years after the event, two key players in the East Pakistan debacle have finally broken their silence.

On December 16, General A. K. Niazi and General Rao Farman Ali trained their guns on each other. The exchange soon degenerated into an unprecedented bout of mudslinging. In a press statement, General Rao Farman Ali, former advisor to five governors in East Pakistan, accused General Niazi of being a coward, a murderer and a rapist.

''When General Niazi arrived in Dhaka, the first thing he demanded was a list of women whom he could 'meet','' Rao claimed, adding that Niazi had raped Bengali women in his office, causing accusations of rape to be hurled against the entire army. As for the bravery of ''Tiger Niazi'', his outspoken opponent had little to say that was flattering. ''Niazi had no experience of war, and started to weep as soon as the war started. During the last days of the war, he could barely speak because of fear, he is such a coward.''

These accusations came at a time when General Niazi was busy ''correcting the injustice'' done to him by history. A book he had authored to present his side of the 1971 war story had just been published. ''History has done me the same kind of injustice that was done to Khalid bin Walid, Mohd bin Qasim and General Rommel,'' Niazi proclaimed at a press conference. ''I am ready for a court martial if I am proven wrong. I was not defeated, defeat was imposed upon me. In fact, I am the most decorated General in the world.''

As for the allegations of rape, Niazi countered, ''I am on old man and not a lad of 18. But in our time, it was common to have female friends and no one thought there was anything wrong with it.'' And in any case, he continued, ''why would I rape a Bengali woman when Hindu woman used to come to us on their own?''

Niazi, for his part, accused Rao of corruption. ''He [Rao] sent 80,000 rupees to his wife, for which I held an inquiry.'' Niazi also alleged that Rao had been involved in more unsavoury activities. '' He would procure women for Yahya Khan when the latter came to Dhaka. Yahya Khan was a womaniser, and for the sake of womanising he was not ready to leave his office.''

Rao Farman, however, countered this accusation - and in the process perhaps corrected a common misunderstanding. He revealed that Yahya Khan was impotent, and claimed that '' he {Yahya} just dallied with women, that was enough to please him.''

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