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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