Fall of Dhaka: Was General Niazi’s decision to surrender?

It has been 50 years since the fall of Dhaka. The surrender document in Dhaka on December 16 was signed by Commander Eastern Command Lt. Gen. Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, who was also the Martial Law Administrator of Zone B at the time.

The Hamudur Rehman Commission has written that General Niazi could have defended for at least two weeks, if he had sacrificed his life instead of surrendering, future generations would have remembered him as a great hero. However, he himself has been giving a different explanation about surrendering.

In the book ‘Hithiyar Kyun Dale’, Waseem Sheikh has presented his perspective by interviewing General Niazi on the events of the fall of Dhaka. It is also very important to know their views so that another point of view also comes forward.

General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi was born in a village called Balukhel, two miles from Mianwali. He got his commission during World War II and before independence he was in the Rajput Battalion. He also received the highest military award ‘Military Cross’ for bravery in World War II. In the 1965 war, he was first awarded the ‘Hilal Jarat’ and then the ‘Star of Pakistan’. He was called as Tiger in the army.

A stranger in his own country

He writes that on April 3, 1971, General Abdul Hameed Khan, who was also the Acting Commander-in-Chief, called him and asked him to come to GHQ. On reaching the next day, he told that a difficult task has to be entrusted to you. When I asked, he said that as the Eastern Commander, you have to be posted in East Pakistan.

I replied that ‘General Tikka Khan is already stationed there?’

He said, ‘He has failed miserably, the president wants you to take charge of Tikka Khan and correct his mistakes.’

General Niazi writes that he reached Dhaka on April 5 and took charge from General Tikka Khan on April 10. At that time, the situation was that our cantonments in East Pakistan were disconnected from each other by land. The borders were ruled by the Mukti Bahini, and due to the merciless actions of General Tikka, we had become strangers in our own country.’

Last man last bullet

General Niazi denies that the decision to surrender was his, but instead writes that on the intervening night of December 13 and 14, I declared to continue fighting ‘to the last man and the last bullet’ and said that the enemy’s Tanks will enter Dhaka only through my chest.

He writes, ‘It is often propagandized against me that Yahya Khan did not ask to surrender but it was my own decision and for this reference is made to a message of Yahya Khan sent by Dr. Malik, Governor of East Pakistan. “Niyazi, you are the most senior military officer of Pakistan and you are also the Deputy Martial Law Administrator and the commander there, you know the situation better than me, you can assess the ground situation correctly.” Yes, consult the governor and tell the UN people to call for a ceasefire. When there is a ceasefire, the commanders meet and some compromise is reached, but there is no question of surrendering to the enemy.’

General Niazi says that this is an obvious lie, I did not get any such signal, it is denied by the statement of Yahya Khan himself that he is sending the signal to Dr. Malik and taking my name. And also that I was in touch with GHQ all the time and till the end i.e. until the surrender, and in this regard there was a discussion with General Hameed and General Gul Hasan. I have not been given any order that you should not surrender. Rather, in this connection, I narrate the last two signals of General Yahya that were sent to me.

Order to surrender on the night of 13th and 14th December

The message that reached me on the night of 13th and 14th December was, ‘You have put up a good fight in defense but I think you have reached a stage where further resistance is not humanly possible and more than that. There will be nothing but loss of life and destruction. So now you should adopt all the tactics by which you can save the lives of the army and its affiliates as well as those who support Pakistan. I have asked the United Nations to protect the Pakistani army in East Pakistan and stop the Indian aggression by arranging to save the Pakistani forces and all patriotic Pakistanis.

The previous signal I received from Yahya Khan was on November 29 in which he said that ‘Your success will be written in golden letters and the whole nation pays tribute to you.’ Because before that I had not only successfully defended the Indian attack on East Pakistan for a week, but also defeated them at many places. Before that, Indian army men were fighting in the name of Mukti Bahini.

In spite of Yahya Khan’s signal we did not surrender on the 14th, we kept waiting because we had been informed earlier from Islamabad that ‘Yellow is assisting you from above and White from below.’

This meant that the US fleet was coming to our aid from the sea below and China from above. Time was passing fast. This was the answer from all sides to our jayals that they would fight till the last drop of blood by following the order of ‘last shot last man’ but Islamabad was silent.’

Surrender if you want to save West Pakistan

According to General Niazi: ‘I was repeatedly sending messages, repeatedly trying to talk to Yahya Khan, but Hameed or Gul Hasan would say that Yahya Khan was in the bathroom. I knew that it must have been dark after drinking. So I angrily said that since an hour she is in the bathroom tell her to talk to me. In response, it was again said that he could not speak. I cut off the connection with abuse. It was obvious that they had abandoned us, while Dr. Malik was repeatedly insisting on surrender. I said how can I do that. In reply, he said that I have spoken to Yahya, he says that East Pakistan has gone and now they are trying to save West Pakistan. If you don’t surrender and stop the war, then West Pakistan will also continue to lose hands. Yahya Khan says that the Indian army has reached Head Marala Works, if they occupy Head Marala, they will get angry, so surrender soon and stop the war. I then tried to talk to Yahya Khan but he was still in the bathroom.

General Niazi writes that the strategy for the defense of East Pakistan was laid from the beginning that if India attacked there, we would attack and occupy East Punjab. This was the reason why East Pakistan had neither Air Force nor Navy. If this was done, it would have two benefits, firstly, India would have to withdraw its troops from East Pakistan and secondly, the territory it had won in the east at the time of ceasefire would have to be replaced by its own territory in the west. In East Pakistan, about 12 divisions of the Indian army, about two hundred aircraft, about six regiments of tanks, more than half of the navy were fighting against us. In West Pakistan, we were equal to them, but we had more strength in tanks. If there was any other general in West Pakistan, he would have riddled India’s chest, he had abundant resources. If there was another supreme commander instead of Yahya at that time, the map and history of the subcontinent would have been different today.’

The nation was psychologically prepared for defeat

“I came to know later that Indian planes were flying over Lahore and other cities and no one was going to catch them. On the contrary, the Pakistani people were given the impression that we do not have ships that can compete with Indian ships. This is a complete lie and such propaganda was done only to make the Pakistani nation disappointed and mentally prepared for defeat.

There is an old English saying that an army of wolves is better led by a lion than an army of lions led by a wolf. The fact is that our army was of lions but here its supreme commander was a wolf and with him a group of 40 thieves who did not want to fight but were dreaming of their totalitarianism in West Pakistan by separating East Pakistan. And all this planning was done for that.

What can be more ironic than this that we also attacked the western border and ten days later our own five thousand square miles were taken over by India. Has it ever happened in the history of an army that an attacker surrenders territory instead of taking it? Then also see the dates of the invasion of Pakistan. Why was this attack not carried out when India attacked East Pakistan on November 21, why did it wait for two weeks for the attack?

“We had stopped the Indian attack on East Pakistan, which is evidenced by Yahya Khan’s signal of November 29. I openly say that an incomplete attack was carried out in West Pakistan so that the Indian Army would attack me with all its might by land and air to make me helpless.

When India attacked East Pakistan on November 21, why didn’t Yahya Khan complain to the United Nations? Wasn’t East Pakistan a part of Pakistan? Was it not a way of humiliating me and my youth?

Yahya Khan’s claim that if he was in power, he would never have recognized Bangladesh. I ask who gave the order to surrender in East Pakistan and what was the difficulty for them to fight with India in West Pakistan?’

In this regard, defense analyst Lieutenant General (retd) Talat Masood said in a conversation with Independent Urdu that the fall of Dhaka had both political and military reasons. Both Yahya and Niazi were responsible for the failure of the military operation. The character of both was very embarrassing. At first all people were hated. The facts on the ground were in favor of a political settlement rather than a military one, but at that time there were many internal and external causes which further turned it into a major tragedy.’