Bangladesh created for Ayub, Yahya's shortsightedness
State deptt documents say
Unb, Dhaka
The creation of Bangladesh was due to political incompetence and shortsighted policies of military generals Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan, who sent the Pakistan army to put down what they thought was a rebellion against the Pakistani administration, according to US State Department documents.In the turbulent years preceding the birth of Bangladesh, the situation in Pakistan under Gen Ayub Khan and Gen Yahya Khan, the widespread discontent of the people both in the East and West Pakistan and US concerns to prevent China or Russia getting involved in the Indo-Pakistan conflict have been effectively captured for history in the transcripts just released by the US State Department and carried by an Indian media. The consulate general in Dacca (Dhaka) in its report on the crisis described how the Pakistani army let loose a reign of terror and indulged in atrocities, targeting Hindus, students and faculty members of the Dhaka University. In a telegram to the State Department it said: "Here in Dacca we are mute and horrified witnesses to a reign of terror by the Pak military." According to the transcripts, assistant to former US president Richard Nixon for national security affairs Henry Kissinger assessed the political tensions in Pakistan that were raising questions about the continued viability of the state and which were compelling the US ''to walk a very narrow tightrope''. Kissinger also instructed the departments of state and defence and the CIA to prepare a contingency study examining the options open to the US in the event of a movement toward "secession in East Pakistan." In one of his dispatches to the United States, Yahya Khan said he did not ''intend to preside over the dissolution of Pakistan.'' This led to him sending the Pak army to quell the movement and that was the beginning of the end of Pak control over the East Pakistan. Kissinger, who derided India and then prime minister Indira Gandhi in a private 1971 conversation with President Richard Nixon, said he regrets his choice of words, and insisted the comments be viewed in the context of cold war politics, according to an interview with New Delhi Television channel. He told the private TV channel that Nixon's reference to Gandhi as an "old witch" - a comment revealed earlier this week in transcripts of Oval Office tapes and newly declassified documents - was "Nixon language."
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