He is viewed largely negatively by Pakistani historians and is considered among the least successful of the country's leaders. ==Early life== Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan was born in Chakwal, Punjab, British Indian Empire on 4 February 1917, according to the references written by Russian sources.
degree. ==Military career== ===Career before Pakistan's independence=== Yahya Khan was commissioned into the British Indian Army from Indian Military Academy, Dehradun in 1938.
He was a POW in Italy before returning to India. ===After birth of Pakistan=== After the partition of India, he decided to join the Pakistan Army in 1947, he had already reached to the rank of Major (acting Lieutenant-colonel).
He was appointed as commander of the 105 Independent Brigade that was deployed in LoC ceasefire region in Jammu and Kashmir in 1951–1952.
He was described as a "hard drinking soldier" who liked young women's company and wine, though he was a meritorious and professional soldier. Later Yahya Khan, as Deputy Chief of General Staff, was selected to head the army's planning board set up by Ayub Khan to modernize the Pakistan Army in 1954–57.
Yahya also performed the duties of Chief of General Staff from 1958 to 1962 from where he went on to command two infantry divisions from 1962 to 1965 including one in East Pakistan.
Instead of satisfying the Bengalis, it intensified their separatism since they felt that the west wing had politically suppressed them since 1958, which caused the rise of anti-West Wing sentiment in the East Wing. In 1968, the political pressure exerted by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had weakened President Ayub Khan, who had sacked Bhutto for disagreeing with Ayub's decision to implement on Tashkent Agreement, facilitated by the Soviet Union to end the hostilities with India.
Two more corps headquarters: the 2nd Corps Headquarters (Jhelum-Ravi Corridor) and the 4th Corps Headquarters (Ravi-Sutlej Corridor) were raised, also in East Pakistan a corps-sized formation titles as the Eastern Command was created. ==President of Pakistan== Ayub Khan was President of Pakistan for all part of the 1960s decade, but by the end of the decade, popular resentment had boiled over against him.
American journalist Gary Bass notes in Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide, "President Nixon liked very few people, but he did like General Yahya Khan." Personal initiatives of President 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.
Yahya also performed the duties of Chief of General Staff from 1958 to 1962 from where he went on to command two infantry divisions from 1962 to 1965 including one in East Pakistan.
The 1962 constitution was abrogated, the parliament was dissolved, and Ayub's civilian officials were dismissed.
Yahya also performed the duties of Chief of General Staff from 1958 to 1962 from where he went on to command two infantry divisions from 1962 to 1965 including one in East Pakistan.
He played a pivotal role in sustaining the support for President Ayub Khan's campaign in the 1965 presidential elections against Fatima Jinnah.
He was made GOC of 7th Infantry Division of Pakistan Army, which he commanded during the 1965 war with India.
Until 1965, it was thought that army 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 1965 war, the Pakistan Army had only one corps headquarters (the I Corps). Soon after the war had started the United States had imposed an embargo on military aid to both India and Pakistan.
80 tanks, the first batch of T-59s, a low-grade version of the Russian T-54/55 series were delivered to Pakistan in 1965–66.
The 1965 War had proved that Pakistan Army's tank-infantry ratio was lopsided and more infantry was required.
After being controversially appointed to assume the army command in 1966, Yahya Khan took over the presidency from unpopular former dictator and elected President Ayub Khan, who was not able to deal with the 1969 uprising in East Pakistan, forced to resign by protests and offered him the office.
He was appointed as commander-in-chief of Pakistan Army in March 1966 and took command in June.
At promotion, Yahya Khan superseded two of his seniors: Lieutenant-General Altaf Qadir and Lieutenant-General Bakhtiar Rana. After becoming the commander-in-chief of the army, Yahya energetically started reorganizing the Pakistan Army in 1966.
US Secretary of State Dean Rusk well summed it up when he said, "Well if you are going to fight, go ahead and fight, but we’re not going to pay for it". 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.
The first batch was displayed in the Joint Services Day Parade on 23 March 1966.
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.
In addition, Yahya also inherited an 11-year problem of transforming a country essentially ruled by one man to a democratic country, which was the ideological basis of the anti-Ayub movement of 1968–69.
Instead of satisfying the Bengalis, it intensified their separatism since they felt that the west wing had politically suppressed them since 1958, which caused the rise of anti-West Wing sentiment in the East Wing. In 1968, the political pressure exerted by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had weakened President Ayub Khan, who had sacked Bhutto for disagreeing with Ayub's decision to implement on Tashkent Agreement, facilitated by the Soviet Union to end the hostilities with India.
After being controversially appointed to assume the army command in 1966, Yahya Khan took over the presidency from unpopular former dictator and elected President Ayub Khan, who was not able to deal with the 1969 uprising in East Pakistan, forced to resign by protests and offered him the office.
Pakistan had fallen into a state of disarray, and the long civil unrest in East Pakistan had evolved into a mass uprising in January of the year of 1969.
After he had unsuccessful talks with the opposition, Ayub Khan handed over power to Yahya Khan in March 1969, who immediately imposed martial law.
When Yahya Khan assumed the office on 25 March 1969, he inherited a two-decade constitutional problem of inter-provincial ethnic rivalry between the Punjabi-Pashtun-Mohajir dominated West Pakistan and the ethnically-Bengali Muslim East Pakistan.
In poor health, President Ayub abrogated his own constitution and suddenly resigned from the presidency. On 24 March 1969, President Ayub directed a letter to General Yahya Khan, inviting him to deal with the situation, as it was "beyond the capacity of (civil) government to deal with the...
Complex situation." On 26 March 1969, General Yahya appeared in national television and announced to enforce martial law in all over the country.
It was formed to analyse and prepare assessments towards issues relating the political and national security. In 1969, President Yahya also promulgated the Legal Framework Order No.
The changes were carried out by President Yahya Khan to return the country towards parliamentary democracy. ==Last days of East Pakistan== ===1970 general elections=== By 28 July 1969, President Yahya Khan had set a framework for elections that were to be held in December 1970.
Holding the nation's first nationwide elections in 1970, 23 years after independence, he delayed the power transition to victorious Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from East Pakistan, which further inflamed the civil violent unrest in the East, and authorized the East Pakistani authorities to violently suppress the rebellion.
He was then stripped of his service honours and put under house surveillance for most of the 1970s. After being released from these restrictions in 1977, he died in Rawalpindi in 1980.
Then, Yahya announced general elections to be held in 1970 and appointed Judge Abdus Sattar as Chief Election Commissioner of the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The changes were carried out by President Yahya Khan to return the country towards parliamentary democracy. ==Last days of East Pakistan== ===1970 general elections=== By 28 July 1969, President Yahya Khan had set a framework for elections that were to be held in December 1970.
In Pakistan, the people had felt that the six-point programme was a step towards the secession from Pakistan. ===Massacres in East Pakistan=== While the political deadlock remained between the Awami League, PPP and the military government after the general elections in 1970, Yahya Khan began coordinating several meetings with his military strategists over the issue in East Pakistan.
Ordered by the government in Pakistan, it was seen as the sequel to Operation Blitz, which had been launched in November 1970.
In 1970, India with a heavily socialist economy entered in a formal alliance with the Soviet Union in August 1971. Nixon relayed several written and oral messages to President Yahya Khan, strongly urging him to restrain the use of Pakistan forces.
According to independent researchers, around 300,000 people died in what is today widely considered the 1971 Bangladesh genocide. Pakistan suffered a decisive defeat in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, resulting in the dissolution of the Eastern Command of the Pakistan Army and the secession of East Pakistan as Bangladesh – thus Yahya Khan's rule is widely regarded as a leading cause of the break-up of the unity of Pakistan.
Following these events, he turned over the leadership of the country to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the leading politician from West Pakistan, and resigned from the command of the military in disgrace, both on 20 December 1971.
On 25 March 1971, Yahya initiated Operation Searchlight to suppress Bengali dissent.
In addition, Indian forces began to supply the rebels and their organised force, Mukti Bahini. The original plan envisioned taking control of the major cities on 26 March 1971 and then eliminating all opposition, political or military within one month.
Yahya's crackdown, however, had led to a Bangladesh Liberation War within Pakistan and India drew into the war and fought on behalf of Bangladeshis against Pakistan which would later extend into the Indo-Pak war of 1971. The aftermaths of this war were mainly that East Pakistan became independent as Bangladesh and India captured approximately 15,000+ square kilometres (5,000+ square miles) of land of West Pakistan (now Pakistan).
Though the captured territory of West Pakistan was given back to Pakistan in the Simla Agreement signed later on 2 July 1972 between Indira Gandhi and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. The 1971 war led to increased tensions between the countries but nonetheless Pakistan accepted the independence of Bangladesh.
The United States cautiously supported Pakistan during 1971 although Congress kept in place an arms embargo.
In 1970, India with a heavily socialist economy entered in a formal alliance with the Soviet Union in August 1971. Nixon relayed several written and oral messages to President Yahya Khan, strongly urging him to restrain the use of Pakistan forces.
Indian military support for Bengali guerrillas led to war between India and Pakistan. In 1971, Richard Nixon met Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and did not believe her assertion that she would not invade Pakistan; Nixon did not trust her and even once referred to her as an "old bitch".
As a result, the main agenda was "dropped altogether." On 3 December 1971, Yahya preemptively attacked the Indian Air Force and Gandhi retaliated, pushing into East Pakistan.
Pakistan forces in East Pakistan surrendered on 16 December 1971, leading to the creation of the independent state of Bangladesh. ===Fall from power=== When the news of the surrender of Pakistan reached through the national television, the spontaneous and overwhelming public anger over Pakistan's defeat by Bangladeshi rebels and the Indian Army, followed by the division of Pakistan into two parts boiled into street demonstrations throughout Pakistan.
Yahya became the highest-ranking casualty of the war: to forestall further unrest, on 20 December 1971 he handed over the presidency and government to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto— the ambitious leader of Pakistan's powerful and popular (at that time) People's Party. Within hours of Yahya stepping down, President Bhutto reversed Judge Advocate General Branch (Pakistan)'s verdict against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and instead released him to see him off to London.
Though the captured territory of West Pakistan was given back to Pakistan in the Simla Agreement signed later on 2 July 1972 between Indira Gandhi and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. The 1971 war led to increased tensions between the countries but nonetheless Pakistan accepted the independence of Bangladesh.
American journalist Gary Bass notes in Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide, "President Nixon liked very few people, but he did like General Yahya Khan." Personal initiatives of President 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.
He and his family were of Karlani Pashtun origin. According to Indian writer Dewan Berindranath's book Private Life of Yahya Khan (published in 1974), Yahya's father worked in the British Indian Police, in Punjab province.
He was then stripped of his service honours and put under house surveillance for most of the 1970s. After being released from these restrictions in 1977, he died in Rawalpindi in 1980.
Both actions produced headlines around the world. ==Personal life== Yahya is said to have had a relationship with Akleem Akhtar but he was never married. ==Death== Yahya remained under house arrest until 1979, when he was released from the custody by martial law administrator General Fazle Haq.
He was then stripped of his service honours and put under house surveillance for most of the 1970s. After being released from these restrictions in 1977, he died in Rawalpindi in 1980.
A 2008 British Medical Journal study by Ziad Obermeyer, Christopher J.
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