No Eulogy for Tikka Khan!
By A.H.
Jaffor Ullah
“He stood a stranger in this breathing world,
An erring spirit from another hurled;
A thing of dark imaginings.”
—Lord
Byron
We just got the word today that terrible Tikka Khan died on Thursday, March 28, 2002. It is a loss for Bangladesh in a different sense. It was our hope that one day Bangalees should be able to take him to an international tribune for the crime he committed against humanity while he was the military governor of erstwhile East Pakistan for about half a year starting from March 1971.
Picture of General Tikka Khan - Chief of Pakistan Armed forces general Tikka Khan was the main "Man Slaughter" during the liberation war in Bangladesh. [source: IntellectGlobal ]
Tikka Khan was transferred from West Pakistan to Dhaka for one purpose during the tumultuous days of our liberation struggle. By then, Tikka Khan had perfected one vile act and that is to perform mass murder. Before coming to Dhaka, he gave leadership to a death squad in Baluchistan. Many innocent Baluchis were murdered in cold blood. Pakistan’s military President Yahya Khan knew that for sure. Therefore, he spent no time to send Tikka Khan to erstwhile East Pakistan. Tikka Khan’s passion was to torture innocent people. He proved it again and again when many young Bangalees were taken to Kurmitola Cantonment only to be killed. In those days, taking a person to Kurmitola was synonymous to death warrant for Bangalees. Tikka Khan had no emotion whatsoever; he was ruthless, despotic, and he derived pleasure out of others’ misery.
After the initial crackdown on the wee hours of March 26, 1971, Tikka turned Dhaka University campus into a ghost town. He once quipped that if required he will turn East Pakistan into a bed of river where blood will flow. He was a man without any compassion. His world was made of black and white without any shades of gray. Either a person is on his side or else he is an enemy. To him most Bangalees were his enemy in 1971. Once he took control of the land, he helped form “Peace Committee.” Many Muslim Leaguers and Jamaat-i-Islami leaders including Ghulam Azam, Matiur Rahman Nizami, Delwar Hossain Saidee, Nurul Amin, etc., all had joined Tikka Khan’s “Peace Committee.” These Fifth Columnists of Bangladesh were too eager to join Tikka Khan to help him win the war against freedom loving Bangalees. However, they were defeated very badly on December 16, 1971.
General Yahya Khan knew by June-July 1971, that they will have hard time to keep the occupied land under the fold of Pakistan. That is one of the reasons he transferred Tikka Khan to West Pakistan. The notoriety Lt. Gen. Tikka Khan had earned in less than six months while he was the military governor of erstwhile East Pakistan was enough to make him a marked man in the eyes of our Mukti Bahini soldiers. It is doubtful that Tikka Khan could not have moved to Pakistan in once piece had he remained in occupied Bangladesh until the fag end of the war.
Tikka Khan’s military career flourished even more under the aegis of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. President Bhutto promoted Tikka Khan to be the COAS of Pakistan’s army and he also made him a full General in March 1972. After retiring from the Fouz, Tikka Khan joined Bhutto’s party the People’s Party of Pakistan (PPP). He was later appointed to the position of governor of Punjab. Such was his hold in the PPP.
Pakistani military’s top brasses all gathered at Rawalpindi cantonment to pay homage to one of their kind. This speaks in volume their love and sympathy for him. This fact that Tikka Khan was instrumental in killing tens and thousands of Bangalees in 1971 had no bearing on his military career. This goes to prove that Pakistani military is not remorseful about the killings of Bangalees that was done under Tikka Khan’s leadership. That is the reason a vile General such as Tikka Khan draws so much adoration and respect from his junior officers. This also does not surprise this scribe to know that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s daughter – the two times Prime Minister of Pakistan – still reveres Tikka Khan even though she gave lip services from time to time when she proposed that Pakistani army officers should be tried for crime they committed against the Bangalees in 1971. Undoubtedly, Gen. Tikka Khan’s name would be at the forefront of that list. Nonetheless, Ms. Benazir Bhutto never used unkind word to describe her uncle Tikka.
Tikka Khan may have thousands of fans in Punjab but his name will live in infamy among Bangalees worldwide. The Bangalees will undoubtedly write the legend of our Mukti Bahini’s heroic deeds. We won’t forget though to mention the name of thousands of Tikka Khans who through their scorched-earth policy unleashed a reign of terror in which tens of thousands of young Bangalee simply perished from this earth.
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