In the division headquarters just before my arrival, the colonel staff, Colonel Agha Javed Iqbal, the commanding officer of the Signal Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Khurshid, the commander 9 Armoured Brigade, Brigadier Iqbal Mehdi Shah, the commanding officer 9 FF, commander I Corps Artillery Brigadier F.B. Ali and Colonel Alim Afridi, Artillery, had been posted out from their posts. At the division headquarters the story was that after the ceasefire there was a telephonic conversation between Colonel Javed Iqbal and the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Gul Hasan Khan, then Brigadier F. B. Ali, Colonel Javed Iqbal and Colonel Alim Afridi drafted a letter asking President Yahya to resign and hand over power or else 6 Armoured Division would march on Rawalpindi and enforce his removal. Major General M. I. Karim the then GOC was asked to sign the letter and did so. Colonel Javed Iqbal and Colonel Alim Afridi flew to Rawalpindi and delivered the letter to the CGS who conveyed the contents to President Yahya.

It was further said that General Hamid, the COAS, asked Major General A. O. Mitha, the Quartermaster General to deal with the problem. Major General Mitha was supposed to have asked Brigadier Ghulam Mohammad, the Commander SSG for a commando company to be dropped on the 6 Armoured Division headquarters. When Brigadier F. B. Ali and his associates learnt that commandos may be used to seize the division headquarters, they made the commanding officer of the Signal Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Khurshid organise the defence of the headquarters and asked Brigadier Iqbal Mehdi Shah to provide infantry and 9 FF was ordered to take over the defence of the division headquarters.

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After Zulfikar Ali Bhutto became the President and Lieutenant General Gul Hassan was appointed the Commander-in-Chief all the officers, directly and indirectly involved, were posted out from their posts. About a week after I joined the division headquarters, Lieutenant General Gul Hassan was forced to resign from the post of C-in-C of the army and Air Marshal Rahim Khan from the post of the C-in-C of the PAF, Lieutenant General Tikka Khan was promoted general and appointed C-in-C of the army. Soon after this an inquiry was held into the writing of the letter asking for the resignation of General Yahya and all the officers connected were compulsorily retired from service.

Before my posting as the colonel staff, I had worked as the Deputy Quartermaster General (DQ) of 6 Armoured Division in 1965. Lieutenant Colonel Mir Abad Hussain who was then GSO 2 (Intelligence) was now the GSO 1, and Lieutenant Colonel Anwar Wajih was the AA&QMG. My main dealings were with the brigade majors of the two armoured brigades and the artillery brigade, with the Chief of Staff, I Corps, Brigadier N. A. Hussain who had asked for more ‘sweepers’ in East Pakistan and got sacked, the GSO 1 (Operations) I Corps, was Lieutenant Colonel Musheer Muhammad Khan from 13 Lancers, later brigadier.

As the colonel staff of the division I reconnoitered the whole of the division’s operational area. One of the areas I went to was the Barrapind battlefield where 13 Lancers had counter attacked and suffered heavy casualties. Lieutenant Colonel Syed Masood Ahmad, who had been a squadron officer with me in ‘A’ Squadron, 13 Lancers, and had commanded the regiment during the battle took me around the battlefield, and described the battle. Looking at the terrain I estimated that the Indians would have had six squadrons of tanks but Lieutenant Colonel Masood told me that after the ceasefire they had found that there were nine squadrons. There were a lot of reasons for the 13 Lancers disaster, I Corps commander launched a counter attack without sealing the breach in his front, Brigadier Mohammad Ahmad, commander 8 Armoured Brigade made no effort to find out the extent of the breach in the Corps front or the strength of the enemy he was counter attacking. The counter attack was launched on the information received at about ten o’clock at night that about six tanks had crossed the defensive minefield, the attack was launched at about seven o’clock in the morning and three tank regiments had moved across the minefield by then.

13 Lancers was trained to charge an objective, they used their tracks and not their guns, one tank was knocked out about fifty yards from the Indian position. One squadron at a time was fed into the Indian horseshoe shaped field of fire held by nine squadrons, the regiment suffered heavy losses in tanks with about thirty men killed and about forty wounded. Amongst the five officers killed was my brother Captain Aijaz Alam.

After the 8 Armoured Brigade disaster, a FF battalion which had arrived in the area that evening was launched in a silent night attack on Barrapind, the correct battle procedure was not followed, the units on both flanks were not informed that a silent attack was being launched, a 13 Lancers squadron was deployed adjacent to the area from where the battalion attacked. When the battalion was close to the objective the enemy opened fire, the commanding officer got killed and the men started running back. 13 Lancers squadron hearing the sound of fire and not knowing that own troops had attacked and were running back,

opened fire and caused very heavy casualties in the attacking battalion. The commanding officer of the battalion was awarded the Hilal-e-Jurrat and the lapse was swept under the carpet.

The 6 Armoured Division peace station was Kharian, about sixty miles from the area where it was deployed, soldiers who had left their families in Kharian used to go there on casual leave by the local buses. Almost every day there were reports that soldiers were taunted for losing the war, that they were not allowed to get into buses which resulted in fights while boarding buses. After considering the problem I requisitioned a bus and ran a bus service free of charge from the concentration area to Kharian.

I Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General Abdul Ali Malik, revised plans to deal with eventualities in case hostilities were resumed and 6 Armoured Division was required to counter attack several areas. In one of the plans the division was required to cross a defensive minefield, re-cross it and then cross it again. As colonel staff of the division I pointed out this crossing and re-crossing of the minefield to Major General Wajahat Hussain but he did not allow me to question the Corps headquarters, so when the Corps commander visited the division headquarters and I had to present the divisional plans, I pointed out the crossing and re-crossing much to the anxiety of the division commander but the Corps Commander did not take any note of it.

General Tikka Khan, the C-in-C of the Army and Major General M. Rahim Khan, the Chief of the General Staff visited the division headquarters. Major General M. Rahim Khan was evacuated from East Pakistan in a helicopter that was supposed to bring out the nurses from the Military Hospital, he became known in the Army as ÒBungal se bhagoraÓ and was generally referred to as Òbhagora RahimÓ. ‘Bhagora’ is a soldier’s term for a person who has run away, a deserter. Both the visits were routine, we stood in line and were introduced, the situation map was seen and the visitors departed.

Bhutto,Air Marshal Rahim Khan and General Gul Hasan,who hatched conspiracy has a long history.
They used to meet regularly at IA Shaban’s house.
IA Shaban was resident Manager of Burmah Shell,elder brother of Aftab Shaban Mirani,a PPP stalwart,distantly related to Bhutto,landlord from Shikarpur.
His residence was opposite to Hockey Stadium Rawalpindi, this building has since been demolished.
As it is,evil/sin/wrongdoings never remain hidden.Nature has it’s own device/ way of leaking it out.
The three above named conspirators used to meet at the above place regularly,where the actual plan to take over took place.
The above three went to Peking from 6th November 1971_ 8th November,where the conspiracy continued.
According to a certain story,while the above three used to plan/conspire at IA Shaban’s house,(he Shaban) was obviously not a part of the conspiracy,
nevertheless an eyewitness to the whole episode taking place in front of him,after having a few drinks used to make fun of all of them by raising slogans like first,it was hail Ceaser,then it was hail Napoleon,later it was hail Hitler,now hail three of you,he used to take their names,it was sort of ridiculing them all.
Later,when he used to be sober,he used to curse himself and say very candidly,this man Bhutto is not going to leave me,when he gets a chance,
unfortunately as it is Bhutto had him thrown out of Burmah Shell service,when he came to power,he ran away to UK,soon after where he remained till Bhutto was overthrown.
This has been confirmed by Rafi Raza,a very close associate of Bhutto,who wrote a biography on Bhutto titled”Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto 1967- _1977″of all the biographies written on Bhutto,I have seven books,this is the about the best,a very unbiased one to a large extent.
In this biography,Rafi Raza has written in the footnotes on page 140,after having been thrown out of service from Burmah Shell,Iqbal Shaban used to say,”When you have friends like Bhutto,you don’t need enemies”.
On page 134 of the same book,Rafi Raza has written,that Gul Hasan and Rahim Khan had prevailed on General Yahya to transfer power to Bhutto.This is further elucidated by Rafi Raza in the footnotes on page 141,that Rahim Khan told him twice once in 1972,after being removed and later in 1975 while travelling to Copenhagen,they threw out Yahya and his jaunta.
That they used to meet at Iqbal Shaban’s house is further confirmed by Rafi Raza in his above book on page 120,that on 3rd December,(when India had been attacked from West Pakistan),they were having dinner at IA Shaban’s house,where Rahim Khan said “right now my birds are at Agra,you won’t see Indian Air Force during the rest of the war”, which was of course a lie,we would continue to hear such lies during the rest of the war.
That the the above three used to meet at IA Shaban’s house regularly has been confirmed by none other than Gul Hasan himself in his “MEMOIRS”on page 350,where he has stated,that on 20th December 1971 the day Bhutto took over and he had been appointed as acting C-in-C,”I got myself invited to IA Shaban’s house for dinner,at 8.00 hours,was with him and his charming wife Nishat.In order to make the evening agreeable,He (Shaban )invited two or three of our mutual friends.
General Gul Hasan has stated on page 347 and 348 of his”MEMOIRS”that he was a bit surprised,when he was summoned to Punjab house,where he found Bhutto, on 20th December,it was here he was made the offer to take over as C-in-C.Rafi Raza is of the view,that is an inaccurate account given by Gul Hasan,he was already in the full knowledge of it.
It is said,that while a tussle was taking place in the President’s House after the war was over,how to plan for the future,Yahya was reluctant to hand over power,on this Rahim Khan had threatened him, in case he refuses,he would bomb the President’s house.
This has been confirmed by General Niazi in his book” Betrayal of East Pakistan” on pages 207 and 228,wherein he has stated,that Air Marshal Rahim Khan had told Yahya Khan without mincing words,that in case he (Yahya) doesn’t quit,he will tell his jets to bomb the President House.
According to Major General Wajahat Hussain’s book”1947,Before,After” wherein he wrote on page 243,just before the war in November 1971,Air Marshal Rahim Khan came to NDC to address the participants and Directing Staff,before he had even begun to address,it was felt,that he was suffering from a terrible hangover,he just couldn’t speak,he put the written script aside,and just didn’t know,what he was saying.It was immediately realized by all,who were witness to that episode,that the performance of the Air Force in case of war will be totally different from that of 1965,rest as they say is history.
The drama started by Gul Hasan and others does not end here.
According to General Mitha’s biography,he states on page 370,when he was told by General Hamid after the war,he had decided to address officers in lecture hall,he says he immediately guessed it was part of a broader plan of Gul Hasan and his gang to play their last card,he begged him(Hamid) to refrain from addressing officers,he wouldn’t listen and the way he was humiliated that day is an indication of our conspiracy culture prevalent in our system.General Hamid could hardly speak according to Gul Hasan ,when he was abused and humiliated to the extent,he had to leave,later on it was discovered,that the officers ,who had resorted to this humiliating behaviour were Gul Hasan’s men the exact date on which this happened is not clear,however it is most likely it was 19th December according to Gul Hasan’s “”MEMOIRS” page 339,while according to Mitha’s book page 370,as stated above and Salman Taseer,who wrote Bhutto’s biography biography after Bhutto’s execution as early as in 1979(has been republished in 2019) has stated on page 181 and 182,it was 20th December.
Why I am emphasising on the date,after this drama Bhutto was sent a message to return to Pakistan on the following day(20th December),when he took over,it couldn’t be the same day,as it was a well laid out plan beautifully executed by the conspirators.
This is what Muslim culture is all about,plots,
intrigues,
conspiracies,let downs.It was there right from the beginning soon after the demise of the Holy Prophet PBUH and is still continuing,not that it is not in other religions, systems ideologies,
however the ratio is far less.
Biggest disadvantage in conspiracies is,there is no plan how to govern on taking over,the immediate and only plan is to come through the the back door and then sort out your opponents.
Why I am saying this,as if one were to read the text of the speeches of Ayub Khan ,one,which he delivered on 7th October 1958 on assuming as Chief Martial Law Administrator and the last speech,which he delivered on 25th March 1969 is the same.In both the speeches,except for a difference of few words, it was the same,pathetic indeed,breakdown in law and order,total collapse of systems.
A very sad scenario indeed.
This merry go round is continuing,hence no stability,no substantial planning, whether short term or long term,ultimately landing from one disaster to another.
May Allah have mercy on us and guide us to the correct path. Aameen.Sum Aameen.