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Where are the men behind the genocide?
[Dhaka Tribune] On a PIA flight from Bloody Karachi...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... to Lahore years ago, I became acquainted with a retired Pak brigadier named A.R. Siddiqi. He seemed to be a proper gentleman and explained to me that back in 1971 he had been in charge of Pakistain’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). Siddik Salik, he told me, was his subordinate in Dhaka. Brigadier Siddiqi told me of the shock he went through when the Pakistain army launched its genocide, for he had been in Dhaka when Operation Searchlight was launched. "I am writing my account of the war," Siddiqi told me. I asked him if he meant to reveal everything in his book. He promised he would. I am glad to report that when the book, East Pakistain: The Endgame: An Onlooker’s Journal 1969-1971, appeared some years later, Siddiqi kept his promise. His account of the crisis, especially of the early days of Operation Searchlight, was riveting. It is one of the few objective books to have come out of Pakistain from a Pak who was part of the military establishment in 1971. I have not met Brigadier Siddiqi after that conversation on the Karachi-Lahore flight. But years earlier, I did have an opportunity to come across Brigadier Siddik Salik, the writer of the acclaimed Witness to Surrender, when he accompanied General Zia ul Haq Posted by: Fred 2016-12-17 |
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