Yahya khan wife

The 50th anniversary of the fall of Dhaka, arguably the most painful milestone in our history, resurrected a vexed question: is General Yahya, Sheikh Mujib or Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto primarily responsible for the tragedy of 1971?

There is no easy answer, particularly because the conduct of all three persons was egregious in many respects, right from the moment of the general elections on 7 December 1970 to the darkest day of 16 December 1971.

However, if one examines three fateful decisions that were taken in the twelve months precedingthe 1970 elections, the answer becomes fairly clear.

Those three ill-advised, poorly timed and abrupt decisions not only prepared the ground, but in fact they actually sowed the seeds for the bitter harvest that was reaped through the bloody secession of East Pakistan.

To clarify, it is not my contention that united Pakistan was sundered simply because of these decisions.

Clearly, the overall causes for the country’s break-up were myriad and were sprea