Customer Reviews

The Betrayal of East Pakistan

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I am a Pakistani who loves his country and I have studied the history of my country at greater depths.

Gen Niazi, Bhutto, Yahya and lots of others were greatly involved in the separation of East Pakistan and responsible for what happened.

Pakistani army killed and raped millions in East Pakistan of their own country men and women (mostly muslim) quite shamelessly and put the two-nation theory in serious trouble that is the very reason for Pakistan's existence. The feudal lords in government of the west Pakistan did always treat East Pakistan as third class citizens.

Gen Niazi was as involved in the whole mess as any one else and has made a very cowardly attempt to gain some dignity by writing this book.

Shame on Niazi, Bhutto and Yahya and shame on Pakistani army who killed and raped Pakistani citizens.

May your ashes burn in hell if there is such a thing.

From the heart of a Pakistani

The so called General has tried to cover up his own failures. I was surprised at his auducity to write this. Shows that denial is a wonderful thing. A skewed view of events, a blatant attempt to distort history.

The basic plot theme: Everything was everyone elses fault. 3 million Bangladeshis were not murdered, 27,000 women were not raped. The Pakistanis kept on winning but somehow (unexplained) lost to the Indians in the end. The General was always right, everyone else was wrong. This self-delusional, lying, racist drivel shows what is wrong with Pakistan -- a nation created (mainly by Bangladeshis as it happens, as they provided the majority of the votes for the new country) supposedly in the name of Islam, but which has murdered more Muslims than India, Israel, Serbia, Croatia and indeed pretty much any other nation you can think of apart from Iraq or Russia -- and those countries took years to do what Pakistan did in months. This is an army that has killed or oppressed more of its own people than any other. The reviews on this page are also instructive; the Pakistani names are unashamed revisionist anti-Bangladeshi bigots who refuse to learn anything from their own past for their own national good. Explains why their country is still a Punjab dominated, poor, backward, repressive, military dictatorship today. Also explains how they could support the Taleban with no problems and have regular riots, independance movements in Sind and Baluchistan, political and social violence, a drug problem, illiteracy, massive debt, few international friends, corruption and God knows what else. A nation cannot progress until it learns from its mistakes and Pakistan refuses to learn from its biggest one.

It was inconceivable how Niazi was trying to shift his part of the responsibility on to others through far-fetched excuses. The book had serious lack of fact. It was more like a fruitless attempt by an old and broken soldier to restore some sort of dignity. Niazi's legacy is too thick to change by a book just like Hitler, Stalin and PolPot. "In the pages of history the legacy of Mr. Niazi will always be as a Pakistani General who lead a bloody war in 1971; under his command 3 million innocent civilian people were killed by his troop, including women and children. 27,000 women were raped and not to mention the mounting amount of intentional destruction. At the end, he lost; bringing an ultimate defeat for his nation-Pakistan!"

Interesting if not a very well written book. I was hoping for an analysis of the reasons for Pakistan's debacle in 1971. Instead, the book focuses on a narration of events as seen through (mostly colored) eyes of Gen Niazi. The focus of the book is on defending and explaining Niazi's actions rather than what led to the debacle. Interestingly, in the whole narration he refuses to give a single credit to anyone else other than himself or people that he liked. The Indian defense forces are shown to be losing every battle they fight but then he never explains why he had to pull back his forces from all the places and how the Indian forces got to Dacca. Similarily he pays no attention to all the atrocities that were commited by Pakistani Soldiers that led to the whole debacle. Overall an interesting insight into the people who run the Pakistan Army and of course, now the country

In 1971 I was in "East Pakistan", when it all happened.I witnessed Unspeakable atrocities committed by the Self-Proclaimed "Heroic, Best Army in the world", throughout the whole year.Although Niazi did admit Tikka Khan Committed Horrible Killings, He himself tried to portray a Saintly image of himself.He ordered his troops to spread to the farthest corners of the land and carry out barbaric killings and rape on innocent civilians.Who does he think he is fooling, with his lies! He is an old man now, and instead of trying to atone for his terrible sins, with his Creator, he is trying spread lies. I pray to GOd Almighty everyday, that The people responsible for The HOLOCAUST in Bangladesh(Living Or Dead)(Eg. Yahyah Khan, Niazi, Tikka Khan, The "Brave Paki Soldiers" and many others)Feel His Terrible Wrath in this Life and in the Hereafter.Just like many of the Nazis were brought to Justice(and are still being hunted)by the Israelis, these animals(If Still Alive)must be brought to Justice By Bengalis and World tribunal.I really admire the Israelis for their Determination and Tenacity.We have a lot to learn from them.Maybe we could ask them to help us catch these Mass Murderers.JOY BANGLA!

It should come as no surprise that this account is one-sided, written as it is by a combatant in a military conflict. Even so, one cannot but empathize with the author for having been made a scapegoat for the follies of his superiors and West Pakistani politicians - most notably Yahya Khan and Z. A. Bhutto. Gen. Niazi is a beleaguered man today who has been shunned by the Pakistani establishment for his role in the loss of East Pakistan, and unfairly stripped of all pension benefits.

Niazi had had an unblemished military record up until 1971, including action in several theaters in WWII, 1948, and 1965. Until 1971, he had been decorated with medals no less than 23 times, including winning the Military Cross in Burma during WWII. He earned the nickname 'Tiger' after spearing a Japanese officer to death in hand-to-hand combat in the jungles of Burma.

In the larger drama of the events leading up to the 1971 war, he was only a minor actor, and subservient to President Yahya Khan and scheming politicians. He was responsible for carrying out impossible orders which were issued in the face of overwhelming odds, by the same individuals who had allowed and even actively promoted the events to come to such a sorry pass. Indeed East Pakistan was lost on the day Yahya Khan decided, at the behest of Z. A. Bhutto, to cancel the convening of the National Assembly - the first nationwide, democratically elected assembly in united Pakistan's history.

The subsequent events - civil unrest, military crackdown in East Pakistan, pouring of millions of refugees into India, partisan resistance, war with India and defeat, followed an almost predictable pattern. Niazi cannot be blamed for those (with the exception of the slaughter of innocent civilians by troops under his command) - only the leaders and politicians in West Pakistan can accept that blame.

The most poignant part of the book is a gut-wrenching letter written in 1995 to then President Leghari of Pakistan requesting the reinstatement of his military pension benefits for a career spanning over 40 years. In that letter Niazi explains how he was made a scapegoat by the establishment which chose to single him out, but refused to accept its own culpability in the secession of East Pakistan. Other individuals, especially Bhutto, who were far more culpable went to attain even higher positions in Pakistan. Perhaps, in time, Pakistan will eventually reinstate Niazi in the pantheon of its military leaders.

The title reveals a lot about the book and the 1971 mindset of defeated Pakistani Army and it's eastern command. The general tells us a lot about conspiracy theory, while carefully excluding the account of massacre, pillage and raping of a defenseless 3 million Bengalis by his troops. Also the statements made out regarding the might of Pakistani army really sounds misleading, if this was the case then one wonders how the war ended in just 9 months. This is one defeated pakistani general who just can not forget the past! Maybe a tribunal for his war crimes will help!

This is a fascinating view of the Bangladesh war from the point-of-view of the Pakistani general who led the war effort against India and the Mukti Bahini. It provides revealing insights into the military strategy employed by Gen. Niazi and the inner workings of the Pakistani military High Command. You may not agree with the General's conspiracy theory but you will find his account riveting and fascinating.

This book is merely a propagation of lies. This man's self righteous arrogance has blinded him from his own intergrity. Everyone is to blame but himself, in this book. It is a sad reality that this once brave and intelligent soldier, a respectable military mind which won him medals in the 40's and 50's, will historically only be remembered as the " Butcher of Bangladesh". He has done Pakistan's army honour no favours in 1971. He should have faced a war tribunal but escaped through natural death. How he encouraged his 92,000 troops to rape 400,000 Muslim and Hindu women in Bangladesh so that the population was intimidated is a crime of such magnitude, comparable only to (...). His denial of mass raping and genocide figures that the world news agencies produced proves him astonishingly dishonest. His cowardly army slaughtered 2.5 million unarmed civilians, and caused the biggest mass raping of women in human history, surpassing Nanking 1937. He induced humanity such incredible suffering, Allah will probably never release this evil man from the eternal torment of Hellfire. His role in Genocide is like Her Himler's, and as he was himself a rapist, his troops followed his example. There are still thousand's of rape victims in Psychiatric hospitals in Bangladesh from 1971, they are still suffering 33 years later. He along with many other Pakistani politicians (...) in 1971 are amongst the greatest war criminals in history. He may have escaped Justice in this life, he will not in the next.May this legendary rapist and his butchering accomplices rot in the 7th level of hell for eternity. This book is an inaccurate fictitious propagation of lies. He is among history's top ten evil men count. A disgrace to Pakistani nation.