General Tikka Khan, (7 July 1915 – 28 March 2002) was a four-star general in the Pakistan Army who
served as the first Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army from 3 March 1972
to 1 March 1976. After retiring from the Army he was appointed to the cabinet
position of Defense and Security Advisor in Prime Minister Z.A. Bhutto's
administration. He, along with Secretary General of Defense Mr. Ghulam Ishaq
Khan oversaw the genesis of Pakistan's nuclear weapons project in Kahuta
according to Dr. A.Q. Khan. Coincidentally, the decision to construct A.Q.
Khan's lab in Kahuta was made in the days of Gen Tikka who was from Kahuta.
Prior to Tikka's appointment, the Chief of Army Staff was
known as Commander-in-Chief. Before the four-star assignment (in 1971), Tikka
Khan was a Martial Law Administrator of erstwhile East-Pakistan (later,
Bangladesh). He succeeded Air Commodore Mitty Masud, and assumed the command of
Eastern Military High Command on 26 March 1971. As a Commander of Eastern
Command, (then) Lieutenant-General Tikka Khan was the architect and top planner
of Operation Searchlight, the systematic Genocide in Bangladesh. He is still
remembered as the "Butcher of Bengal" for his ruthlessness
against separatists and brutality inflicted in the erstwile East Pakistan, in the remaining Pakistan. He became Chief of the Army, Member of Bhutto's
cabinet, Governor of a Province, leader of the Pakistan People's Party and
buried with full military honors upon his death in Pakistan.
No comments:
Post a Comment