Yahya Khan

Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan (4 February 1917 – 10 August 1980) was a Pakistani military officer, who served as the third president of Pakistan from 1969 to 1971.

Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan was born in Chakwal, Punjab, British India, in a Qizilbash family on 4 February 1917, according to the references written by Russian sources.

His family descended from the elite soldier class of Iranian conqueror Nader Shah.

He and his family were of Pashtun origin.

Khan was commissioned to the British Indian Army in 1939.

He fought in the Second World War in the Mediterranean theatre and was promoted to major (acting lieutenant-colonel).

Yahya Khan was commissioned into the British Indian Army from the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun on 15 July 1939, his date of commission was later antedated to 28 August 1938.

An infantry officer from the 4th/10th Baluch Regiment (4th Battalion of 10th Baluch Regiment, later amalgamated with the modern and current form of Baloch Regiment, 'Baloch' was spelled as 'Baluch' in Yahya's time), Yahya saw action during World War II in North Africa where he was captured by the Axis Forces in June 1942 and interned in a prisoner of war camp in Italy from where he escaped in the third attempt.

Yahya Khan served in World War II as a lieutenant and later captain in the 4th Infantry Division (India).

He served in Iraq, Italy and North Africa.

He was a POW in Italy before returning to India.

Following the creation of Pakistan in 1947, he advanced in the Pakistan Army.

After the partition of India, he decided to join the Pakistan Army in 1947, he had already reached to the rank of major (acting lieutenant-colonel).

In this year he was instrumental in not letting the Indian officers shift books from the famous library of the Pakistan Army Staff College (now Command and Staff College) at Quetta, where Yahya was posted as an instructor at the time of the partition of India.

He renamed the 'Command and Staff College' from 'Army Staff College'.

At the age of 34, he was promoted to Brigadier.

And then he was appointed as commander of the 105 Independent Brigade that was deployed in LoC ceasefire region in Jammu and Kashmir in 1951–1952.

During the Second India–Pakistan War of 1965, Khan helped in executing the covert infiltration in Indian-administered Kashmir.

He also served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army from 1966 to 1971.

After being controversially appointed to assume the army command in 1966, Khan succeeded the presidency from Ayub Khan, who resigned in March 1969.

"Few Pakistanis knew anything about Yahya Khan when he was vaulted into the presidency two years ago. The stocky, bushy–browed Pathan had been the army chief of staff since 1966..."

Yahya Khan's presidency oversaw martial law by suspending the constitution in 1969.

Holding the country's first general election in 1970, he blocked the power transition to the victorious Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from East Pakistan.

Along with Tikka Khan, he is considered the chief architect of the 1971 Bangladesh genocide.

In March 1971, Khan ordered Operation Searchlight in an effort to suppress Bengali nationalism.

This led to the Bangladesh Liberation War in March 1971.

Yahya Khan was central to the perpetration of Bangladesh genocide, in which around 300,000–3,000,000 Bengalis were killed, and between 200,000 to 400,000 women were raped.

In December 1971, Pakistan carried out pre-emptive strikes against the Bengali-allied Indian Army, culminating in the start of the Third India–Pakistan War.

The wars resulted in the surrender of Pakistan, and East Pakistan seceded as Bangladesh.

After Pakistan's surrender, Khan resigned from the military command and transferred the presidency to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

According to Indian journalist Dewan Barindranath's book Private Life of Yahya Khan (published in 1974), Yahya's father, Saadat Ali Khan, worked in the Indian Imperial Police, in the Punjab province.

He joined as a head constable and retired as a deputy superintendent.

He was posted in Chakwal, Punjab, British India, when Yahya Khan was born.

He was rewarded with the title of Khan Sahib for having removed the bodies of many freedom fighters, including Bhaghat Singh, as they were executed in secrecy and the British needed to get rid of the corpses without attracting much attention, operations he carried out "efficiently and faithfully."

Yahya's father was originally from Peshawar.

Yahya studied in the prestigious Colonel Brown Cambridge School in Dehradun and later enrolled at the University of the Punjab in Lahore, from where he graduated with a B.A. degree, finishing first in his class.

Khan remained under house surveillance prior to 1979 when he was released by Fazle Haq.

Khan died the following year in Rawalpindi and was buried in Peshawar.

Khan's short regime is regarded as the leading cause of the breakup of Pakistan.

He is viewed negatively in both Bangladesh, being considered the chief-architect of the genocide, and in Pakistan.