Indomitable March: A cold welcome to Yahya
March 15, 1971
President Yahya Khan arrived in Dhaka. No local political leader went to the airport to meet him. All the entries to the airport were heavily guarded.
Siddiq Salik, then public relations officer of the Pakistan army in Dhaka, recounts, "It was a strange, eerie atmosphere charged with a deadly stillness. There were no bouquets of flowers, no civil officials, no rows of city elite, no hustling of journalists, and no clicking of cameras. Even the official photographer was not admitted." [Siddiq Salik, Witness to Surrender, UPL 1997, pg-59]
Yahya drove quickly to the president's house in a heavily armed convoy. He could not help seeing that virtually every house sported a black flag mandated by the Awami League. The Farmgate check point was removed by Awami League to avoid embarrassment to the president whom Mujib earlier declared publicly as a guest of "Bangladesh".
Yahya had requested Bhutto to go to Dhaka but he declined on the ground that after Mujib's virtual declaration of independence there was no point in making the journey. He seemed more interested in getting power than in the unity of Pakistan, commented GW Choudhury, a close confidante of Yahya. [GW Choudhury, The Last Days of United Pakistan, UPL 2011, pg-163]
THE LAST MILITARY CONFERENCE
In the evening of March 15, 1971, Yahya summoned the local senior military officials for an on-the-spot situation report. Siddiq Salik reports that the president was not presented with any in-depth study of the complex political situation. He also did not ask for it.
At the end of the briefing, Yahya said, "Don't worry. I will line up Mujib tomorrow… will give him a bit of my mind…shall cold shoulder him and won't even invite him for lunch. Then I will meet him the day after and see how he reacts. If he doesn't behave, I know the answer."
The meeting dispersed, and no recommendations were made. This was the last military conference Yahya held in Dhaka, reports Siddiq Salik. [Siddiq Salik, Witness to Surrender, UPL 1997, pg-59]
WHAT WILL MUJIB DEMAND?
Archer K Blood, then American consul general in Dhaka, writes in his memoir that just minutes before Yahya's arrival, Alamgir Rahman came by to tell him that Mujib was going to urge Yahya to agree to an immediate handover of power to Awami League in East Pakistan. Now that Bhutto had made similar proposal in his March 14 speech and Mujib held the de facto control of the East Pakistan government, the demand seemed more tenable, comments Blood. Mujib would also demand that the strength of the military in East Pakistan be cut back to the level existing before March 1, 1971. Mujib, according to Alamgir, would then agree to the convening of the National Assembly and would accept any time limit for constitution-making set by Yahya. He further informed that any attempt by Yahya to exert force would be met by an instant declaration of independence. [Archer K Blood, The Cruel Birth of Bangladesh, UPL 2006, pg-189]