Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Quotes
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Tikka Khan was a soldier doing a soldier's job.
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I felt certain uneasiness, a strange sensation, which had comic to a head. Every evening I went to Yahya to report that Mujib [Rahiman] and I weren't making any progress, and Yahya [Khan] showed no interest. He looked away or complained about the television or grumbled because he couldn't listen to his favorite songs - his records hadn't arrived from Rawalpindi.
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Mrs. [Indira] Gandhi can rightly boast of having won a war, but if she won it, she should first of all thank Yahya Khan and his gang of illiterate psychopaths.
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In April [1972], after that fine business in Dacca, Yahya Khan sent for me. He looked satisfied, sure of himself, by now convinced he had the situation in hand. He offered me a drink. "Well, you politicians are really finished," he said. Then he said that not only Mujib but I too was considered an agitator, I too was preaching against the unity of Pakistan. "I'm always under pressure to arrest you, Bhutto" I got so angry I lost all control.
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[Yahya Khan ] I have a big problem on my hands with him. I've set up a war commission to study the responsibilities inherent in the recent conflict.
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Yes, there are circumstances where a bloody suppression is justifiable and justified.
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I would not let myself be intimidated by Yahya Khan, his methods had led us to disaster.
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That Mujib [Rahiman] had been arrested I found out at eight in the morning, when I left. How did I take it? I was glad he was alive and I thought they might have maltreated him a little. Then I thought that his arrest might help to reach a compromise. They wouldn't keep him in prison more than a month or two, and in the meantime we'd be able to bring back law and order.
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Tear gas, rubber bullets, and I would have arrested all the leaders. Oh, only a disgusting drunkard like ex-President Yahya Khan could have sullied himself with an operation carried out so badly and bloodily.
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Yahya Khan wasn't interested in the government of the country, he was interested in power for its own sake and nothing else.
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We know who left the country. And many were Bengalis from West Bengal, sent from Calcutta. It was she who sent them - Mrs.[Indira] Gandhi.
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I tried to explain that there was a great difference between me and Mujib [Rahiman]: he was a secessionist and I wasn't.
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To conclude, the tragedy of March 25 [1969] caught me by surprise. Yahya Khan fooled even me.
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Even to get Yahya Khan to reason was an impossible task - it only made you lose your temper.
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[Mujib Rahman] is mad, mad! And they're all mad, the press included, who repeat after him, "Three million dead, three million dead!" The Indians had let out the figure of one million. He came along and doubled it. Then tripled it. It's a characteristic of the man - he'd done the same for the hurricane.
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If the people wanted my head I would bow without demur. If I had lost the confidence or respect of the people I would not want to live. The tragedy of the drama is that the very opposite is true.
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The same goes for the refugees. Mrs.[Indira] Gandhi says ten million. It's obvious she started with that figure in order to legalize her offensive and invade East Pakistan. But when we invited the United Nations to check, the Indians were opposed. Why were they opposed? If the figure were exact, they shouldn't have been afraid of its being verified.
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[Yahya Khan ] had given me an appointment for the following day. And, days later, General Mohd Umar revealed to me that he'd resorted to this stratagem so that I'd stay in Dacca and "see the efficiency of the army." I give you my word of honor that all this is true.
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In March [1972] the unity of Pakistan depended on the suppression of the secessionists. But to carry it out with such brutality on the people instead of on those responsible wasn't necessary. That's not the way to convince poor people who've been told that with the Six Points there'll be no more hurricanes, no more floods, no more hunger. I spoke out against such methods more emphatically than anyone else, and when no one dared do so.
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There's only one man really responsible for those events - Yahya Khan. Both he and his advisers were so drunk with power and corruption they'd even forgotten the honor of the army.
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If things do not change, there will be nothing left to change. Either power must pass to the people or everything will perish.
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Let's talk about the other story: the women raped and killed. I don't believe it. Certainly there was no lack of excesses, but General Tikka Khan says that in those months he often invited the population to report abuses to him directly.
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To build a country, [Joseph] Stalin was obliged to use force and kill. Mao Tse-tung was obliged to use force and kill. To mention only two recent cases, without raking over the whole history of the world.
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For instance, in the name of unity. You can't build without destroying.
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We(Pakistan) will eat grass, even go hungry, but we will get one of our own (Atom bomb).... We have no other choice!
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I can't destroy the whole army, and anyway [Tikka Khan] bad reputation for the events in Dacca is exaggerated.
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The fact is that when you talk about Mujib [Rahiman], everything seems so incredible. I don't understand how the world can take him seriously.
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A dreaded society is not a civilized society. The most progressive and powerful society in the civilized sense, is a society which has recognized its ethos, and come to terms with the past and the present, with religion and science. With modernism and mysticism, with materialism and spirituality; a society free of tension, a society rich in culture. Such a society cannot come with hocus-pocus formulas and with fraud. It has to flow from the depth of a divine search.
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I'm not trying to minimize things; I'm trying to bring them back to reality.
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Mujib [Rahman] talks at random, depending on his mood and the disorders of his sick mind.
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Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
- Born: January 5, 1928
- Died: April 4, 1979
- Occupation: Former Prime Minister of Pakistan