1971 Crisis and Bangladesh War
The 1970 elections in East Pakistan and West Pakistan resulted in a situation where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League won 167 of the 169 seats in East Pakistan, whereas Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) won 81 seats out of 138 in West Pakistan. Although, as the leader of the majority party, Mujib was supposed to be the next Prime Minister of Pakistan, Bhutto was not ready to accept and refused to sit in the National Assembly as opposition party. General Yahya Khan, President of Pakistan, influenced by Bhutto to keep the Bengalis from rising to power, postponed the National Assembly session. Mujib, in a public rally in Dhaka on March 7, called upon the Bengalis to launch movement against the Pakistan regime. In this circumstance, Tikka was sent out to put down the unrest swelling in East Pakistan. Tikka took over Eastern Command (equivalent to a reinforced Corps) on 7 March 1971 after the previous commander Lt Gen Sahabzada Yaqub Khan resigned. Tikka directed the brutal military crackdown (officially known as Operation Searchlight) on 25 March with the help of Major General Rao Farman Ali and other Army generals that stunned the Bengalis with gross violence, atrocities and massive human rights abuse.
He was the leading commander of the II Corps responsible for the defence on the Western front of the War in 1971. After a brief stay in East Pakistan, he was then posted as the first commander II Corps at Multan and commanded through the actual Indo-Pakistan conflict in December 1971.
Read more about this topic: Tikka Khan
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