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.

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.

Do you know that Yahya Khan's first victim was not to have been Mujib [ Rahman] but myself? Many people in my party were in prison, and at the end of 1970, November 5, 1970, to be exact, he had said to Mujib, "Should I arrest Bhutto or not?" Look, the only reason why he reversed his schedule was that in West Pakistan he couldn't control the situation as in East Pakistan. Besides Mujib has never been intelligent - he let himself be backed into a corner.

To conclude, the tragedy of March 25 [1969] caught me by surprise. Yahya Khan fooled even me.

I can't destroy the whole army, and anyway [Tikka Khan] bad reputation for the events in Dacca is exaggerated.

[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.

[Tikka Khan] made his appeal with loudspeakers, and still he came to know of only four cases. Shall we multiply by ten and make it forty? We're still far from the senseless figures spread around by Mujib [Rahman] and Indra Gandhi.