Rao Farman Ali - Rao's Controversial Letter and Diary

Rao's Controversial Letter and Diary

The Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, made a formal complaint with Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto at Dacca on Friday, the June 28, 1974 that Maj Gen Rao Farman Ali had written on Government stationery that "The green of East Pakistan will have to be painted red."

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman promised to supply a copy of this document to the Government of Pakistan. The insinuation was that this writing amounted to a written declaration of the intentions of the Pakistani Army and the martial law administration in East Pakistan to indulge in large-scale bloodshed in order to suppress the movement for Bangladesh. This writing was put forward as a proof of the killings alleged to have been carried out in East Pakistan during the military operations.

Maj. Gen. Farman Ali explained the significance of this writing and the circumstances under which it came to be made by him. He stated that the words "the green of East Pakistan will have to be painted red" were uttered by one of the NPA leaders in Paltan Maidan, Dacca, now called Dhaka in a public speech during June 1970. The Martial Law headquarters thought that these words had been uttered by Mr Mohammad Toha of the NAP, and the General was asked to call for the explanation of Mr Toha and warn him not to say things prejudicial to public peace. To remind himself he wrote these words down on the back of his table diary, when they were repeated to him on telephone by Lt. Gen. Sahabzada Yakub Khan, the then Zonal Martial Law administrator in East Pakistan. Toha later denied having uttered these words and mentioned the names of Qazi Zafar and Rashid Menon in this connection. As these gentlemen had gone underground, General Farman Ali could not take any further action against them. The General further explained that as Mr Toha and his associates had communist leanings, these words were intended to convey their conviction and objective that East Pakistan would be turned into a communist state, and not that there would be bloodshed. Finally, Maj. Gen. Farman Ali has stated that he did not give any importance to this note and it must have fallen into the hands of his Bengali Personal Assistant, when the diary for the year 1970 was replaced at the close of that year.