Rao Farman Ali: Difference between revisions

{{short description|Pakistani general}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name                = Rao Farman Ali

}}

Commissioned in September, 1943 as a [[forward observer]] in [[Pakistan Army Regiment of Artillery|Regiment of Artillery]], he served as [[military adviser]] to the [[Pakistan army]], and oversaw the deployment of [[Pakistan Army Corps of Military Police|military police]] aided with [[Razakars (Pakistan)|local militias (razarkars)]] during the [[Bangladesh Liberation War]].<ref name="Columbia University Press">{{cite book|last1=Ganguly|first1=Sumit|title=Conflict Unending: India-Pakistan Tensions Since 1947|date=April 2002 |publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231507400|pages=59–60|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xn_QVYLy6ocC&q=Rao+Farman+Ali+brigade&pg=PA60|language=en}}</ref> He testified his [[Moral responsibility|responsibilities]] in the [[Hamoodur Rahman Commission]] in 1972 but denied allegations of [[1971 Bangladesh genocide|genocide]] committed in Bangladesh in spite of the [[Hamoodur Rahman Commission]] which proved the involvement of misconducts and genocide of Pakistani military personnel.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pppusa.org/Acrobat/Hamoodur%20Rahman%20Commission%20Report.pdf |title=Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304011310/http://www.pppusa.org/Acrobat/Hamoodur%20Rahman%20Commission%20Report.pdf |date=7 January 2009|archive-date=4 March 2012 |access-date=22 May 2021}}</ref>

Rao Farman Ali was born into a [[Haryanvi people|Haryanvi]] family in [[Rohtak]], [[East Punjab]], then under the [[British Raj|British Colonial rule]] in 1923.<ref name="sites.google.com">{{cite web|title=Rao Farman Ali - Pakistan Who's Who|url=https://sites.google.com/site/pakistanwhoswho/search-by-name/r/rao-farman-ali|website=sites.google.com|access-date=23 May 2021}}</ref> His [[date of birth]] is read as 1 January 1923, according to the official [[headstone]] written in [[Urdu language|Urdu]] in his grave which is located in the [[Westridge, Rawalpindi|Westridge cemetery]] in [[Rawalpindi]]. Very little is known about his early life in the literature based on [[Pakistani military]], and not much is published about his educational background.

[[Altaf Gauhar|Altaf Gohar]], an East Pakistani civil servant, recounted an incident from his memory that a hit list had been drawn up for elimination of certain Bangalis.{{rp|27–30}}<ref name="Somoy Prokashan" /> A friend of [[Altaf Gauhar|Altaf Gohar]] was also in the list and his friends and relatives requested Gohar if he could do something to save his friend.{{rp|28}}<ref name="Somoy Prokashan" />  Gohar held a meeting with Farman and requested him to drop the name from his hit list. ''" Farman took'', said Gohar, ''a diary out of his drawer and crossed the name out. The name was of Mr. [[Sanaul Huq]] and he was spared."''{{rp|29}}<ref name="Somoy Prokashan" />

After the [[East Pakistan-West Pakistan War 1971|civil war]] in 1971 ended, Farman's diary was recovered from the ruins of the [[Bangabhaban|Governor's house]]. The copy of a page from the diary shows the list of intellectuals from [[Dhaka]] University. Out of which, 14 of them were killed on 14 December 1971.<ref>{{cite book |last= Mamoon, Muntassir |author2=translation by Kushal Ibrahim  |title= The Vanquished Generals and the Liberation War of Bangladesh |publisher= Somoy Prokashon |date=June 2000 | edition = First  |isbn= 984-458-210-5| pages = 29}}</ref> In 1971, he, along with Lieutenant-General [[Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi]], sent a telegram to the [[Embassy of the United States, Dhaka|U.S. Embassy]] in [[Dhaka|Dacca]]  to transmit the [[Instrument of Surrender (1971)|surrender proposal]] to [[New Delhi]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Abbas|first1=Hassan|title=Pakistan's Drift Into Extremism: Allah, the Army, and America's War on Terror|date=26 March 2015 |publisher=Routledge, Abbas|isbn=9781317463283|pages=56–66|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FHKsBwAAQBAJ&q=rao+farman+ali++east+pakistan&pg=PA66|language=en}}</ref> Farman Ali also sent a request for a cease-fire to the United Nations, but it was quickly countermanded by a message from President Yahya Khan which described Farman Ali's request as "unauthorized".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Singh|first1=V. K.|title=Leadership in the Indian Army: Biographies of Twelve Soldiers|date=23 March 2005 |publisher=SAGE|isbn=9780761933229|pages=207–208|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fitUUKyeG6IC&q=rao+farman+ali++east+pakistan&pg=PA208|language=en}}</ref>

In 1972, Ali testified against [[Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi|A.A.K. Niazi]] in the [[Hamoodur Rahman Commission]] and noted that Niazi's morale collapsed as early as 7 December and cried fanatically over the progress report presented to the [[Abdul Motaleb Malik]].<ref name="Yale University Press, Jones">{{cite book|last1=Jones|first1=Owen Bennett|title=Pakistan: Eye of the Storm|date=2002|publisher=Yale University Press, Jones|isbn=0300101473|url=https://archive.org/details/pakistaneyeofsto00benn|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/pakistaneyeofsto00benn/page/183 183]|language=en}}</ref> Controversy regarding his own involvement in the political events of [[Eastern Pakistan|East]] had arisen since he had denied all accusations leveled against him despite testifying his [[Moral responsibility|responsibilities]] as [[military adviser]] to [[Pakistan Eastern Command|East Pakistani military command]].<ref name="অরূপকথা" />