If-I-am-assassinated-by-Shaheed-Bhutto

egime would have jumped the gun to release the Hamoodur Rehman Report ifits nefarious purpose of maligning me had been served by it.The military regime is not releasing the report because it is a severeindictment of the armed forces and the military hierarchy. In a press conferencein Lahore about four months ago, the Chief Martial Law Administrator tried toplay down the substance of the Report. He said that he had read it and there wasnothing important in it. According to his yardstick, only those things areimportant which might damage me. Nothing else is important to him. The reportis important. It is a story of rape, plunder and loot. If, in those days, lashing werea punishment for rape and cutting off hands for theft, I would shudder to thinkof the number of handless persons. Since “purifying the blood of Bengalis” is notrape, the President of Pakistan could have exercised his powers of mercy.The report exposes the macabre conspiracy of Yahya Khan and his clique.The map of Bengal had to be painted red. What a colourful directive from aGeneral whose skin I saved with honour but whom nevertheless went to Londonto influence Jam Sadiq Ali to become an Approver in false murder case againstme. The passage in the White Paper on page 106 shows that, due to the clamour,I was reflecting on the demand but that I was requested to consider further thetentative decision to release the item. The passage in the White Paper is in italicsand it reads.In the discussion, it was concluded that any formal exposition of the 1971War, and events preceding it outside Hamoodur Rehman’s report, wouldraise new issues, accelerate and encourage the demand for the publicationof Hamoodur Rehman’s report and would be counter productive. It wasdecided to request the Prime Minister to reconsider this item.On page 107, the White Paper states: “Mr. Bhutto agreed with the line ofaction suggested with a cryptic ‘It can be omitted’“. This clearly shows that in aconflict of interest, I chose to sacrifice our political interests to safeguard thereputation and honour of the armed forces. I am receiving a wonderful token ofgratitude. Instead of being beholden to me, a sadistic effort has been made toturn the tables on me. This is the meaning of “Idhar Hum Udhar tum,” anexpression I did not use in that distorted form; but it has come out to be true.There, the Bengalis were given hell and here we are being given hell. Over therethe Bengali politicians were not fit to rule. Over here we are not fit to rule.Democracy was unworkable in Bengal. Democracy is unworkable here. Overthere, the masses had to be exploited by Big Business and over here our masseshave to be exploited by Big Business. Over there, the Bengalis had to get thedanda and over here we have to get the danda. “Idhar hum udhar tum.”If I am Assassinated; Copyright © www.bhutto.org 153