ABSTRACT
In 1971, the self-appointed president of Pakistan and commander-in-chief of the army General Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan and his top generals prepared a careful and systematic military, economic, and political operation against East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). They planned to murder that country's Bengali intellectual, cultural, and political elite. They planned to indiscriminately murder hundreds of thousands of its Hindus and drive the rest into India. And they planned to destroy its economic base to insure that it would be subordinate to West Pakistan for at least a generation to come. This despicable and cutthroat plan was outright genocide. For the moment, the military dictators of Pakistan seemed content to retire from front stage, turn Pakistan over to civilian and constitutional rule, and use their considerable power from behind the scenes. The elections would determine the composition of the Constituent National Assembly, which in turn would have 120 days to write a new constitution.
