10.7 DISTURBANCES IN PAKISTAN

 

 

Public Record Office

 

REF: FCO 37/466

 

RAWALPINDI

 

MA/81    

18 November 1968

 

Ministry of Defence (DI 2)

Main Building, Whitehall

LONDON S.W.I.

 

DISTURBANCES IN PAKISTAN

 

Reference: My MA 81 dated 14 November 1968.

 

As a follow-up to my recent letter, we have had recent reports of serious incidents concerning the Services.

 

1. During the riots in Abbottabad the house rented by the Pakistan Military Academy and occupied by a Major who was decorated for gallantry in 1965, was ransacked. The Major's wife and two children were manhandled by the mob. The house was wrecked and all personal belongings were looted or smashed. Noone made a move to help the wife. The house belongs to President Ayub.

 

2.In Peshawar a Medical Corps Colonel, his driver and orderly, were beaten up and stripped of much of their uniform. An Army Order now forbids Services in uniform to go into the old cite of Peshawar. Peshawar has long been one of the historic and important military centres.

 

3. In Rawalpindi Air Marshal Nur Khan, the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force had his staff car stoned. and was saved from being manhandled by Police.

 

4. In Rawalpindi Begum Wasi-ud-Din, wife of Major General Wasi-ud-Din Master General of Ordnance was roughly handled when collecting her two children from the local school. All three were terrified. She was in the General's staff car, with the stars covered. The General was in East Pakistan at the time.

 

The Services were called out in aid of the Civil Power in Rawalpindi and Peshawar.

 

These incidents have been reported to the diplomatic staff.

 

(J.D.W. Minor)
Brigadier
Military Adviser

 

Copy to: Major General J.M. McNeill

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

 

 

Source: The British Papers – Secret and Confidential India.Pakistan.Bangladesh Documents 1958-1969, Oxford University Press, p. 743