600 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড palace at 'Pindi' when Field-Marshal Ayub Khan stepped down under popular pressure just over two years ago. When Yahya Khan came to power, first as Chief Martial Law Administrator and later as President, he did not, perhaps even, dream of the day he would have to order his army into East Pakistan to crush what he describes as a secessionist movement inspired by India. "Right from the start," he told us, "my sole objective was to restore law and order in the country and to hand over power to an elected civilian government. That objective remains unchanged." Free Elections True to the Pakistani army's tradition of staying out of politics be lifted the ban Ayub imposed on free political activity and allowed the old parties to return to the scene while new parties also came into being. Then Pakistan's first free general election took place on the basis of universal adult franchise late last year. For a few months of glowing hope, Pakistan seemed to be heading for a democratic system in which the political parties would be free to fight each other for power and base themselves on popular backing. A few months later, however, the Awami League, the East Pakistan party that had won a sweeping victory at the polls was banned and its chief leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman accused of secessionism and high treason. The Pakistan People's Party which won the election in the West wing of the geographically divided country was also told to forget the possibility of coming to power, at least for the time being, "I was prepared to do all that was necessary, provided the unity of Pakistan would not be undermined," Yahya Khan told us in an unmistakably sad tone, "I was not interested in this chair and was all along waiting for the first chance to return to my life of a soldier." With an air of dejection, he went on to say that he had been let down by the politicians who could not agree among themselves and who later brought the country to "the brink of partition". Compromise with Mujib He recalled how he had gone out of his way to reach a compromise with Sheikh Mujib. He had flown to Dacca, East Pakistan to meet the Sheikh although the latter should have gone to 'Pindi to see him'. "I even said he would be Pakistan's next Prime Minister," he reminisced "I did not believe what was said about the man and thought that all he was interested in was putting the situation in the east wing right. I knew that the East Pakistanis had legitimate grievances, and I was ready to hand over power to the Awami League provided I was assured that Pakistan would not be split into two separate countries,
