Commenting on the situation, Yaqub maintained that: "[President] Yahya was also keen to impose the "open sword" martial law to roll back the situation as it was in 1969." He lodged a strong protest against the military solution and maintained that the "central government had failed to listen to the voices of their co-citizens in the East." To many authors, Yaqub Khan had become a "conscientious objector" in the military.