War will be suicidal, Kosygin tells Yahya
From Our Special Correspondent, NEW DELHI, Aug. 18.—The Soviet Premier, Mr. Kosygin, is said to have told President Yahya Khan that any war with India will be suicidal for Pakistan.
According to diplomatic sources here, he has conveyed this in a message which the new soviet Ambassador to Pakistan, Mr. A. A. Rodinov, had delivered yesterday at Rawalpindi.
Mr. Kosygin’s message, coming in the wake of the Soviet Foreign Minister’s visit here and the conclusion of the Indo-Soviet treaty (with defence clauses), is reported to have warned Pakistan against loose talks of war with India.
The communication, it is learnt, asked the military regime to make an end to atrocities in Bangladesh and not to proceed with the trial of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Mr. Kosygin had also pointed out that the continued influx of refugees from Bangladesh to India had been due to conditions of insecurity in Bangladesh.
He was supposed to have advised President Yahya Khan in favour of a political solution with the elected leaders of Bangladesh.
The warning contained in the Soviet message will be repeated when the Pakistan Foreign Secretary, Sultan Mohammad Khan visits Moscow after his Teheran trip.
Meanwhile, nothing may come out of Pakistan’s approach to utilise the Security Council good offices for the posting of UN officials in East Bengal and India for what Pakistan called defusing tension points between the two countries.
Diplomatic sources believe that important members of the Security Council have seen through the Pak move of making the issue an IndoPak on instead of Pakistan- Bangladesh issue) and most of the members are not in a mood to oblige Pakistan.
That is the impression gathered by Indian official sources here.
The U.N. Under Secretary-General Mr. Narsinham, is currently here. He had meetings with the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Foreign Secretary and others. It is likely that his visit has something to do with the Pakistani move.
Official sources today expressed the regret that “certain countries supplying arms to Pakistan” were anxious to obligether (Pakistan) in order to convert the whole thing into an Indo-Pak issue, there-by seeking to sidestep the Bangladesh issue.
UNI adds: Pakistan rejected the view of the UN Secretary-General, U Thant, that the secret trial of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by a special military tribunal would have repercussions beyond the borders of Pakistan.
In a letter to U Thant, the Pakistani representative to the UN Mr. Agha Shahi, contended that U Thant’s remarks exceeded the competence of the UN.
He said, “Pakistan cannot accept the proposition that any judicial decision in the individual case of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman will have any repercussions outside the borders of Pakistan.’
Mr. Shahi, whose letter dated August 16 was released in U.N. Headquarters yesterday, raised the issue of alleged Indian interference in Bangladesh, saying “No such repercussions are inevitable unless Pakistan’s hostile neighbour, India, is encouraged to make them so.”
Mr. Shahi prefaced his protest with the claim that the Pakistan Government had “Promptly accepted several suggestions made by the Secretary-General to help return the people who have been uprooted from their homes in East Pakistan.
Reference: Hindustan Standard 19.08.1971