THE NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 27,1971
PAKISTAN LISTS TOLL OI 78 MORE
IN FIGHTING IN EASTERN REGION
By Malcolm W. Browne
Special To The New York Times
Karachi, Pakistan, October 26 -Pakistan reported today that her army continued mopping up. “Indian troops and agents” in the Kasba area of Comilla District in East Pakistan and asserted that 78 more bodies of “enemy” personnel had been found.
The latest claim, in a communiqué, brought to 579 the number of the enemy said by Pakistan to have been killed in two days.
The communiqué noting that India had said the Kasba area was under the control of the rebel Bengali forces, reiterated Pakistan’s contention that all the territory in East Pakistan was under her control.
Communiqué, which do not mention Pakistani military casualties, use the phrase “Indian agents” to describe the Bengali guerrillas in East Pakistan fighting the Government. “Indian agents” are presumed to include villagers.
Shelling Said to Go On The Government said that the shelling of border villages continued. While there is no doubt that shells fall on villages in East Pakistan, it is not always clear where they have come from.
There are fairly frequent Pakistani Government reports that the district town of Comilla has been shelled by Indian artillery across the border, but an examination of the damage indicated that the shells had usually come from 2-inch mortars, whose range is not sufficient for firing across the border.
Since military operations against Bengali separatist began in East Pakistan last March, the Pakistan Army has systematically reduced villages and other strong points. There have been artillery barrages and air strikes by American built and Soviet-built jet aircraft.
Monsoon flooding of East Pakistan’s vast rice and jute fields has hampered the army Amphibious operations have been helped by 50 light assault boats provided by the United States for cyclone relief and appropriated by the army last March.
The monsoon is nearly ended and Government troops will presumably have greater mobility now.