THE WASHINGTON POST, OCTOBER 21, 1971
WITHDRAWAL WON’T SETTLE ISSUE: INDIA
Reuter
New Delhi, October 20-India has told the United States that a withdrawal of troops from the India-Pakistan borders will not settle the East Pakistan problem, an official spokesman said here today.
He said that the United States had not made any specific proposals, but that several ideas suggesting a pull back by both countries six miles from the frontier had been floated around.
It was not a question of accepting or rejecting these ideas, he said, but of understanding that the root of the present tension was the East Pakistan issue. This issue, he continued, has to be settled between the military rulers in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, and the elected leaders of East Pakistan, most of whom were members of the banned Awami League led by the imprisoned Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The spokesman said at a press briefing that neither the United States nor the Soviet Union had offered good offices or mediation in the situation.
India expected the international community to put pressure on President Yahya Khan to create conditions which would enable the East Pakistan refugees in India to return, the spokesman said.
If that were not done, he added, than India reserved the right to take necessary action to send them back. But the spokesman reaffirmed that India would do nothing to provoke a war with Pakistan.
Earlier today in a joint communiqué issued after a four day visit by President Tito. India and Yugoslavia warned that the East Pakistan situation was likely to be aggravated if a solution were not soon found.
They had agreed on the need for a political settlement to the problem which was in itself a source of instability and tension, the communiqué said.
Indian Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi had said the unconditional release from prison of Sheikh Mujibur was a prerequisite to a settlement.