LOS ANGELES TIMES, OCTOBER 21, 1971
INDIA REFUSES PULLBACK
Premier Cites ‘Atrocities’ in East Pakistan
By William J. Drummond
New Delhi. October 19-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said today that India would not reduce its border military buildup until the Pakistani army stopped its “atrocities” in East Pakistan.
In her first formal press conference since last March, when civil strife broke out in East Pakistan, Mrs. Gandhi told more than 100 newsmen that she opposed direct talks with Pakistan on the subject of a border troop withdrawal or the return of the 9 million refugees to their homes.
Mrs. Gandhi’s stand opened no avenue for a reduction in the buildup on the border and the bristling confrontation between Indian and Pakistani armed forces.
Pakistani President Yahya Khan reportedly offered to reduce his forces if India would do the same and also “cease infiltration and other hostile acts.”
Although Mrs. Gandhi described the border situation as “grave.” she said her plans to go abroad on October 24 still stand. “The country is perfectly safe in the hands of the army and. I might say, the Indian people themselves.” the said.
She is scheduled to tour Western Europe and the United States, arriving in Washington November 4.
The prime minister said she was opposed to any third-party mediation efforts between India and Pakistan. “On what subject will any country mediate?” she asked. There have been indications that Soviet President Podgorny was making efforts to cool the crisis between the two neighbors.
Asked what conditions Pakistan would have to meet before India would agree to pull back some of its forces from the frontiers, Mrs. Gandhi replied.
“First, the West Pakistani soldiers would have to stop their atrocities in Bangladesh.”
Second, she said, Pakistan would have to create conditions where freely elected representatives would take office. She added that the results of the elections held last December, in which Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League won a majority, “cannot be ignored in a solution.”
Mujibur is a captive of Pakistani army and has reportedly been standing a secret trial. His militant’ followers have been waging guerrilla warfare against the West Pakistani troops since the army cracked down in East Pakistan on March 25.
Mrs. Gandhi said the guerrilla forces had the support of the “entire Population of Bangladesh.” She regularly employed the term “Bangladesh” (Bengal Nation), which the rebels have applied to East Pakistan.
She claimed that India was involved in the crisis as a “side effect” and that 13 percent of the East Pakistani population was now living on Indian soil as a result of this. Therefore, she said, India could not provide a solution to getting the refugees back home.
“The problem is between the Pakistani military regime and the elected representatives of Bangladesh. A solution must satisfy the people of Bangladesh and the representatives they elected not so long age,” said the Prime Minister. Despite Mrs. Gandhi’s efforts to remove India from involvement, it has been widely reported that the guerrilla forces operating in East Pakistan are supplied from India and receive sanctuary there.
Meanwhile, the commander of the Pakistani air force threatened to take “appropriate action.’ if Indian planes “continue to violate Pakistan’s air space,” AP reported.
An air force spokesman said Air Marshal A. Rahim khan made the statement in a message to the head of the Indian air force. Rahim claimed an Indian air force Canberra crossed into West Pakistan territory at Bahawalnagar, about four miles inside Pakistan, on Saturday. The area is near the Rajasthan desert where both sides have stepped up troop buildups.
According to the statement the air force chief said India had been violating airspace for some time in East and West Pakistan but “such violations have become more frequent deliberate and provocative.”