THE BALTIMORE SUN, DECEMBER 9, 1971
JUBILANT BENGALI CROWDS GREET
CONQUERING INDIANS AS HEROES IN JESSORE
Jessore, East Pakistan: Jubilant crowds poured into the streets yesterday (December 7) to shout Bangladesh slogans and cheer conquering Indian troops.
They emerged from their homes waving the red-green and gold flags of Bangladesh they had concealed for so long, and the women who had fled to villages deep in the paddy fields in fear of Pakistani soldiers returned to their homes.
The Indian Army entered Jessore Tuesday after a lightning thrust which splintered the Pakistani forces and put them to flight.
Tanks and armoured personnel carriers thundered past rows of shabby rundown shops, most of them locked and shuttered.
Turbaned Sikhs and brown-faced little Gurkha riflemen mingled with the crowd as cheerleaders led them in their chant of “Joi Bangla!” -Long live Bengal!
For the survivors of Jessore, an independent Bangladesh at last had become more than a cherished dream.
Out in the streets, too, were the Mukti Bahini, nationalist guerrillas who have waged an eight-month war of sabotage and against President A. M. Yahya Khan’s Army.
Modern automatic rifles, supplied by India, were slung over their shoulder, and light machine-guns.
They played a minor role in the battle of Jessore. But there was a swagger in their walk as they enjoyed the day of triumph. Major-General Dalbir Singh, whose division conquered this Pakistani barracks city, said if the enemy “had fought sensibly we should have been fighting here for a month”.
General Singh, Commander of the Indian 9th Division, said an antitank ditch and a little Maginot Line surrounded Jessore, but his troops entered almost unopposed.
His report had little in common with official accounts issued by Army spokesmen in Calcutta. They told of fierce fighting in Jessore.
Most of the fighting took place well away from the town General Singh remarked of the Pakistanis: “They have been fighting since April and are fairly disorganized”. Shell-fire has blasted an occasional house, but otherwise Jessore is little damaged. Most of the Pakistanis now are withdrawing toward the port and mill town of Chalna..
“I’ve got some of them in a pocket and even for the rest there is no way out”. General Singh added. “I don’t want to kill them yet. I want to catch them. I’m of a gentle nature.”