Newsmen who were left behind
By Our Special Correspondent, Calcutta newspapers were prevented by the Army CPRO from going to Dacca to give an eyewitness account of the historic occasion of the surrender of the Pakistani troops to Lt. Gen. Aurora, GOC-In-C. Eastern Command at Dacca on Thursday.
The CPRO did take a Press party from Calcutta by two requisitioned aircraft to witness the signing of the document of surrender by the Pakistani Commander. Gen. Niazi; but none of the Calcutta newspaper representatives were included in the party. Even the AIR, or BBC. or the Tass news agency were left out; but Delhi representatives and the Western Press were adequately represented in the party.
Minutes before 1 p.m. different newspaper offices in Calcutta were informed over the telephone by the CPRO’s Office that they should send their representatives within 15 minutes to the Officers Institute, Fort William, for in airlift to Dacca. Immediately, the Calcutta representatives, as also the BBC and the AIR correspondents rushed to the Institute at Fort Willaim, and they were all there within 15 minutes as required by the CPRO’s Office.
Then began their long hour of waiting; for none from the CPRO’s Office, or any other called there to inquire about the presence of the newspaper representatives. Some of the correspondents started making anxious inquiries here and there, but none could say precisely what they should do. Some two hours later, they were told by an Army Officer that planes with correspondents had left long ago, and there would be no other flight the same day.
Later on inquiry, it was found that the news agencies, Indian and Western, had been adequately covered, and so long a number of photographers, some of whom nothing but free-lancers. They all came from Delhi. It appeared that all these correspondents and photographers, none of whom represented Calcutta newspapers, were informed quite early in the day for being airlifted to Dacca via Agartala.
Actually, when Maj. Gen. Jacab, Chief of Staff, Eastern Command, left for Dacca, around 10.30 afimfi to discuss the details of the instrument of surrender with Gen. Niazi that the CPRO started taking action for taking a Press party to Dacca. By 11.30 a.m. he had finished calling on the correspondents and photographers of his choice at different places, including the Grand Hotel, for organising the Press party. Around 12.30 p.m. the party had left for the airport, and on his way to Dum Dum, the CPRO took the trouble of picking up some photographers and Western Press representatives from their hotels.
Even four days ago, when another Press party was sent by air to Agartala at short notice the Calcutta Press was left out.
Tarun Ganguli whose despatch appears as the lead story in this edition reached Dacca on his own.-Ed. H. S.
Reference: Hindustan Standard 17. 12. 1971