Arms aid a direct incitement to Pindi’s actions : Shehabuddin
From Our Special Correspondent, NEW DELHI, JULY 1 – Mr. K. M. Shehaduddin, diplomatic representative of the Bangladesh Government here, appealed to the “democratic people and the Government of the USA” not to give any arms and economic aid to the Pakistani military junta.
Mr. Shehabuddin said any aid to the military junta would “amount to direct incitement to Islamabad’s heinous actions. History will not forgive the aggressor and those who help it.”
He also expressed his “extreme distress” to know that despite their protests, the USA was again channeling aid of $4.5m for evelone relief in Bangladesh through the “killer Government of Islamabad.”
From past experience, he said the US Government knew very well that this aid would add to the war efforts of Islamabad against the unarmed people of Bangladesh. Even boats supplied previously to Islamabad for cyclone relief, he pointed out, had been turned into gun boats and were being used against the people there. “Any supply of food grains will give Islamabad a handle at this moment to starve out the needy people and procure Quislings to serve their evil political designs.”
Mr. Shehabuddin appealed to the US Government to reconsider its decision and to route the aid through neutral and impartial supervisors of a third country or through the Bangladesh Government.
Mr. Shehabuddin, who was formerly a second secretary to the Pakistan High Commission here, pointed out that the Pakistan military regime had used the aid it had received from Western countries, particularly the USA, to commit aggression in Bangladesh. These countries, therefore, had a moral duty to withhold further aid to Islamabad and pressurize it to “see the writing on the wall and to accept the well established independent sovereign status of Bangladesh” he added.
Mr. Shehabuddin had some days back led a demonstration of Bangladesh people before the US Embassy here after the disclosure by the New York Times that two Pakistani ships had sailed with arms from the USA.
Mr. Shehabuddin in a letter to the Soviet Ambassador here has expressed the “deep shock and grief” of the people and the Government of Bangladesh at the tragic end to the 24-day record space flight of Soyuz 11.
He conveyed the “heart-felt sympathy” of Bangladesh people and the Government to the “great and valiant people of the USSR as also to the bereaved families of the martyrs in the cause of knowledge.”
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 02.07.1971