Hossain Ali Accepts Interview Plan
By Our Special Representative, Mr. Hossain Ali, Head of the Bangladesh Mission in Calcutta, said in an interview on Sunday that New Delhi had kept him informed of the efforts now being made for repatriation of Indian and Pakistani diplomats from Dhaka and Calcutta.
He said that he would welcome the Swiss Ambassador, Mr. Fritz Real or any representative of the Swiss Government in Calcutta and provide him with opportunities for interviews with Bangladesh Mission officers who previously belonged to the Pakistan Deputy High Commission in Calcutta.
Mr. Ali said that his mission at present had 58 officers who had switched their allegiance from the Pakistan Government to the Bangladesh Government. All these officers were Bengalis and they had given personal letters to Mr. Ali indicated their intention to sever relations with the Pakistan Government and to serve the Bangladesh Government. Altogether 29 officers all from West Pakistan, who were also members of the staff in the Pakistan Deputy High Commission under Mr. Hossain Ali, were working under Mr. Mehdi Masud, who was Pakistan’s last envoy in Calcutta.
Since his arrival in Calcutta in April, Mr. Masud had been insisting that the diplomats headed by Mr. Hossain Ali were being held under duress. Mr. Masud’s case was apparently taken up by the Pakistan Government which imposed restrictions on the movements of the head of the last Indian Mission in Dacca. Mr. K. C. Sen Gupta and 130 members of his staff. They have been living under virtual house arrest.
Interviews by the Swiss Government representative in the presence of officers of both Indian and Pakistan Governments to ascertain the loyalties of 58 Bengali officers, formerly beloging to the Pakistan Deputy High Commission in Calcutta are said to be the procedure agreed to by the parties concerned.
Mr. Ali said that normally he or any member of his staff would have “nothing to do with the Pakistan Government. If I have informally agreed to the suggestion for the interviews it is because of our anxiety regarding the members of the Indian Mission in Dacca.”
In the normal course, neither he nor any member of his staff would agree to any inquiry in which a representative of the Pakistan Government would be present. But if such an inquiry, which “must be in conformity with our dignity”, helped repatriate the harassed staff of the Indian Mission in Dacca. “I certainly cannot have any objection in the circumstances”, Mr. Ali said.
Although the broad features regarding the modalities for ascertaining the wishes of the 58 Bengali members of Mr. Ali’s staff were outlined he said that he had not received details about when and where the interviews would take place. The procedure was yet to be framed. Mr. Ali had kept his Government informed of the communications to him from Delhi.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 12.07.1971