Heavy fighting as Shaikh Mujibur declares E Pakistan independent
Civil war raged in the eastern region of Pakistan last night after the provincial leader, Shaikh Mujibur Rahman, had proclaimed the region an independent republic. President Yahya Khan outlawed the Shaikh’s Awami League and denounced the Shaikh himself as a traitor whose crime “would not go unpunished.”
Political activity throughout Pakistan has been banned and an indefinite curfew has been imposed on the eastern wing. Official communications between East Pakistan and the rest of the world have been cut. The only news about the day’s dramatic developments came in clandestine radio bulletins broadcast from Dacca and from reports by travelers crossing into India.
said that Dacca, the capital of the eastern wing, had become a “battlefield.” It also quoted Shaikh Mujibur’s claim that West Pakistan troops had been surrounded in six cities.
Reference: The Time : 27 March 1971