Bengal rebel envoys given help in India
By David Loshak in Calcutta
India and Pakistan may sever diplomatic relations as tension between the two countries mounts over the civil war in East Pakistan. The atmosphere is highly charged by accusations and counter-accusations.
India has blamed Pakistan for the shooting of three Indians well within Indian territory. Pakistan has claimed that Indian saboteurs attempted to blow up two power stations.
The situation may deteriorate further as India comes more and more openly to the support of secessionist leaders in the battle-torn east wing Pakistan.
Officially, the Indian Government has observed all the diplomatic niceties and avoided involvement in the causes of “BanglaDesh” (Bengali Nation) which is fighting for independence from West Pakistan.
But there is now little attempt to conceal its real sympathies. Emissaries claiming to represent the provisional government of BanglaDesh are openly in Calcutta.
They are staying at a West Bengal State Government hostel. Among the assistance given them is the help of India’s chief publicity officials.
BanglaDesh was formally declared independent yesterday at a brief, and, to the many Bengalis present, evidently moving ceremony, in a mango grove on the westernmost edge of East Pakistan.
Independence was proclaimed by Mr. Syed Nazrul Islam, a former leader of the now outlawed Awami League party of East Pakistan, who took the oath of office as acting president … The absence of the acclaimed president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was not explained. He is now thought to be dead or in prison somewhere in West Pakistan.
The new nation’s Prime Minister, Mr. Tajuddin Ahmed, former general secretary of the Awami League, said independent BanglaDesh was now “a reality.”
It was under the aegis of the Awami League that an attempt was made to reach a compromise with West Pakistan. This attempt led directly to the present blood bath.
Refugees to India Whether recognised or not the immediate prospects for the independence movement in East Pakistan could hardly be more grim. Central Government forces have now effectively crushed almost all organized resistance.
The Pakistan Army is moving as fast as possible to seal all main exit routes into India. Starving panic-stricken and bewildered refugees are streaming across at the rate of 10,000 to 20,000 a day.
The only prospect left now is of a protracted guerrilla war against what has become the occupying army. But it is far from certain that BanglaDesh, despite the hatred of East Pakistan’s 70 million Bengalis for their West Pakistan oppressors can mount or sustain such a campaign.
Famine fears Mr. John Stonehouse, former Labor Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, left London for India yesterday to investigate the East Pakistan food situation. He said Oxfam and War on Want were concerned at reports that widespread famine could be expected.
Reference: The Sunday Telegraph : 18 April 1971