UN TEAM INSPECTS EAST PAKISTANIS
Refugee Camps
Fighting Still Flare up
CALCUTTA :- A team from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UN HCR) flew into Calcutta to begin an inspection into refugee camps Sunday.
Over one-and-half million East Pakistanis have fled since the Pakistan army launched its martial law crackdown in the Eastern province on March 25.
Meanwhile celebrations were in progress throughout India’s West Bengal state to mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of renowned Bengali philosopher-poet, Rabindranath Tagore.
Tagore’s poem “Amar Sonar Bangla; Ami Tomai Bhalo Bash.” (Oh My Golden Bengal; I Love You) has been adupted as the national anthem by the secessionists government of Bangla Desh (Bengal Nation).
The Tagore home in East Pakistan has been destroyed by West Pakistani troops according to reports from across the border published by the Press Trust of India (PTI)
A group of artists and writers from both West and East Bengal took part in a rally in front of the former Pakistan Deputy High Commission in Calcutta; which has been declared and is being maintained as a Bangla Desh mission by more than 70 former Pakistan diplomats.
Bloodbath?
Professor Hirendra Mukerjee: a leader of the Indian pro-Moscow Communist Party and a Member of Parliament told the rally that East Pakistan had a bloodbath at the hands of the Pakistan Army.
“The people on this side of the border would be entitled to feel legitimate pride if they could muster courage for having the Bangla Desh freedom struggle”, he said “That would be a real tribute to the memory of Rabindranath: who alwas uphold the principles on human rights”.
Miss Kabari Chowdhury East Pakistan’s leading female film star said:
“I appeal to the nations of the world to force the Pakistan Government to halt to the genocide now being perpetrated in Bangla Desh”.
The three-man UNHCR team immediately left Calcutta airport and headed for refugee camps near the East Pakistan border.
In New Delhi, Labour and Rehabilitation Minister R.K. Khadilkar Sunday discussed refugee operations with the chief ministers of provinces near East and the finance ministers.
He said the refugees have to dispersed to other Indian states: but assumed them the central government would speedily supply food grains and other relief materials.
Pakistani Shelling?
PTI reported from the Tripura capital of Agartala that an Indian citizen was killed and another wounded when the Pakistan army shelled the Indian town of Sonamura; 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Agartala today.
Meanwhile there was fighting for the third day running between guerrilla units of the so-called “Bangla Desh liberation Army” and the Pakistan army in the Akhaura area of East Pakistan only six miles (10 km) from Agartala: PTI reported.
The reports said the Pakistan army was pushing the guerrillas back and had come within one-and a half miles (three kilometers) of the Akhaura border check point.
Reference : The Djakarta Times, 11.05.1971