PAKISTAN JETS VIOLATE INDIAN AIR SPACE
ARMY REGAIN JESSORE
New Delhi, April 4 (AP)
AN INDIAN news agency said Sunday that Pakistani jet fighters violated Indian air space while bombing East Pakistani Independent forces.
United News of India in a dispatch from the border town of krishnagar, said the Pakistani Jets were seen over the nearby Indian town of Gede and other border villages late Saturday and shortly before dawn Sunday.
The news said the planes were bombing the East Pakistani town of Chuadnaga, 20 miles (32 km) from the border.
There was no immediate confirmation from the Indian Air Force.
The area is located in a Khustia district where Indian newsman have reported that several West Pakistani army units have been isolated by supporters of Sheikh Mujib Rahman’s Awami League.
United News reported that the Pakistan Army, using rockets and long rangelguns, regained an important road junction linking the Western district city of Jessore with Dacca, the provincial capital.
The loss of the Junction four days ago had hampered getting army supplies from Dacca to Jessore, 80 miles (130 km) way.
Foreign Correspondents who visited Jessore on Thursday said the city was under the control of the East Pakistanis and that the army had retreated to its cantonment.
An Indian newsman who tried to reach Jessore on Sunday was stopped by East Pakistani riflemen four miles from the city and told not to proceed further because of heavy fighting
United News of India said East Pakistanis gained control of Dinajpur, 200 miles north of Calcutta, is only 5 miles (8 km) from the border of Indian’s West Bengal state.
Radio Pakistan, is an English language broadcast heard here, said India was flying additional border securities forces from New Delhi to reinforce troops already along the Indian border with East Pakistan.
Indian foreign ministry sources denied there was any bombing and the only function of border security forces already in West Bengal was to insure that the Indian border did not become ‘vulnerable’ in view of the developments in East Pakistan.’
The sources also disclaimed responsibility for a convoy of mine vehicles laden with arms that Radio Pakistan said had been destroyed by the Pakistani Army on Saturday.
An officical spokesman said India government was not sending armed infiltrators into East Pakistan
Radio Pakistan said the ‘situation in Dacca and other towns and the countryside of East Pakistan is continuing to improve.’
It added that curfew would be imposed in Dacca only from 17.30 p.m. to 5 a.m. beginning Monday, instead of from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Radio Pakistan also said without elaboration that a vaccination and innoculation campaign was under way in Dacca, the provincial capital, to prevent an outbreak of ‘seasonal epidemics.’
It was presumed there were years of an outbreak of smallpox, and cholera, two diseases prevalent in this region even in normal times.
The Radio said street cleaners and garbage collectors had returned to work, indicating that a potentially serious sanitary problem might have existed earlier last week.
British enacuees who arrived in Singapore from Dacca Friday night said that they had also see I many bodies on the streets.
Radio Pakistan also said the supply of fresh fruits, vegetables and milk in Dacca was steadily improving.’
Reference : Indonesian Observer, 06.04.1971