Pak propaganda does not cut much ice in USA
NEW YORK, JULY 8.— The Pakistan Government has brought a group of East Bengal Muslims here in an effort to persuade the Press and diplomats that things are “normal” in East Bengal but so far they do not seem to have cut much ice, reports PTI.
The East Bengalis, who have come here on behalf of the Pakistani Government are: Mr. Nurul Islam a judge of the Dacca High Court, Mr. Sajjad Hussain, vice-chancellor of the Rajshahi University, Mr. Mohammad Ali a professor of the Dacca University, and Mr. Din Mohammad, also of Dacca University.
The basic line of these four, in their private discussions, has been that the Awami League is not representative of East Bengal, but it won electoral victory, and moved thereafter to bring about secession through “terror tactics”, that Refugee movement into India is not of the order that India is painting but of only those who fled East Bengal in the aftermath of the “terror” that the Awami League let loose after March 1, and whose return India is now preventing.
Whether the four East Bengalis really believe in what they propagate, is difficult to says as those who have come into contact with them have noticed that there are always West Pakistanis belonging to the Pakistan Government around this group.
Last week some of the members of the Bangladesh League of America went to the hotel where these four members of East Bengal group were staying and tried to engage them into a discussion and take them to the Bangladesh office to discuss the issue with other East Bengalis in New York. A West Pakistani diplomat stayed in the lobby and called in the police, who persuaded the Bangladesh group to leave the four alone.
Also last week the Pakistan Mission arranged a lunch for a gettogether of these four “delegates” with a few American newsmen at the residence of the Pakistani Mission Press Officer, Mr. Hamid Jalal with the Pakistani Ambassador, Mr. Agha Shahi among those present, and “keeping a watchful eye”, as one newsman present put it.
The meeting and discussions apparently proved so disastrous to the Pakistanis that the entire discussion was made “off the record” to the point that even the names of the delegates, the newsmen were told, should not be mentioned. The explanation given was that some of them had relatives in India who might be “ victimised”. The newsmen gathered the impression that what the four were really afraid of perhaps, was being branded “quislings” in East Bengal and becoming targets of the resistance movement.
Some of the newsmen were so flabhergasted by the line advanced by these four East Bengalis, with prompting in the form of questions by Mr. Agha Shahi that one of them reportedly asked the flour whether they seriously believed what they said and expected others would believe too.
The point that made newsmen, not all of whom are intimately acquainted with events in Bangladesh, chary was the line that there has been no refugee movement of substance since the Awami Leagues“ secessionist movement was put down”. The four either had not read or could not answer when they were confronted with reports of UNICEF, WHO, WFP and other UN agencies about the refugee influx into India and even remarks here of Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
East Bengal sources in New York says, the Pakistan Government is also planning to bring to the USA the late Suhrawardy’s daughter, who apparently has been trying to put together a quisling regime in East Bengal on behalf of Gen. Yahya Khan.
Reference: Hindustan Standard 9.7.1971