6 April 1971 NIXON
The President’s Daily Brief
PAKISTAN
Pakistani troop reinforcements are arriving by air in Dacca at a rate of four or five flights over 500 men per day. The army continues to raid areas near the provincial capital and has commandeered a large number of trucks , possibly in order to move into the countryside on a larger scale. Reports of the situation in East Pakistan outside Dacca remain fragmentary. The Indian press claims that government forces have lost control of Rangpur and are hard pressed at Sylhet, Kushtia, and Dinajpur. In Dacca the military government is trying to recruit what local political support it can and has received assurances of cooperation from a delegation of politicians from East Pakistani parties that lost badly to Mujib in the elections last December. Dacca radio has broadcast a purported statement by
the leader of this delegation denouncing Indian interference in Pakistani internal affairs. The Indian press is praising Soviet President Podgorny for asking President Yahya Khan to halt the bloodshed in East Pakistan. The Indian press is also criticizing the US “which has a special moral responsibility because it supplied most of the military equipment „ ” The Ceylonese Government responding to Indian and domestic pressures has announced that Pakistani military flights are no longer landing in Ceylon* Although the statement is technically true Pakistani civilian aircraft darrying troops in’ civilian clothing still appear to be refueling in Colombo . An impending shortage of fuel there and in Dacca due in part to a refusal by Burma to supply additional fuel could limit reinforcement flights in the future . President Yahya has made public his reply to Podgorny ‘s letter in which he urged the USSR to use its influence to restrict “open and unashamed” Indian interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs. Yahya also claimed that his own actions are aimed at protecting the vast majority of the people of East Pakistan. President Richard Nixon jumps down from the trunk of a limousine which carried him and Pakistani President Yahya Khan (left, background) in a motorcade to Government House after Nixon’s arrival in Lahore on August 1. The Pakistani president takes a more cautious way down.