Yahya’s reported request to Nixon for mediation
RAWALPINDI, October 13. PRESIDENT Yahya Khan has asked President Nixon to take a peacemaker’s role between Pakistan and India, the Government trust-owned “Morning News“ reported yesterday, says AP.
According to the newspaper’s reporter, Gen. Yahya Khan made his offer in a Note delivered on Thursday in Washington to Dr. Henry Kissinger, President Nixon’s National Security Adviser.
There was no comment from the Pakistan Government or the American Embassy on the Note.
The reporter said that there was no official information about the contents of the note but “it is surmised the letter invites President Nixon to take a personal interest in the fast-deterionrating situation in the subcontinent and possibly undertake the role of peacemaker in this important area.”
The report said similar letters were sent to other unidentified world leaders.
The deputy in Charge of the U.S. Mission, Mr. Sidney Sober, in the absence of the Ambassador, Mr. Joseph Farland, is reported to have met President Yahya khan on Monday in Karachi and conferred here yesterday with British High Commission, Mr. Humphrey.
AP reports from United Nations: The Pakistani Ambassador, Mr. Agha Shahi, pleaded in the U. N. General Assembly that his Government be allowed to work out a political solution of its problems without outside interference.”
He alleged yesterday that the Indian Ambassador, Mr. Samar Sen. interfered in Pakistan’s internal affairs in asking that Pakistan Government “should enter into negotiations with the same group that wanted to break the national unity of Pakistan.”
Mr. Shahi was referring to Mr. Sen’s suggestion in the Assembly on October 4 that the Government in West Pakistan negotiate a settlement with Shiekh Mujib.
Mr. Shahi spoke in reply to Mr. Sen, as Mr. Sen had spoken in reply to Mr. Mahmud Ali, leader to the Pakistani delegation.
He said Mr. Sen. made no promise of Indian co-operation toward getting displaced persons back from India to East Bengal.
He said Mr. Sen. dismissed in an “almost light-hearted manner“ Mr. Ali’s citations of “concrete instances of the clandestine war at present waged by India against Pakistan.”
India, Mr. Shahi said, “is structing the means by which the situation could be defused” by refusing U. N. Security Council in tervention.
Reference: Hindustan Standard 14.10.1971