THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, APRIL 2, 1971
BENGAL TRAGEDY
It is now a week since the West Pakistan army intervened in East Pakistan to frustrate the results of last December’s elections, in which the Bengali nationalist Awami League party had obtained a near complete majority. One of the army’s first acts was to expel all foreign correspondents. Simon Dring of The Daily Telegraph was the only British reporter able to stay on for a period and thus to send the harrowing account of the army’s ruthlessness and brutality which we printed in last Tuesday’s edition. Since then authentic news of what has been going on has been practically non-existent. If the Pakistan Government has the effrontery to complain of false reports it has entirely itself to blame.
It does seem probable; however, that the army is in full control of Dacca, the Eastern capital, and that organized Bengali resistance elsewhere is fragile. This is not surprising, since the Bengalis are not a martial people, and had not anyway expected to have to fight a civil war. So the Punjabi-based army sent into action by President Yahya Khan against his fellow-countrymen may soon have its thumb firmly on East Bengal. But unfortunately this does not mean that there may not be more, and worse bloodshed to come; not soon, perhaps, but some time. As our report today shows, events in East Pakistan have stirred up great feeling in west Bengal, the adjoining already turbulent, Indian State. Unrest could spread.