THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 10, 1971
JUBILANT BENGALIS CELEBRATE FREEDOM
Jessore, East Pakistan: Jubilant East Bengalis danced around the bodies of their fallen oppressors as 1,000 doomed West Pakistan troops and their families fled toward the sea and certain death or capture by Indian “liberation” forces.
The road from Jessore. which fell to the Indians three days ago without a fight yesterday (December 8), was littered with Pakistani dead, burned out jeeps and rucks and abandoned enemy weapons.
Surrender or die
Even if they manage to reach the sea, the fleeing Pakistanis and their wives and children will have to swim, if they go any farther. For the Indian Navy is waiting for them there and the Indian Air Force, which has undisputed control of the air. is having a field day shooting up Pakistani shipping.
Isolated by land, sea and air, under attack from all directions, and harassed by vengeful East Bengalis, the 60,000 West Pakistani troops in the East face the choice of surrender or death.
With the fall of Jessore in the West and Comilla in the East, two of their principal strong-points, it was doubtful if the Pakistanis will even make a fight for Dacca, the capital and apex of their triangular defense line.
Indian army officers, who seemed almost embarrassed by the ease with which they vanquished the supposedly fierce Pakistani fighters, said they were pursuing the enemy with deliberate slowness.
“We keep urging them to surrender”, said Major Sabhu Singh, an artillery officer. “They haven’t a chance anyway: And we are refraining from using our air because of the women and children.” .
The dark-skinned Bengalis lined the roadside to welcome the advancing Indian troops and shouted “Hail Bangladesh,” their self-proclaimed new nation which has been recognized by New Delhi.
At one point along the road between Jessore and Khulna. the Bengalis danced around the bodies of a dozen slain Pakistani soldiers and shouted “Hail Bangla” for the benefit of foreign television cameras. None of them ever has seen T.V They don’t even have electricity.
While they may have some reservations about their Indian liberators, it was clear the Bengalis were overjoyed to be free from the West Pakistanis, who for the past eight months have slaughtered them by the tens of thousands in a vain attempt to stamp out Bengali nationalism.
Mass killings charged
The retreating Pakistanis left a trail of blasted bridges and stories of mass killing Indian army engineers, with commendable efficiency, rigged pontoon bridges and bypasses over the larger streams.
In town after town, excitable Bengalis told of mass murders by Pakistani troops. One man told how the Pakistanis came in search of a Mukti Bahini (Bengali freedomfighter) leader named Ghillal, a common name in these parts. When they failed to find him, they shot everybody in the village by that name-10 people in all, the Bengalis said.
-Keyes Beeeh