THE TIMES, TUESDA Y, DECEMBER 7, 1971
DACCA EATS BY CANDLELIGHT AFTER DAY OF STRAFING
A Dog howls, children watch A spectacular air show from rooftops..
Life goes on in an embattled capital
From James P. Sterba Dacca, December A (delayed)
The city is in darkness at 8.30 pm. Nothing moves. A 5.30 pm curfew sent people from the streets. Curtains are pulled, candles burn shaded from windows. There are few sounds. A dog howls now and then, a Jeep or lorry slips by, lights out.
The clouds have dimmed the moonlight, the stars are faint. The crows, after a day of soaring overhead among Indian and Pakistan warplanes, have ceased their noisy vigil. The capital of East Pakistan is listening and waiting.
At 8.32 pm Dacca hears three booms in the distance. A siren wails. No sounds of jets. Another deeper-tone siren.
Now at 8.37 pm. the whoosh of a jet can be heard. It is high and far away. There is more than one, none firing so far.
Families of United Nations workers, contractors, relief-agency peopleAmericans. Britons, Australians and others have crammed into the Intercontinental Hotel with hastily packed suitcases, waiting to be evacuated.
They have been told a United Nations aircraft, an American C-130 Hercules, is coming from Bangkok to take them out. Children are confused; some whine The hotel’s hall lights are on but room and ground-floor lights have been blacked out and the windows taped.
The Scottish chef has prepared another buffet for dinner chicken and lamb curries, rice, cucumbers fish, cold plates; no beer or Coke left. The waiter said the hoarding began this afternoon. Diners eat by candlelight, talking of rumours and whether things will get worse or better Most seem to think worse.
About 50 journalists are in the hotel punching their typewriters by candlelight and collecting scraps of information. Photographers and film crews and writers are worried about getting their films and articles out. There is constant tuning of radios in search of outside news.
The hotel filled in the afternoon. Besides evacuees Pakistan International Airlines workers from the airport piled in, three and four to a room. Nine of their co-workers were killed in the Indian raids on the airport today. They said the raids started last night at about 3am and ended by mid afternoon.
“Of course, they have got to break for tea”, someone said. Now it’s 9.14 pm and there is another dull boom far away, another siren.
The Government information official said at 7:30 P m that 31 Indian aircraft were shot down in both wings of Pakistan today, but no one really believes it. Thirteen were brought down in East Pakistan, he said. Reporters saw four shot down over Dacca during the day and three others smoking from hits by anti-aircraft fire.
Pakistan Air Force sources claim the capture of nine Indian pilots, including a wing commander. They also say an Indian SU 7, a Soviet-built fighter, was forced to land intact at the airstrip.
Two Pakistan F -86 fighters were shot down, they said, one hit by Pakistan ground fire while chasing an Indian MIG 21 “It was quite unfortunate, but at least the Indians did not get it”, they added.
The raids provided a spectacular show for thousands of Dacca residents. Tiny children in rags scurried out for better views as the Indian MIGs passed on a strafing and rocketing run on their way to the airport from the middle of town.
People watched from the tops of buildings ducking sometimes when anti-aircraft shells exploded too close. Hotel residents climbed on the roof, where color-television cameras recorded ballet-like dogfights and raids on the airport.
One film crew worked in bathing suits saying they might as well gel a suntan. Others had room service deliver cold drinks and lunch.
As a MiG passed over tailed by two Sabres and then flew in low over the airport, a cameraman turned to a waiter to say: “Oh waiter, waiter. Make that a double orderfruit cocktail and iced tea with lime”
At 12.30 p.m. journalists were taken to the airport by military officers to see an Indian MiG which had been shot down. They arrived just in time to be strafed by MIG’s that destroyed two of three small single-engine United Nations aircraft parked by a hangar only a few yards away.
Several television cameramen lay on their backs, filming the Indian aircraft through a blaze of anti-aircraft fire, as they made four passes. One was hit, burst into flames and crashed nearby.
The aircraft-MIG’s, Gnats and SU 7’s-fired rockets and strafed, but did not tomb, according to a Government official. Their targets were the aircraft and hangars. They did not raid the military cantonment nearby or damage the air strip.
Officials said the only other town hit by Indian aircraft was Chittagong, the targets there being fuel storage tanks and a refinery
At 10.02 p.m. it is quiet again. No air raids yet tonight. A dog is yelping.
-New York Times News Service