THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, DECEMBER 14, 1971
LULL ON THE WESTERN FRONT PAKISTAN ARMY HEADS
FOR CERTAIN DEFEAT IN EAST
DACCA DEFENDERS UNPREPARED AND OUTWITTED
By Clare Hollingworth in Dacca
The battle for Dacca is not yet over, but the Pakistani Army in Dacca is doomed. The basic reasons for the defeat in the East are that insufficient preparations were made for the campaign.
The planners in Islamabad concentrated their energies on Kashmir, while the local Army commander, Lt-Gen. A. K. Niazi, was completely outwitted by his Indian opposite number.
The Indians since July have mounted a series of pinprick attacks by the Bangladesh guerrillas along the 1,300-mile frontier with India, while at the same time guerrillas were engaged in terrorist activities and attempting to take over isolated areas inside the country.
Apart from giving up a tiny salient here or there, Gen. Niazi strung his troops along the frontier in a desperately over-stretched posture.
The Indians then cleverly built up the war so slowly that it was only after the major air raids on Dacca airport on Dec 4, long after the frontier defenses were pierced, that Gen. Niazi ordered the staged withdrawal to pre-arranged defensive positions.
Contingency Plans
There were also a series of contingency plans for the redeployment of troops in defensive positions to secure Dacca, the capital, as well as Chittagong, the main port, and Khulna.
For the past three days, the military spokesman, with little or nothing to say, his practically isolated himself from correspondents.
Official communiqués issued in Islamabad are generally 48 hours behind the events and, like military communiqués throughout history they tend to reflect more hopes than facts.
Guerrillas wait
So far the strict blackout, dusk-to-dawn curfew and well-manned road blocks have prevented any major guerrilla activities in the urban centers but in Dacca alone some hundreds are under cover waiting to rise when the Indian Army approaches.
Meanwhile the Indians are using Shamshernager airfield to the south of Sylhet, and it is likely that they have cut off the whole of the north-west salient from Hilli on the western frontier to the Ganges.