বাংলাদেশ সম্পর্কে বিবিসি, প্রচারিত অনুষ্ঠানমালা : ‘সাম্প্রতিক ঘটনাবলী’
বিবিসি, লন্ডন
২৬ মার্চ – ১ ডিসেম্বর, ১৯৭১
1. CURRENT AFFAIRS TALKS
Distribution ‘A’
26 March 1971
PRESIDENT YAHYA KHAN S SPEECH
by Mark Tully (s)
Two days ago there was still optimism about the outcome of the talks in Dacca. By the evening, with the apparent breakdown of the talks, the President’s departure to Karachi and the introduction of stricter martial law measures, this had turned to pessimism. Now that President Yahya Khan has spoken to the nation, Sheikh Mujib is reported to have declared East Pakistan independent, and the full gravity of the situation has been made clear.
In a hard-hitting speech, the President First outlined the steps he had taken to try and reach agreement between the political leaders. He then went on to say that in the end he had come to the conclusion that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s proposals were merely a passport to chaos. He said the Sheikh’s actions in declaring and running his non- cooperation movement were treasonable, that he had insulted Pakistan’s flag and defiled the photo of the father of the nation and created terror, turmoil and insecurity. He also stressed the danger that settlers from West Pakistan had been living under in East Pakistan. The President went on to congratulate the armed forces for their forbearance when they were being insulted.
The President said that he only delayed taking action against the Sheikh earlier because he did not want to jeopardize the talks. He said that the Awami League party is now banned. He also said that he would be announcing further martial law measures soon.
As to the future, the President said that he stood by his pledge to hand over rule to the elected representatives of the people. He would announce measures to achieve this as soon as he could. So now the majority party in East Pakistan, the party which won all but one of the East wing’s seats in the assembly, has been banned. The President’s speech left no doubt that the blamed he crisis almost entirely on Mujib and his followers.
No one really knows how many troops there are in East Pakistan. But no matter how many troops there are, no one should underestimate the difficulties the military authorities are going to have to face, especially in the outlying areas where communication are bad. The army’s problems are going to be increased by the overflying ban between the two wings of the countries which India imposed after the hijacking incident. The army will probably concentrate its efforts in the urban areas.
Despite the tone of President Yahya’s speech he could also find himself facing problems in West Pakistan, which is, of course, still under martial law as well. Mr. Bhutto’s People’s Party, who are particularly strong in the key province of Punjab, has already shown signs of rest-lessness and has now came under the general ban on political activity. While Mr. Bhutto has always stood out against an unconditional acceptance of the Sheikh’s demands, he wants power to be handed over to him as the majority elected leader in the West wing and he is not likely to welcome the extension of military rule.
The President’s speech clearly ends this stage of his experiment to return Pakistan to democracy. He has promised that he still intends to hand over power, but he could not make any announcement about the next step. It is difficult to see anything for the time being except a further spell of military rule. How successful that military rule will be must be an open question.
2. CURRENT AFFAIRS TALKS
2nd April, 1971
PAKISTAN: THE FUTURE
by Martin Adeney (OC)
Reports are continuing to come in of violence in East Pakistan. Here is a comment form Martin Adeney of the London newspaper the ‘Guardian*
who was in Dacca the capital of East Pakistan less than a week ago. The Pakistan army which I and other correspondents saw a week ago launching a massive military attack on the cities of East Bengal and the supporters of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League which held a majority in the country’s National Assembly, appears to be meeting stiffer resistance than it had expected. The Government controlled and heavily censored Pakistan radio has broadcast a warning calling on citizens not to erect barricades an admission by that cautious source that it faces serious opposition. Meanwhile Western correspondents who managed to reach Jessore 25 miles from the Indian border report that the army had withdrawn to its cantonment area, and the town was in the hands of the civilian population-though there is no suggestion of an army defeat.
It looks then as if the first objective of the army intervention which I and other correspondents witnessed only six hours after constitutional talks between President Yahya khan. Sheikh Mujib and Mr. Bhutto’s peoples party had broken down, has failed A carefully laid and cold bloodedly executed plan so frighten the population into civil obedience by the shelling of the university, the burning of areas of poor housing the indiscriminate machine-gunning of the streets and the picking off of leaders of the political and intellectual life of the province appears to have reduced Dacca to grave like peace. But in the countryside and in towns outside army encampments, it appears that people have remained united if only by bate against the largely West Pakistani army. How long with few old fashioned arms they can hold out against the modern automatic weapons of the army is another matter. But with the monsoon due in a few weeks, the army’s problems of communications are going to impair its ability to exercise control outside fixed positions.
Undoubtedly army revenge against the humiliations it was subjected to during Sheikh Mujib’s four week disobedience campaign has been a factor in the violence of its response. But if General Yahya Khan, the President of Pakistan and his Chief Martial Law Administrator in the East, Lt. Gen. Tikka Khan intended the attack to be a salutary lesson to a province-which had never declared independence-to force it back to obedience to central Government, they are going to need new and more conciliatory methods to get it back to anything like normal working. They have still to show they appreciate this.
In the meantime those who suffer most will be the non-Bengalis, in particular the poverty-stricken refugees from partitioned India and Bihar in particular. Marked out as non-belongers, though they have no connection with West Pakistan, they have already been the largely unprotected targets of communal violence in the Eastern wing.
India has called upon the world Governments to take urgent steps into prevail upon the Pakistan Government to end is military actions. In its turn Pakistan has accused armed Indians of infiltrating across the border and interference in its affairsaccusations denied by India.
Verbal hostilities have reached their highest peak since the 1965 war between the two countries, helped by the racial ties between Bengalis of both countries and bitter disappointment in India at the political if not physical destruction of Sheikh Mujib. His policies of trade with India and comparative disinterest in the Kashmir question raised hopes in India of something like normal relations between the two countries.
There still seems no prospect however of actual armed intervention although Indian forces have been ordered to fire on any Pakistani troops crossing the border. The East Bengalis remain alone.
3. CURRENT AFFAIRS TALKS
Distribution “A”
26th April 1971
INDIA AND PAKISTAN: DIPLOMATIC ESCALATION
by Hilary Henson (S)
The deteriorating relations between India and Pakistan reached a new pitch of bitterness today when India took the almost unprecedented step of banning any Pakistani diplomat from leaving the country without prior permission from the Indian government. The ban is a violation of the Vienna convention on the treatment of diplomats.
Since the Pakistani army crackdown in East Pakistan, relations between India and Pakistan have grown steadily more strained. The diplomatic squabble started over a week ago, when the mainly East Pakistani staff of the Pakistan Deputy High Commission in Calcutta, switched their allegiance to the newly proclaimed state of Bangladesh-the East Bengal secessionists, name for a free Bengal nation. The Pakistan Government sent anew man to replace the Deputy High Commissioner, but he has been unable to get, into the still-occupied High Commission building and has had a generally rough welcome from West Bengalis. The Indians have refused to take part in any eviction of the occupants of the Commission, claiming that it is a purely internal matter for the Pakistanis.
In the next move, Pakistan said she would close the Calcutta mission, since it was unable to function properly, and demanded that India should do the same with the equivalent mission in Dacca, Hast Pakistan. Both missions were officially closed this morning. This has enabled the Pakistani government to demand the repatriation of all the rebellious East Pakistanis now in the Calcutta Mission. India claims that these are political refugees and are thus not eligible for repatriation.
Clearly, what the Indians now fear is that the personnel of their Dacca Mission will be held as hostages by the Pakistanis until they agree to send back all the Bengali diplomats from Calcutta. There was an ominous phrase in a note from Pakistan’s High Commissioner in Delhi, which talked of safe conduct for diplomats and the security of premises and documents and so on, ‘strictly on the principle of reciprocity”. India had already complained earlier today over the ‘uncivilized treatment’ of Mrs. Sen Gupta, wife of the Deputy High Commissioner in Dacca, when she attempted to leave from Karachi airport last Wednesday. A diplomatic courier had also received what India called objectionable treatment. With their ban, the Indians are now threatening to hold Pakistani diplomats as hostages in their turn. They give as the reason for their ban the restrictions already imposed on Indian diplomats, who, they say, arc being prevented from leaving Pakistan. The Indians claim that, far from making a drastic, new diplomatic departure, they are merely following the Pakistanis own principle of reciprocity.
4. CURRENT AFFAIRS TALKS
BUDAPEST PEACE ASSEMBLY
AND BANGLADESH
by David Graham
13th May, 1971
Seven hundred delegates, from one hundred and twenty four countries, today began a conference in Budapest, organized by the “World peace Council”. The news from East Pakistan has given the conference an unexpected challenge.
The Secretary General of the world peace Council, Romesh Chandra, one of the main organizers of this “Peace Assembly” in Budapest, is also a leading member of the Communist Party of India. The Communist Party of India has sent messages to all the other Communist parties in the world urging them to support the Communist party of East Pakistan and the cause of the independence of East Pakistan, or “Bangladesh.” The Communist party of India has also entrusted Romesh Chandra with the task of organizing support, in Moscow, in Budapest, and wherever else possible, for the cause of “Bangladesh.”
That is the challenge, which many of the seven hundred delegates (now assembled in Budapest) must find disconcertingly new and not at all what they expected when they received their invitations.
The “world peace Council” is normally one of the most reliable propaganda instruments for Soviet foreign policy. The agenda for this Budapest meeting, as announced by Secretary General Romesh Chandra in Helsinki (Finland) at the end of January, sounded like one more propaganda demonstration in favour of well known themes they need for a European Security Conference, the need for peace in Vietnam and in the Middle East, the need to resist “neo-colonialism” in Africa, the need to end the arms race, and so on.
So many speeches have been made about these themes before, and so many resolutions passed, that the problems would all have been solved long ago, if speeches and resolutions were enough to solve them. But the untiring Secretary General Romesh Chandra set out on a tour of Latin America to recruit “to go to Budapest, was hard at work recruiting in Cuba in February, and visited Venezuela.
Seven hundred “delegates” from one hundred and twenty four countries the figure announced at the opening session in Budapest today (Thursday) is quite an impressive piece of organisation’, seven if some of the “delegates’ represent practically nobody other than themselves. Others, on the other hand, are figures of genuine political importance in their own countries.
The Budapest conference beard flattering messages, at its opening session, from the Head of State of the Soviet Union, Presided Podgomy. Needless to say, he did not mention Pakistan or the needs of the refugees from East Pakistan who have flooded into India. On the other band the General Secretary of the Hungarian “Patriotic People’s Front” spoke about “unsettled conflicts, crises and bloody armed struggles, which threaten the lives of whole regions.” Secretary General Romesh Chandra firmly believes that the situation in East Pakistan comes into that category, and his supporters at the. Budapest meeting will do all they can until the meeting ends next Sunday to persuade their fellow delegates that the Communist Parties of India and of East Pakistan are right in urging that all possible help and encouragement should be given to the complete splitting off of East Pakistan from West Pakistan. In official eyes in Moscow, this is an embarrassing and unwelcome move. It will be interesting to see, at the end of the conference, if Romesh Chandra is re-elected Secretary General of the organisation or not.
5 CURRENT AFFAIRS TALKS
THE LONG TERM POLITICAL
PROBLEM IN PAKISTAN
Distribution “A”
7th June, 1971
by Mark Tully (S)
Indian Ministers are continuing their overseas campaign to explain the gravity of the refugee and cholera problems in West Bengal. Here is a comment from Mark Tully of the BBC Eastern Service:
On Sunday (6th June) the Indian Prime Minister. Mrs. Indira Gandhi said that the international community has a duty to impress upon the rulers of Pakistan that democratic urges cannot be suppressed through armed might. Now Pakistan’s internal problem has become a matter of quite legitimate concern for India. Over four million refugees and large numbers still corning in are an internal problem of considerable magnitude for India. The Indian government takes the view that these refugees must be returned to East Pakistan as soon as possible because it has neither the space nor the resources to house them permanently. But it realizes that it will be quite impossible to Persuade the refugees to return until they are confident that the life in East Pakistan is safe for them.
The Indian government feels that it is quite Justified in asking other Countries to put pressure on the Pakistan Government to bring about these conditions as soon as possible.
The problem that faces the Pakistan Government is how to restore Confidence in the East wing. President Yahya Khan promised two weeks ago that he should announce a return to civilian rule very shortly. Time is Running out and so far there has been no announcement from Islamabad. The official line of the Pakistan Government has been that the National Assembly which was elected last December still stands and that only these members who are guilty of crimes against the state will be debarred from taking part in its deliberations. But from these reports of correspondents it looks as though there is not much hope at the present of Awami League members coming forward in any numbers to support a solution put forward by President Yahya.
Although the army can undertake the task of administration temporarily under the orders of a civilian government, whether this will in fact prove possible is very doubtful because so many of the people of East Pakistan do not appear to have any faith in the army at all.
The Indian Government and many other people feel that countries who give aid to Pakistan should force President Yahya’s hand by refusing to give any more aid until he achieves a satisfactory political solution. The first and most obvious disadvantage to this proposal is that it assumes that there is a satisfactory solution which can be found. The second is that by withelding aid these countries might in fact be helping the people of East Pakistan. The third disadvantage is that aid giving countries are properly cautious about using aid as a political lever. Nevertheless there is no doubt that the Pakistan government desperately needs aid for other purposes as well as restoring the situation in East Pakistan.
It is virtually certain that any country not directly concerned in the situation in East Pakistan will think of doing nothing more than putting economic pressures on the Pakistan Government. The United Nation also does not seem likely to be able to do more than assist with relief work in East Pakistan. So the problem remains basically one which President Yahya Khan has to solve for himself. But if he does not act quickly there is always the danger that the Indian Government will not be able to withstand the pressures on it to act. and will have to intervene directly.
6. CURRENT AFFAIRS TALKS
MRS. GANDHI, PAKISTAN AND THE WORLD
by Frank Barber (S)
16th June, 1971
In a sombre statement to the Indian Parliament, the Prime Minister, Mrs. Gandhi, has said that with each day that passes the prospect of a political settlement in East Pakistan becomes more remote. Frank Barber, of the BBC Current Affairs staff, comments:
For almost three months new, since the Pakistan army’s crackdown, pretty well everybody concerned with the tragedy of East Pakistan has persisted in hoping for the best, in spite of all the evidence. The Pakistan government has clung to the belief that the secessionist sentiment in the East had been an aberration and that the situation was rapidly returning to normal. Only this week the military governor, General Tikka Khan, said conditions in the province were normal and peaceful. As for the outside world, which responded so energetically to the threat of a cholera epidemic, it has been all tee ready to assume that with the dispatch of food, blankets and medicines, the worst would be ever. It has been left to Mrs. Gandhi to foreshadow the harsh and bitter future that threatens the Indian sub-continent. “We may have to pass through hell,” were the words she used in the Indian Parliament when she spoke of the awesome problems created by the influx of refugees from East Pakistan-new numbering six millions and still rising. Then, a moment later, she emphasized that India had no intention of allowing them to go back home as she put it “only to be butchered”. In her view, the political settlement which people speak of as necessary in East Pakistan becomes ever mere remote with each day that passes.
Mrs. Gandhi’s assessment betrays an anxiety that extends beyond the immediate fate of the refugees. As the hope of a political settlement diminishes, so the likelihood increases of the homeless millions becoming permanent settlers in Dacca a truly daunting prospect for a country which as she said, is one of the poorest in the world.
One of the most puzzling features of the upheaval has been the fact that refugees continue to flew across the frontier twelve weeks after the Pakistan army, went into action towards the end of March. There seems to be little doubt that the first waves of refugees were set in motion by the harshness of the army’s methods. After that the movement could have been expected to lese its momentum: the Pakistan authorities say that resistance is scattered and ineffective, and even the supporters of the Bangladesh secessionist movement claim no more than taken resistance to the army. Yet the flew of refugees continues. It’s no wonder that Mrs. Gandhi says that the refugees pose a threat to peace far which the world must share responsibility.
The world has not yet convincingly demonstrated its acceptance of this responsibility. Although there have been many contributions from overseas, the biggest coming from the United States and Britain, the total premised amounts only to £12.5 million towards the £73 millions asked far by the United Nations. And that £73 million is only about half the sum India says is needed.
Mrs. Gandhi’s solution to the problem, which she has repeated again and again, is for the big powers to put pressure on the Pakistan government to come to terms with the political leaders of the Eastern province the very leaders who have been denounced by President Yahya Khan. It is a suggestion fraught with danger, for it violates the sacred right of an independent country to conduct its affairs in its awn way, free from outside interference.
Even so, the very scale of the problem thrust upon India does make it an international one: and in the apprehension of this, the world may well find Mrs. Gandhi’s a persuasive argument, unless Pakistan can show clearer signs of possessing the will to face the task of a political settlement.
7. CURRENT AFFAIRS TALKS
1st December, 1971
YAHYAKHAN AMD MRS. GANDHI
by Jhon Tusa (OC)
John Tusa, a writer on Asian affairs, discusses the background to President Yahya Khan’s appeal to the United Nations.
If the world needed to be reminded of how far India has moved away from its previous policy of military non-intervention in East Pakistan, it has been helped by the Defense Minister, Mr. Jagjivan Ram. Indian forces, he has just said, can cross into East Pakistan to silence Pakistani artillery. Mr. Ram has also said that war could still be avoided if the people of Bangladesh were given their independence.
At the same time, the Indian Prime Minister, Mrs. Gandhi, has outlined her views of the steps needed to restore peace to East Pakistan. In a carefully worded speech to the parliament in New Delhi, Mrs. Gandhi repeated her often stated belief that only a political settlement, including the release of the imprisoned leader of the Awami League of East Pakistan-Sheikh Mujibur Rahman-can end the fighting.
On the other side, President Yahya’s call for the stationing of U. N. observers on the Pakistan side of the border is a climb down from his earlier proposal-rejected by India- for observers on both sides. Yet, this is the closest that Pakistan seems to dare to get to appealing to the U. N. to counter Indian activities. Basically, the Pakistan regime must know that its case-in defending its pail in the East Pakistan crisis, or in establishing Indian aggression-is too weak for comfort. The U. N. observer proposal is the best that can be mustered in the circumstances. Militarily, Pakistan is outnumbered and outgunned by the Indians; the burden of a divided army only adds to that inferiority. Both help to explain Pakistan’s failure to react militarily in areas of their own choosing-such as Kashmir or in the West politically, President Yahya Khan appears to be making the worst of the choices open to him. The Awami League, is banned and its leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in prison. The National Awami Party, representing the border provinces of the west, had also recently been banned. This leaves Mr. Z. A. Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples’ Party based almost entirely on the two “heartland” states of Punjab and the Sind-as the only real survivor of the December elections. Yet the President is said to be planning a new civilian government not on Mr. Bhutto but on Mr. Nurul Amin, whose party won only one seat in December. Nothing could illustrate more harshly the insoluble contradictions raised by President Yahya Khan’s present policies.
India’s tactics appear to be to bring these dilemmas to crisis point as soon as possible. Underlying this aim is the entirely reasonable view that the Pakistan refugees must not be permitted to turn into another international running sore like the Palestine refugees have become for the Middle East. But recent events have reduced Mrs. Gandhi’s credibility and restricted her freedom of manoeuvre. World opinion has been distracted from events inside East Pakistan and the fate of the refugees to what looks like another border squabble between India and Pakistan. Politically, Mrs. Gandhi has made an international settlement of the refugee problem more difficult and has moved closer to war.
বাংলাদেশের ঘটনাবলীর ওপর প্রেরিত প্রতিবেদন
৩০মার্চ-১৭ ডিসেম্বর, ১৯৭১
বিবিসি, লন্ডন
1. DESPATCH
30th March, 1971
by Evan Charlton
A London law student who has just arrived back from Dacca has given an account of the Army take over there.
In an interview Mr. A. K. M. Shamsul Alam Chowdhury said that he had bought an air ticket for London before the Pakistan Army took over. He managed to get on an aeroplane from Dacca with many west Pakistanis yesterday morning. Asked what was the condition of Dacca when he left he replied: “Terrible.” Asked for his opinion on what provoked the sudden military action when discussions had been going on the constitutional future of Pakistan, he believed that president Yahya Khan was advised by West Pakistani leaders, prominent amongst them Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, not to accept Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s terms for the future of East Pakistan but to resort to arms. Later that evening people in Dacca heard that the President and the other Western leaders had left. Rumors spread through the city that the Army was about to act and there was a spontaneous movement by people to build barricades in the streets there was he declared no planned rising by East Pakistan elements in the Defence Force. The street barricades were blasted away by the army; then came hours of destruction and killing.
Mr. Alam is convinced that the Sheikh is alive and free. He bases this belief on sources close to the Sheikh. Asked if he was an official of the Awami League, Mr. Alam said that he is now the Sheikh’s personal representative in London. Before the military took over the Sheikh had told him that if things went wrong he should try to get out of East Pakistan and appeal to the world-especially to the British public to help to save the Bengalis.
What will happen next in East Bengal Mr. Alam recalled the Sheikh’s speech to a mass gathering on March 7th when he advised people to be ready to turn every home into a fortress. Mr. Alam is convinced that even if the Army can temporarily crush resistance in the cities, the people will eventually overcome the Army from the west.
2. DESPATCH FROM LONDON
7th April, 1971
by Jim Biddulph
Our Commonwealth Correspondent Jim Biddulph, returned home today, after spending a month in Pakistan. For the past ten days I’ve been in West Pakistan-having been kicked out of East Pakistan by the Army and trying together with the rest of the population to see through the smokescreen of official statements and denials exactly what is going on.
People in West Pakistan, who listened only to their own government, would have had absolutely no idea that anything much had happened in East Pakistan, let alone that anyone had been killed. But now the extent of the disturbance is beginning to show even through the official denials. There have been plenty of eye witnesses during the past week to the Killings and destruction in the East Pakistan capita), Dacca, and in the seaport Chittagong, down in the south. Yesterday Radio Pakistan talked of armed infiltrators being driven out of towns in the north east, and the North West. And for the first time, spoke of the Pakistan Air Force being involved in the operations. The report claimed that civilian life die not suffer any damage.
Across the border in India, news agency claims that four towns in East Pakistan have been bombed, and maintains that there have been several successes by what it calls the “Liberation Army”.
These claims, coming from India, will be greeted with fury and derision in official quarters in West Pakistan where people angrily maintain that the Indian reports are merely fabricated as part of the war of words between Pakistan and India.
Censorship or not, obviously people in West Pakistan have heard, through rumour and foreign broadcasts, a fair amount about what’s going on and in private conversation I’ve found great sorrow but at the same time, determination that East Pakistan will not be allowed to its own way.
In the short term, obviously the Army ca n garrison the main towns, but as the reports trickle in about trouble in town after town throughout the country, the Pakistan claims that it’s being caused by a few miscreants and armed infiltrators wear thin, and the prospects of a long drawn out, bitter struggle, seem very real.
Scripted by Bush House News Transcribing Unit
3. DESPATCH FROM WASHINGTON
7tli April, 1971
by Charles Wheeler
U.S. AND PAKISTAN
The State Department said today that its officially urged Pakistan to take every feasible step to bring an end to the conflict in East Pakistan, and to achieve a peaceful accommodation with the Bengali rebels there.
The State Department spokesman said this and other American views on the struggle in East Pakistan have been conveyed to the country’s ambassador in Washington, Agha Hilaly, on Monday. The American ambassador to Pakistan has also been instructed to express American concern in similar terms to the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad. The spokesman made it clear that the United States, in addition to deploring the continuing violence, is disappointed about the failure of Pakistan officials to take advantage of offers of international aid to relieve suffering. He also repeated that the United States is prepared to assist any international humanitarian effort in Pakistan.
4. DESPATCH FROM KARACHI
10th April, 1971.
by Ronald Robson
REGULATION
In Pakistan a strict new martial law regulation makes it possible to restrict the movements of any suspected persons, their employment; the equipment they may possess or use. their contacts with other people and their activities in relation to the dissemination of news or propagation of opinion. There are heavy penalties for infringements of various provisions of the new regulation, including fines and rigorous imprisonment for up to 7 years. From Karachi Ronald Robson reports.
The new regulation is stated to be concerned with preventing activity which is seditious or prejudices security, public safety or the interests or defence of Pakistan. It is also meant to prevent activities prejudicial to the maintenance of public order, Pakistan’s relations with any other power, the maintenance of peaceful conditions in any part of Pakistan and the maintenance of essential supplies and services. Suspected foreigners may be asked to leave the country and banned from returning, or may be detained or restricted in movement or asked to report their movements or report in person to designated authorities. Pakistani nationals of course are similarly affected except that they cannot be asked to leave Pakistan.
The specific reason for introducing the new measure now is not immediately known. It is however obvious that it could have particular application to press, radio or television correspondents or cameraman, or other journalists whether foreign or local although the powers given are so wide that they could affect many persons either in allied or other fields.
5. DESPATCH FROM CALCUTTA
16th April, 1971
by David Sells
India has been extremely cautious in its attitude to the West Pakistan Army’s takeover of dissident East Pakistan. But there are signs her Government is worried at the possibility of armed clashes on the long frontier dividing India from East Pakistan. David Sells reports:
Mrs. Gandhi has leaned over backwards to avoid involvement in the bloody repression of the Bengali population continuing inside East Pakistan. That anyway is my impression from the border areas themselves on both sides of the frontier. Militarily, nothing official has been done to help the beleaguered irregulars in the East, though they were short of arms, ammunition, petrol and food. Unofficially, as far as one can tell there’s been little help either, certainly not on an organised basis. Genuine sympathy there has been by the bucketful, but practical aid has been minimal, certainly along the western frontiers. Refugees including wounded irregulars and former members of the mainly Bengali East Pakistan Rifles are all being accepted (20’laps) its true and they are getting basic food and shelter. The wounded are in Indian hospitals.
Until this week the frontiers were wide open, nothing on the East Pakistan side, no signs of any units but the usual border security force on the Indian side. When Pakistan Radio was talking of six Indian divisions massing alsong the Indian West Bengal border with East Pakistan there was no military (О’lap) activity discernible and the presence of 200,000 troops could hardly have passed unnoticed. Military sources said it simply wasn’t true. Though it was true that the division of troops sent to the volatile Calcutta area for the Indian elections had been kept on.
In the last few days small Indian Army units have begun to appear in the West Bengal frontier areas, though not right at the border itself in Keeping with the tacit agreement with. Pakistan in force for some years that regular Army forces would keep back some three miles from the borders. The Indians feel they have to be prepared though for any Pakistan Army breach of this understanding. But from the small sizes of the units seen, the moves look like routine precautions.
At the back of their minds is the fear that in cahoots with the Pakistan Government, the Chinese might agree (O’lap) to stage some diversionary’ action on the leg of Tibet, which juts down between Bhutan and Sikkim where India feels particularly vulnerable. So far, and It’s a point to emphasize, none of the Indian fears have been realized and for their part militarily, as well as politically, they do seem to be (O’lap) moving with extreme caution.
6. DESPATCH FROM GENEVA
7th April, 1971
by Alan Mcgregor
EAST PAKISTAN
Mr. Stanley Mitton, Emergency Relief Officer of the World Council of Churches, has returned to Geneva after a week’s visit to East Pakistan frontier area, north east of Calcutta, and to Karachi and Lahore. He is reporting to the Council that under present circumstances nothing can be done about getting medical or food supplies into the area where the fighting has been going on. From Geneva, Alan McGregor sends this report.
Like the International Red Cross, the World Council of Churches is ready to send immediate relief to East Pakistan, but cannot do so because of the Pakistan authorities ruling that there should be no outside intervention, not even in the shape of medical teams. This is essentially is the report that Mr. Mitton is making to Council headquarter. At Bongao, on the Indian side of the frontier about forty five miles northeast of Calcutta, he talked with both Moslem and Hindu refugees in a camp set up by a Hindu religious organisation, which he described as well organized with no shortage of food. The refugees told him about bombing of their villages. Some of them were crossing she frontiers, unguarded except for occasional Pakistan army patrols, to attend to the fields and then returning to the camp on the Indian side.
Mr. Mitton said that some aid, including medicines was being taken into East Pakistan by individual Indians. He had spoken to two families of European missionaries who had walked into India pushing their belongings in prams. They had said there were local food shortages, but as most peasants were able to complete their spring sowing for the September harvest, a famine situation could be averted.
7. DESPATCH FROM COLOMBO
22nd April, 1971
by Ronald Robson
PAKISTAN ECONOMY
For some idea of how Pakistan’s economy is affected by the situation in East Pakistan here is Ronald Robson.
Pakistan’s economy was sick before the civil war. The sick bed soon could become a death bed. The East Wing always did earn for Pakistan more foreign exchange than the West Wing. East Pakistan’s economy has suffered setbacks since the movement which unseated president Ayub Khan. Trouble started then never quite stopped. But the present crisis has virtually halted the East Wing’s economy. The loss of production Already of jute and jute goods alone would be serious. Since the first of March no tea has gone out either. The West Wing which relied on the East Wing’s tea has had to buy from abroad. Newsprint came from the East wing. This too now has to be imported from foreign sources and at three times the price. Already the situation is reflected in curtailment in the size of some newspapers. Such a situation might be borne as a temporary embarrassment by a wealthy country, but Pakistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, heavily dependent on foreign aid.
Earlier this month Pakistan requested an extension of repayment of an American loan, and according to information published openly in the West wing. Pakistan is understood also to be seeking extension of expiry dates from loans from other countries and from the World Bank.
Figures for State Bank reserves have not been published since February when it was already obvious that reserves were declining alarmingly. The State Bank has not been able to meet the statutory obligation of keeping a specific amount of its notes fully backed by gold and foreign exchange reserves. By the end of February only a little more then thirteen per cent of the currency notes in circulation were so backed. And I was told that Pakistan hoped for financial aid from certain Arab countries.
The East Pakistan crisis halted for many weeks the inter-wing flow of money. The west wing, for example, sells cotton goods in East wing and depends on the money generated to come back to regenerate production in the West. The money stopped coming back. This disrupted West Wing production. In East Pakistan jute which should have been planted has not been put in. peasants planted rice instead for food. The jute market may be a declining one but it’s still an important source of foreign
pickers, mainly Hindus, to flee from tea gardens. Bushes are not tended with consequent loss of production and Possible longer term damage. Certainly some British interests are at s take. Britain’s investment in Pakistan amounts to some one hundred million pounds, most of it in the East Wing. Pakistan has been a major recipients of British aid and Britain has maintained a comfortable trade balance with Pakistan.
In the East Wing there should be no danger of famine yet. America has been sending food grains, but during the first six weeks of the crisis at least, grain was rotting uncovered on the docks at Chittagong, according to eye witnesses. There has been great difficulty in moving any supplies in land, in times of unrest the labour force tends to flee from the towns back to the villages, which means costly loss of work. Many workers have fled into India and may never return.
The military operation itself is costly. Troops-have been flown around the subcontinent to reach Dacca as Pakistani aircraft may not fly over India. The fuel bills are
cannot yet be gauged. The true casualties caused once the army took action cannot be guessed After such disruption it can hardly be expected that the normal economy of East Pakistan can re-start simply at someone’s decree.
The Aid to Pakistan consortium, comprising America, Britain, France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Australia should meet in June. Meeting after meeting has been postponed. There are indications that the donor countries are waiting for a clearer idea of what’s happening, and their attitude could be a critical factor. More than fifty per cent of Pakistan’s budget goes on defense. If the East Wing which used to earn most of the money, eventually falls away or remains virtually nonproductive then the West Wine alone can hardly support present Army
I’ve listed only some of the problems but on evidence, looked at from any angle Pakistan’s economy is facing ruin.
7. CABLE FROM KARACHI
26th June 1971
by Mark Tully
Mr. M. M. Ahmed, the President’s economic adviser, has announced Pakistan’s budged for the financial year 1971/72. Mark Tully reports from Karachi:
Mr. Ahmed said he was introducing the budget in circumstances of exceptional adversity. There had been a severe drop in the country reserves of four-hundred million rupees. Revenue collected was 1,164 million rupees less than budgetted for; and spending on development had fallen far short of the target. The main reason for the poor performance of Pakistan’s economy during the year 1970-71 was the disruption of economic life in East Pakistan caused by the floods, the cyclone and the civil disorders. Mr. Ahmed warned that the country would have to learn to be more self-reliant because the aid prospects for the coming year were very uncertain. He said the country had already reduced its dependence on foreign aid and he introduced new measures to promote exports. On the internal front he did not announce any major new taxes but concentrated mainly on increases in direct taxation company taxation, and a high-yielding increase in tax on better quality cigarettes. Mr. Ahmed has nevertheless had to cut back on development expenditure and rely on deficit financing of 360 million rupees which is over half the total amount he is raising in new taxes. The defense budget has not been increased significantly. Whether the budget is sufficiently drastic to deal with the economic problems facing Pakistan depends a lot on three imponderables-the situation in East Pakistan, the flow of foreign aid, the ability of the revenue authorities to collect new taxes.
9. 23rd August, 1971
U.S. ATTITUDES TO PAKISTAN
In the United States there are divided views over what America’s policy should be towards Pakistan after the recent troubles in the Eastern Wing of the State. From Washington Jhon Osman.
The word genocide is banded about in America to describe what’s happened in East Pakistan, the allegation being that the government has let loose unbridled racial murder against its own subjects to punish them for their secessionism. The senator from Massachusetts, Edward Kennedy is among the most influential to charge the Pakistanis with genocide. The other is the former United States Ambassador to India. Chester Bowles. Kennedy perhaps is less ill informed than most people about the situation though he has it’s true only been able to study the problem from the Indian side of the Border. He was to have visited Pakistan but permission to go there was cancelled because by then, according to the Pakistanis, he had already shown himself biased against Pakistan. On reading Kennedy’s reported statements it’s difficult to take issue with the Pakistanis on this because it’s fairly evident that the Senator would not have gone there with an entirely open mind. Though it’s true, as Kennedy says, that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s trial is an outrage to every concept of international law its equally surely a matter of opinion that, as the Senator would have it, the only crime that Mujib is guilty of winning an election. To the Pakistan government he was leading more than half the nation to break away, an act possibly of self determination also possibly of high treason.
All these points casting doubt on the Kennedy assessment of events are made by administration officials here though they themselves are plainly divided on how best to cope with the problem. Chester Bowie’s ideas are discounted as being too proIndian.
So after a lot of criticism both popular and weighty what sort of policy is the administration left with? Essentially it’s what the Washington Post has described as a policy of relief, restraint and accommodation. First the white House and the state Department are trying to prevent a war between India and Pakistan, second to help prevent famine and alleviate the suffering of refugees the United States has made available 300,000 tons of grain and 3 million dollars worth of chartered ships to move it. Third, America wants to maintain some sort of equilibrium of balance in the whole Indian sub-continent with Russia and China.
The big question being asked here now is how the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship affects that policy. To the Pakistani Ambassador here, Agha Hilaly it marks the end of India’s non-alignment policy. To the Indians it is not directed aggressively against anybody though it’s been noted here that the Left Wing press in India has now mounted a campaign against Mrs. Gandhi’s proposed visit here in the autumn. The Indians see the Americans as arms suppliers to the Pakistanis, the Americans believe the Indians are guilty of exacerbating the difficulties in East Pakistan. Altogether relations between Washington and New Delhi are at a low point while those between Islamabad and here are sympathetic, with the administration being saddened by what the State Department calls the tragedies in East Pakistan, but at the same time warning Pakistan that any summary action over Sheikh Mujib could lead to the end of American support. Mr. Nixon is known to have a high regard for president Yahya khan and the thrust of American policy is essentially to preserve the unity of Pakistan but not at any cost.
10. DESPATCH (PART ONLY) FROM DACCA
30th November, 1971
by Nizamuddin Ahmed
EAST PAKISTAN SITUATION
Reports of fierce fighting are reaching East Pakistan’s capital city, Dacca, from Sylhet, Dinajpur and Jessore. Indian troops made repeated attempts to capture the Kamalpur outpost from Pakistan’s possession and to Advance the District Headquarters at Jessore. But Pakistan troops halted them beyond chuagacha bordering the Indian State of West Bengal. Indians using -Russian one-hundred thirty millimeter guns, in the Jessore sector. The Indians, according to a Pakistan army source, also used the latest Russian tanks at pachagarh in the Dinajpur district, on East Pakistan’s extreme northern border two days ago. Fighting still continued there. Pakistan army have captured seven more Indian soldiers raising the number of captured regular soldiers during the past three weeks to thirteen, besides some Indian para-military forces-“Border Special Forces”.
Rebels who are officially described as “Indian agents and” Miscreants'”, have attacked one passenger steamer belonging to the Pakistan River Steamers Company, a subsidiary of. British “sponsored” Indian. General Navigation and River Steamers Navigation Company Limited, while carrying passengers. One of the passengers was killed and two others wounded. This was the only means of communication between Dacca and the outlying Barisal district as other private motor boats were cancelled by operations. After a day’s suspension, the steamer will now operate alternate days from Dacca.
11. DESPATCH FROM BUSH HOUSE DIPLOMATIC UNIT 4th December, 1971
by Tony Paynting
As the Pakistan situation worsens, the United States has called a meeting of the Security Council.
It has indeed been a day of intense international diplomatic activity with the culmination being in the call for a meeting of the Security Council. One of the more significant reports was of an appeal by the Japanese Government for both sides to exercise restraint. This was a call which echoed earlier messages from the British Prime Minister to the President of Pakistan and to the Prime Minister of India-and which has. In fact, characterized the frequent British contacts which have been going on since trouble started brewing.
President Tito of Yugoslavia threw his considerable influence into the field when he made known his concern over the fighting and urged the need for the combatants to find a peaceable solution. The Soviet Prime Minister, Mr. Kosygin, also indicated his anxieties. But he ruled out the possibility of Soviet mediation of the sort which led to the agreement between India and Pakistan at Tashkent in 1966. He is reported to have said that this time the Soviet Union could not go alone. This statement inevitably directed observer’s attention back to the United Nations and particularly to the possibility of an emergency meeting of the Security Council. Neither India nor Pakistan seemed willing to make a move. But of all the Big Powers, it was the United States which seemed to be most immediately concerned. The Secretary of State, Mr. Rogers cancelled a visit to Iceland. It became known that he and other government departments were in the closest possible touch and, in the end it turned out that it was the Americans, along with the Japanese and some other countries who took the initiative. They certainly have the backing of Britain, whose diplomats have been quietly nudging in the direction of a Council meeting. Mr. Kosygin’s remarks indicate that the Soviet Union would like to have a meeting too. The question mark is, however, over the risk of a clash in the Council between the Russians and the Chinese, The Russians have a treaty of friendship with India, and the Chinese, recently admitted to the United Nations and to their permanent seat on the Security council, are committed to support Pakistan.
12. CABLE FROM DACCA
8th December, 1971
by Ronald Robson
The news that a National Government has been formed for Pakistan is not widely enough known yet in East Pakistan for much reaction to have been obtained:
The first point that seems apparent is that Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, in the dual roles of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister will be the person to reckon with. Although he is Prime Minister, Mr. Nurul Amin is aged Seventy eight, and though far from feeble, obviously has not the energy of Mr. Bhutto.
Mr. Bhutto has always taken the most uncompromising attitude towards India. Seeing affairs from the standpoint of West Pakistan, he is doubtless encouraged by the news from three that the Pakistan army has made considerable inroads into Kashmir. Doubtless Mr. Bhutto is also apprised of the true military situation in East Pakistan. Neutral observers now feel there may have been some point to the theorizing which was current in certain circles in West Pakistan nearly three months ago, to the effect that Pakistan’s strategy should be to realize that the East Wing one thousand miles away would be difficult to bold in a war with India, and that Pakistan must aim at securing an equal amount of territory in the West to hold as a bargaining counter.
The argument be effective if, as happened in nineteen sixty-five, world pressure secures an end to hostilities. Thus far attempts in the United Nations to secure a cease fire have failed.
Meanwhile East Pakistan suffers. It was only made clear today that in the Indian high level bombing in the early hours of Saturday, a stick of four bombs fell on worker’s lines of a jute mill at Adamji-nagar in Dacca. One bomb failed to explode. The other three caused frightful damage to the flimsy dwellings over a total area of six hundred yards square. It is estimated that five-hundred people died, and that two hundred-and-fifty are still under the rubble which workers are clearing with their bare hands.
13. DESPATCH FROM DELHI
11th December, 1971
by John Osman (1)
From Calcutta the Indian news agency P.T.I, and All-India Radio report that one Hercules aircraft of the Royal Canadian Air Force and one of the Royal Air Force have been refused permission to land at Dacca airport by the Pakistani authorities there and that the planes have returned to Calcutta. They are two of four such flights, one Canadian and three Royal Air Force, which had been given safe conduct by the Indian Air Force to enable the evacuation operation to take place within the 24 hours up to 6 p. m. Indian Standard Time this evening, 12.30 p. m. Saturday London time. Pakistani authorities were said yesterday to have cleared the operation but now the situation seems to have altered. From New Delhi John Osman.
The planned evacuation of about 500 foreigners from Dacca is in trouble, The Canadian plane, flying with United Nations markings for the World organisation, was first reported to have been turned back to Calcutta, then one of the Royal Air Force flights followed suit. The Dacca authorities, I understand from reliable sources here, declined to allow the flights to land, and the reason is said to be that the Pakistanis object to the planes coming in from India-enemy territory. On this side the Indians have so far insisted on the planes going to Dacca through Calcutta in order to know the flight plans in detail to avoid any disaster, and to ensure that the flights are not being used for anything other than humanitarian purposes.
Whether or not this Indian requirement might be altered now it is impossible to predict, and what exactly the Pakistanis want is hard to see, unless they are contemplating straightforward blackmail and intend: to hold foreigners as hostages as a way to try to press other states to support them at the United Nations and elsewhere. Such a suggestion however is uncharitable and there is no ground for believing that such a motive is in Pakistani thoughts.
A softening of Indian requirements also might help ease the problem. The Canadian plane could fly in easily enough from Bangkok and the Royal Air Force planes directly from Singapore if other methods could be worked out to meet Indian stipulations. At this stage we can only wait and see while diplomatic efforts are pursued to resolve the deadlock. Meanwhile the Indian safe conduct period is due to expire just as I make this broadcast.
14. DESPATCH FROM CALCUTTA
9th December 1971
by David Sells
INTERVIEWER:
You’ve been to Jessore David and you confirm that it is now absolutely in Indian hands is it?
SELLS
They went through the town yesterday. They went also to big military base which is two or three miles to the north of the town and also the airfield they are all in Indian hands and we were able to see with our own eyes.
The Pakistanis had blown several bridges on the way they’d blow them very expertly.
The town of Jessore itself was rather deserted. People were just beginning to come back into the town and they were patently delighted to see troops.
15. DESPATCH FROM DELHI
9th December, 1971
by John Osman
The war between India and Pakistan continues as at this moment, 5 a.m. London time. The formal flag raising ceremony was held in. New Delhi at the newly recognized Bangladesh mission here.
The battle for Dacca as suggested here will begin by this weekend. Pakistani resistance on the eastern front is viewed here as crumbling but questions are still being asked about Pakistani intentions. Will the troops trapped there make a last ditched stand and will they try for an evacuation by sea or will they surrender. The Indian Army Chief of Staff has addressed a second warning to the Pakistanis urging them to surrender or meet death. Meanwhile orders have been issued to Indian troops reminding them that they enter East Bengal not as conquerors but as liberators and behave as such. India’s Defense Minister as congratulated the Indian air force on what is said here to be the complete destruction of the Pakistani Air force in the East. Unconfirmed reports from Calcutta say that the Pakistani Army Commander in the East has left for West Pakistan together with other senior officers, and officials and their families. The reports say the Deputy Martial law leader has been left behind to cope as best he can.
16. DESPATCH FROM NEW DELHI
10th December, 1971
by John Osman
All India Radio says today that Dacca is now virtually encircled and cut off from the outside world. From New Delhi, John Osman.
The gates of Dacca appear from here to have been almost opened now for the Indians with the officially reported capture of three strategic towns on the eastern banks of the Meghna River. They are the railhead river port of Chandpur, Daudkandi and Ashuganj. Of the three Ashuganj provides the easiest access to Dacca, but the bridge connecting it with the west bank has been blown up by retreating Pakistanis. The approach from the other two towns involves crossing a couple more rivers and such water obstacles are what Indian commanders have all along been emphasizing as important defensive lines. So it’s not all over yet. But All India Radio says Dacca is drastically besieged and it may be that a last stand is being planned by the Pakistanis in the city’s surrounding area. Meanwhile, Indian official claims of success continue to flood in from all three services and Commanders are being quoted directly in such a way that it would seem extraordinarily unprofessional if they are later proved to have exaggerated. For instance, the Air Officer commanding Western air command, Air-Marshal. Engineer, says a quarter of the Pakistani air force in the western section has been destroyed while in the East the Indians for the past two days now are claiming to have completely destroyed the Pakistani air force there. And reports from Shillong, the Assamese capital say Indian plane have shot up river vessels bearing tae remnants of Pakistan’s eastern army from different sectors towards Narayangonj near Dacca. It said that about one hundred craft ranging from steamers and barges to motor boats and patrol boats have been destroyed or damaged. The Pakistanis it’s thought here may be trying to get away through places like Barisal and Narayanganj, but the Indian in broadcasts and leaflets continue to tell them it’s all hopeless. Meanwhile, the Indian navy claims to have established supremacy on the high seas and be able to attack Karachi and other Pakistani ports more or less at will. As viewed from here, and it must be emphasized as viewed from here things took pretty bleak for Pakistan.,
17. DESPATCH FROM DACCA
11th December, 1971
by Ronald Robson
More people are now seen pushing carts with their few belongings in the streets of Dacca as families move either from areas which have attracted the attention of Indian strike aircraft or from riverside areas such as Narayanganj where they think there will be fighting in an advance on Dacca.
The Dacca townspeople remain remarkably calm during the airraids.
The Commander of the Pakistan Army in the East, General Niazi, has been seen in Dacca, which should scotch rumours which had been circulated that he had slipped out of East Pakistan.
18. DESPATCH FROM RAWALPINDI
15th December, 1971
by Harold Briley
As the people of Pakistan anxiously look for some signs that the peace moves are making progress at the United Nations, the armed forces are briefing themselves for what looks like being the decisive battle for East Pakistan the defense of its capital Dacca. Harold Briley reports from Rawalpindi:
Pakistani forces in the East have been engaged in extensive regrouping in order as their spokesman put it to defend the eastern province in the most effective manner. They declined to give details. “That is just what the enemy would like to know” a senior army officer told me, “They will have to spend a lot of time finding out and I hope suffer a lot of casualties”. Taking them at their word the military who are the elite of the Pakistan nation are ready to turn the teeming streets of Dacca into a Stalingrad Day after day the stiering declarations are made and the message is always the same: we’ll fight to the last man. The Pakistani ground forces are regrouping to take account of repeated penetrations behind their positions by Indian paratroops and helicopter landings in force. Indian mastery of the air in the East allows them to do this virtually without interference until they hit the ground that is and then the Pakistanis say the airborn invaders have been given a mauling and have made no headway. The meager Pakistani air force in the East long ago ceased to function. A spent force with nowhere to operate from. Its only base Dacca Airport out of action from constant air attack. Whatever the stark realities of the situation, the spirit of the Pakistani people in the West anyway shows no sign of weakening.
There’s a stream of reports of the galantry of the Pakistanis throwing back hords of Indian troops and exacting heavy casualties. This then is the frame of mind the mood of the people in West Pakistan, all unsuspecting may be of the possibility that Dacca could fall and then it’s difficult to assess what the shocked reaction could be.
19. DESPATCH FROM DACCA
17th December, 1971
by Granville Walts of Reuters
I rode into the East Pakistan capital aboard a tank in front of an Indian general’s jeep today as the victorious Indian Army entered the fallen city. The capital erupted with huge crowds greeting the Indian tropps, throwing flowers, shaking and shouting: “Long-live India-Bangladesh friendship.”
Here Brigadier Mishra, commander of the crack 37th Division, joined others in greeting the arrival of Indian VIP’s, including Lieutenant General Aurora. India’s commander in the East, in a string of ten Indian helicopters. Amid scenes of increasing joy and noise the General and a procession of Indian army, navy and air force chiefs, headed for the race course in the centre of Dacca, where the surrender was formally signed, in the simple ceremony which was held at the spot where Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Awami League leader, made his famous Bangladesh freedom speech prior to the army crackdown last March.
The absence of Sheikh Mujib was the one bad thing that spoiled the night’s festivities here for most Bengalis.