Bengali diplomats in US opt for Bangla
WASHINGTON, AUG. 4 – All the Bengali diplomats with the Pakistan Embassy in Washington and the Pakistan mission to the United Nations today enmass transferred their loyalty to Bangladesh.
The group of 14 diplomats was headed by Mr. S. A Karim, Deputy Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN. Others who pledged their loyalty to Bangladesh included one Minister, Mr. Enayet Karim, Counsellor, Mr. Sams Kibria, a Second Secretary Mr. Moazzem Ali, two other Counselors and a Third Secretary.
“This is our moment of decision,” said Mr. Karim, the No. 2 Pakistan representative at the UN. “We have decided to join the suffering millions of Bangladeshis who are resisting with their lives the West Pakistan Army who are determined to reduce East Bengal to a colony.”
Mr. Karim declared that the Pakistan Government “now is a military junta of West Pakistan desperate to retain its stranglehold over the country. Nullified the results of free and fair elections here. It has chosen to mute the majority of the people by some savage force.”
“Its authority rests totally on its military strength and its control is limited by the range of its artillery. It has therefore lost all pretenses to legitimacy of power.”
Mr. Karim said that UN Secretary-General U Thant, was so much disturbed about the situation in East Bengal that he sent for him and expressed his conviction that India and Pakistan were heading for war.
On receipt of the information Mr. Khandakar Moshtaque Ahmed, Bangladesh Foreign Minister, conveyed his warm congratulations to the defecting diplomats, says a report from Mujibnagar.
This mass transfer of allegiance by Bengali diplomats is another clarion call to an others at home and abroad who may still be in the employ of the Government of Pakistan to sever their connections and pledge themselves to save the lives and honor of their own country and compatriots, Mr. Ahmed said.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 05.08.1971