Guerilla tactics of Mukti Fauj paying dividends
From Amiya Deb Roy. AGARTALA, JUNE 4 – By the use of guerilla tactics, the Mukti Fouj commando, who engaged the Pak Army in several places in Chittagong hill tracts, Noakhali, Comilla, Saldanadi, Gangasagar and Akhaura sector, killed about 80 Pak troops and destroyed three Army vehicles.
The Mukti Fouj damaged a railway engine when it was hauling a trial train towards Fakirhat, blew up a railway bridge in the south Sylhet sector and captured some arms and stores at Saldana.
Among those Pak troops killed, one was Major Doorani who took active part in mass killing in Comilla town in the months of March and April.
Other reports available from across the border say Pak troops are gradually losing confidence in the so-called peace committees formed earlier by it in various parts of Bangladesh. Pak troops have killed at least five peace committee members at Laksham and Feni.
On June 2. The Pak Army is also reported to have killed a foreigner, Mr. P. J. Chalmers, who was looking after Nalua tea estate in Sylhet Earlier. Pak troops killed 20 laborers of the garden. The Pak Army officials demanded tea, ration and fuel for the troops from Mr. Chalmers also wanted the setting up of a defense organization by the garden laborers. Mr. Chalmers, who was running short of finance and faced a serious economic crisis in the present doldrums in the country, expressed his inability to meet the demands.
Agencies add : Four Pakistanis, including an officer, were killed and several others injured by the Mukti Fouj in an exchange of five yesterday near Ichhakali village off Meherpore town, in southwestern Bangladesh.
The freedom fighters also captured a jeep fitted with a wireless set and succeeded in destroying two two Pakistani border outposts in Barabalding and Khanjanpur areas. 28 miles south-west of Hilli.
The Mukti Fouj are laying mines near culverts, bridges and on metalled roads in this sector. In Faridpur, the liberation forces damaged a bridge and destroyed an army post.
The freedom fighters are in full control of villages in the Banghamati area, six miles north of Patnitop. An army patrol was also fired upon by the freedom fighters yesterday.
In Sylhet sector, the liberation forces are reported to have damaged two bridges and attacked an Army position at Saral Bagh. They also opened fire on a Pakistani Army position near the border in Shamshernagar area.
The Freedom-fighters are reported to be laying mines near culverts, bridges and on metalled roads.
In Rangpur sector, the freedom-fighters destroyed two Army gun-boats and damaged a railway bridge in Sirajganj area.
In the Comilla sector, the freedom fighters destroyed two Army gun-boats and damaged a railway bridge in the Siraggang area.
In the Comilla sector the freedom-fighters attacked an Army position near Colonel Bazar and killed 25 soldiers.
Our Cooch Behar Correspondent says that the Pak Army started firing on the Gitaldaha border outpost in India from the Mughal Hat border. The Border Security Force returned the fire and the exchange continued for an hour.
A few Pakistani mortar shells landed on Indian territory at Lalgola in Murshidabad district today as fighting broke out between the Mukti Fauj and the Pakistani Army at the Kathalbari area of Bangladesh. It is officially learnt at Berhampur.
The Assam-Meghalaya border with East Bengal remained relatively quiet today after Pakistani gunners stopped shelling towards the Sonahat area of Goalpara-Rangpur sector at four am yesterday, official sources said today.
There were no casualties in Wednesday’s shelling as it was out of range, the sources said.
But Pakistani troops’ concentration was reported about three to five kilometers opposite to Baghmara. Dalu and Mahendraganj areas of Garo Hills, borderings East Bengal’s Mymensingh district. They had withdrawn from large areas of Garo Hills, opposite Assam’s Karimganj subdivision, presumably to regroup themselves in the Sylhet district
Pakistani troops are urging the local people to trespass into Indian territory and burn the Indian villages out of sheer desperation, according to reports from across the border.
The troops are molesting women folk and setting fire to the houses of local people who refuse to do so, the reporter said.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 05.06.1971