Machine Gun Guard On Yahya In Dacca
Martin Adeney Dacca, March 15. President Yahya Khan drove onto Dacca today. behind half a dozen military trucks with machine guns leveled, to try to solve the constitutional crisis. For a fortnight this has caused East and West Pakistan to function virtually as separate units. According to a spokesman. the President will meet Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, whose Awami League headquarters have been deciding what offices and services function in East Pakistan since March 1.
One of the points of protocol to be settled is whether they will meet at the President’s house. which is guarded by platoons of riflemen moving armed outside the perimeter wall, or at Sheikh Mujib’s three-storied house. two miles away. Here. white shirted League workers answer emergency queries about what services should or should not operate. Although it has been suggested that the President and Sheikh Mujib have agreed to call on each other, there is no confirmation of this. Three floors of the Intercontinental Hotel, which lies between the two houses have been closed – ostensibly for painting.
The President is moving deliberately. After arriving by air from Karachi, he was driven in a black American car along two miles of dual carriageway, from which the hulks of cars used as road blocks had been cleared. The route was lined by about a battalion of troops with Bren guns. President Yahya, wearing a dark suit, sat back and waved magisterially as he left the airport. But he had no time for consultation at the President’s house with the chief martial law administrator. The general left a few minutes later.
The arrival of the President means that it should be clear by the end of the week what kind of solution there can be to the constitutional stalemate. There is relief in Dacca that he has at last arrived after speculation that he was delaying deliberately to allow the situation in Bengal to deteriorate. The economic strains have been eased somewhat by the loosening of restrictions on commercial activity at the end of last week, and by new regulations announced today. These keep schools, courts, and Government offices closed but allow utilities and industry to operate under restrictions.
The most worrying aspect is that the money for exports paid by letter of credit does not come into East Pakistan, and banks have not been able to obtain cash from West Pakistan. Consequently, exports are held up, and two banks are already in trouble. One propaganda point reiterated by fervid Bengalis is that many West Pakistanis are trying to leave with large sums of money. People have been urged not to buy their property. The rioting two weeks ago included much communal violence, and harping on this point does nothing to encourage civil peace.
Militant students said they would set up check posts today “to stop the flight of resources from Bangladesh”. Shortly before noon today, at one check post near the airport, a scooter taxi stopped. When a closer look was taken after a cursory speech, one passenger produced a gun, wounded a rickshaw driver and ran with his companion. He was chased, stopped, knocked down, then beaten with sticks and rocks by a crowd said to be between 1,000 and 2,000. He was left lying in a pool of blood. Officially the hospital says it has admitted two injured. It is a timely reminder just how close to boiling point Dacca is.
If President Yahya sticks to the head masterly attitude he adopted in his broadcast 10 days ago, there can be little hope of a settlement. Already, members of the Awami League are claiming that Sheikh Mujib declared. independence on March 7 though he used words like “freedom” and “liberty”. Either the President shows much more good grace, and political understanding and finesse than he has displayed in the last few weeks, and Sheikh Mujib decides how to deal with the strident voices within his ranks or the hopes that arrived with- today’s armed convoy will turn to historic bitterness.
Reference: The Guardian, 16 March, 1971