More ‘Independence’ Moves
Amalendu Das Gupta
Calcutta. March 28. Although Pakistan Radio claims that the army is in full control of the situation in the eastern province. unofficial reports reaching Calcutta say that fierce fighting is continuing in Dacca. Rangpur, Camilla and several other places. Refugees who have arrived in West Bengal and Assam have given eye-witness accounts of clashes between West Pakistan troops and Awami League volunteers. Bengali members of the East Pakistan police and troops of the East Pakistan Rifles. Women, children and old men are said to have joined the resistance movement. The Clandestine Bangladesh radio said last night that the Pakistan Air Force had bombed Dacca, Comilla and Khulna. It said that a hospital in Dacca had been destroyed in the bombing and all the patients were killed. Dacca University, an Awami League stronghold, was also said to have been destroyed by heavy shelling by Pakistan Army tanks.
The radio further claimed that some West Pakistan troops had surrendered to the “liberation forces” after a broadcast statement by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the East Pakistan leader, that those who surrendered would be granted safe passage back home. Bangladesh radio said that following the example of Bangladesh, the people of Balochistan, the North-West Frontier province and Pakhtoonistan had declared their independence. Another claim it made was that Awami League volunteers had captured the police armory at Comilla.
Observers here are not inclined to accept all these claims by the radio station, nor does it seem probable that as many as 100,000 people have been killed in the fighting as reported by the radio which quoted a so-called liberation force source. It is, however, believed that casualties may well have run into thousands. Another clandestine radio station, believed to be operating from Chittagong area, today broadcast a statement by Sheikh Mujib appealing to all nations to recognize a “provisional government formed by him in what he earlier described as the “Sovereign Independent People’s Republic of Bangladesh.”
Pakistan Radio today denied having said yesterday that the Sheikh had been arrested. In its broadcasts yesterday, Pakistan Radio reported that LieutenantGeneral Tikka Khan, the martial law administrator in East Pakistan had been killed when Awami League volunteers stormed his residence in Dacca. [The Press Trust of India today said it had monitored a Pakistan Radio report denying that General Tikka Khan had been killed or injured.] The clandestine Bangladesh radio, however, today claimed that several of the general’s military aides were killed during the incident Pakistan Radio today claimed that Bangladesh radio is nothing but a transmitter operating from an Indian ship anchored in the Ganges river in West Bengal, but official circles here say that there is no basis for this suspicion.
By all accounts the Awami League fighters have a strong base in the Chittagong area. One report says that Sheikh Mujibur’s men are in control of Chittagong port. It has also been noted that official Pakistan Radio broadcasts refer mainly to the situation in Dacca. This may mean that the Army’s position is not as strong in other areas as it is in the provincial capital. In any case it is clear that troop movements have been severely hampered by the widespread disruption of communications. Not only Bangladesh radio but also the refugees arriving in West Bengal and Assam have reported that people resisting military rule have put barricade’s across the roads, dismantled railway tracks and blown up bridges over rivers.
This seemed to be confirmed when Pakistan Radio broadcast an order calling for the removal of all barricades on pain of the destruction of all buildings within 100 yards of such obstructions. Yet there is some skepticism in official circles here about the freedom movement’s ability to survive a massive military onslaught. Intelligence sources in Calcutta say that the Awami League’s resources for armed resistance are nowhere near as large as might be suggested by Bangladesh radio claims.
Yesterday some people came up to West Bengal borders and asked for arms and ammunition, saying that they were getting particularly short of them. The response from this side was said to be non-committal. At several points along the border with West Bengal and Assam, groups of men belonging to the East Pakistan Rifles crossed into India after being chased by West Pakistan troops. All refugees from Bangladesh are being allowed to stay on in West Bengal, at least for the time being. An official spokesman here described the border as fluid.
Outposts on the Pakistan side of the border seemed deserted today, which means that men of the East Pakistan Rifles manning these posts have either been given other duties or have voluntarily deserted them. At two places some men and women crossed the border asking for food from West Bengal villagers, which could mean that the Army had seized the bulk of food stocks for its own use or simply that the buying of food from shops and markets in East Pakistan had become difficult.
In the absence of large wick of arms and ammunition, an effective means of resistance is obviously to starve the Army units of food and other supplies and Bangladesh fighters were specifically instructed by Sheikh Mujibur to adopt this strategy. But the Army too, must have taken some steps to forestall or defeat this move.
Reference: The Times, 29 March, 1971