Pakistan Army Takes Bangladesh Capital
Pakistan Government forces last night took the town of Chuadanga, proclaimed two weeks ago as the provisional capital of Bangladesh, the breakaway eastern province.
The fall of Chuadanga marks the collapse of Bangladesh resistance on the western side of the province, which adjoins India. The Pakistan Army now has effective control of all the towns and other vital points in East Pakistan.
They marched into the town in a two-pronged attack after a two-day softeningup bombardment by mortars and aerial bombing.
Most of the population of 150.000 including political and military leaders claiming to form a provisional Government of Bangladesh, had already fled.
The resistance movement has still not been quelled in the remote north-eastern areas of the province where heavy rains are hampering the Army. . But it can now only be a matter of time before the Army, through sheer firepower and terror methods, wins complete control.
Long Campaign
The outlook is for a protracted guerrilla campaign by the resistance forces which observers consider might last months or even years.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Army, now heavily reinforced, is busy sealing all important exit routes from the province.
Thousands of refugees are now streaming from East Pakistan into India across miles of unpatrolled border in the more remote areas of Assam and West Bengal.
They are posing serious health and food problems for the hard-pressed Indian authorities, which have not balked at what they see as a humanitarian duty.
Smallpox and cholera have already broken out among Bengali refugees in some areas of East Pakistan, and mass inoculations and vaccinations are being carried out in the Indian refugee camps to prevent an epidemic.
Cholera could spread disastrously in Assam, where many river people eat fish-a potent cholera carrier-as a staple diet.
Desperate Hunger
The flow of refugees into India has arisen sharply with the advance of the Pakistan Army, and there are now thought to be 31,000 in India. Many people I saw were desperately hungry.
The manager of a tea estate owned by the Glasgow firm of James Finlay and Sons told me: “Our situation is really desperate”. I have 2,000 laborers and 1,000 more from an estate owned by Duncan Bros.
There is nothing we can do. We are trying what we can do. We are getting no help from any quarter.
“Last week, the Army came to shoot me in my garden, but my laborers killed them with bows and arrows”.
My laborers are getting no pay. Our rice stocks can’t last beyond April 25. Then I must advise them to run for the border.
“I sent my driver to Sylhet to find out about my wife and children. I do not know if they are alive, but my driver was ambushed and killed.”
A Bengali guerrilla driver said to me: “Soon we will have to fight like the Vietnamese, but without guns. The Punjabis have burned our tea gardens and our homes. “We will starve and die but will fight on for 1.000 years”.
By David Loshak in Calcutta
Reference: The Daily Telegraph, April 17, 1971.