East Pakistan under Army Control
Mujibur under Arrest?
Foreign Journalists Expelled
Pakistan martial law authorities announced that the army controlled East Pakistan, but radio reports monitored it was reported from New Delhi in India said they had asked West Pakistan to send in more troops.
Official radio Pakistan Karachi reported Sunday night that calm now prevailed in most cities and the countryside and martial law authorities had ordered Dacca Banks to reopen from Monday.
A mob had been dispersed in Khulna and in Chittagong the situation continued to improve, the radio said.
The Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted Dacca radio, taken over by West Pakistani troops on Friday, as saying that martial law authorities in East Pakistan had asked for troops reinforce-ments from the western region.
Mujibur Seized
The Pakistan Government said Sheikh Mujibur reported to have been seized by troops on Friday night, was still under arrest at unknown place. No charge against him have been announced.
There were wieldly contradictory reports on the fate of secessionist leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Many observers who were in East Pakistan duing the past few days believe he is in prison. Martin Hadley of the Guardian the first British journalist to arrive back in London from Dacca, said he was almost certain that the East Pakistani leader was being held by the Central Government.
Awami Accounts in Banks Frozen
President Yahya Khan has banned Pakistanis from membership or helding office in the outlawed Awami League and froze Party accounts in the banks.
In a martial law order issued Sunday he also prohibited the propagation of the Party’s manifesto calling for a separate Bengali state for East Pakistan.
The order demanded that any person of bank having party funds submit details of any transactions made from such funds since Friday.
that any person of bal state for East Paki propagation of the
ICRC Team to Dacca
A foureman of the International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) left Geneva Sunday to try to reach East Pakistan to find out the relief needs of victims of the fighting.
The Indian sources said the Pakistani parartoopers appeared to be trying to wipe out five clandestine transmitters broadcasting messages on behalf of the Sheikh Mujib.
There were no independent reports from East Pakistan following the expulsion of all foreign correspondents by the Pakistan Government and the imposition of stiff press censorship to the rest of the country.
RADIO STATION
Indian monitors said the Dacca radio station, which the army took over early last Friday morning, mysteriously went off the air for about seven hours.
Sheikh Mujib’s clandestine radio said a stiff battle was under way for control of the station. However, it went back on the air late Monday and identifted itself as “Radio Pakistan”- indicating the army was still in control.
One Indian news agency, Press Trust of India, said the Sheikh’s forces had recaptured Dacca, but this acount was discounted because there was no corraboration from the local radio station.
The clandestine radio also reported that the Awami League forces had captured two of the province’s three military Cantonments- Comilla and Jessore- and were battling for possession of the only remaining one, in Dacca.
The radio continued to brodcast an anouncement that an estimated 300,000 persons, mostly unarmed civilians, had been killed since the fighting broke out late Thursday
Indonesian Observer, 30.3.1971