Stiff Resistance
Chuadanga, East Pakistan, April 13, Armed resistance in much of East Bengal was crumbling fast today before the advancing columns of President Yahya Khan’s Pakistan Army.
A shipment of Indian arms is believed to have reached the secessionist forces of Bangladesh, but it is likely to do little to prolong the struggle…
As yet, there are few visible preparations for a lengthy guerrilla campaign. If one ever gets under way, many prominent officials of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League fear it inevitably will fall under communist leadership.
The Awami League, which enjoys overwhelming support in East Pakistan, is led by professional men better equipped for courtroom battles than a guerrilla conflict in the swamps and paddy fields. They believe the more roughly disciplined communists, backed by Marxists in neighboring India, would take over the direction of a guerrilla movement.
The Pakistan Army, heavily reinforced from the country’s western wing, is rapidly fanning out from Dacca in all directions. For miles around the city the Army is in firm control. The Pakistan flag flies from every other village hut.
Crossing the Ganges River unopposed, the Army has occupied the city of Aricha (Pabna) and troops were reported swinging south toward the Bangladesh stronghold of Kushtia.
Something close to panic seized Kushtia’s defenders and there was a wild rush to escape. A fleet of lorries, immobilized by lack of petrol, was left as a gift to the advancing enemy.
It was in Kushtia that some 200 Pakistan troops, who occupied key buildings on March 25, were later massacred. Now the town fears a bloody reprisal.
Pakistan troops also are spreading out from their cantonment at Jessore, 25 miles from the Indian border and have captured the north-eastern city of Sylhet.
Resistance appears toughest north of Dacca, where elements of the East Bengal Regiment, the East Pakistan Rifles and the police are fighting for Bangladesh.
Two Associated Pressmen encountered a jeep load of rifles, grenades and ammunition awaiting distribution at a river crossing near Madaripur.
A Bengali traveling with the jeep said the weapons were part of a consignment that arrived from India by train 13 days ago. Heʻreported that at least one Indian Army major was instructing Bangladesh forces in the use of the weapons. He claimed the consignment consisted of 50,000 rifles-probably an exaggeration– together with light and heavy machine guns.- A.P.
Delhi, April 13,–Three hundred students and an Italian parish priest were machine-gunned to death by Pakistan troops at a school in Jessore last Saturday, the Press Trust of India reported today.
According to the message, received from the church authorities in Shillong, the troops turned up at the St. Francis Xavier School, called out the priest and the students and lined them up against the school wall.
The fate of three other Italians, including two nuns, who worked in another building in the mission compound, is still unknown.
Reference: The Times, April, 14, 1971