Liberation Army Dominates Dacca District
Two Pakistani Diplomats receive Asylum
… for a “Free Bengal were in complete control of the region of East Pakistan stretching from the outskirts of the port of Chittagong, in the south, to Sylhet, in the north, according to the Press Trust of India.
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It said in a despatch from the border town of Agartala that the sector under rebel control included the districts of Chittagong, Noakhali, Comilla, Mymensingh and Sylhet, except the cantonment areas and parts of Chittagong town, which the Pakistani Army recaptured Tuesday after a full-scale land, sea and air attack.
The entire district of Dacca-except the town itself and the air-field-was under the domination of the ‘Liberation Army’ PTI reported,
The agency quoting what it described as authoritative reports reaching Calcutta, said Pakistani gunboats Tuesday shot villagers on both sides of a waterway connecting the port of Chalna with Khulna town.
The Pakistan military, fearing that the supply channel might be disrupted by followers of East Pakistan leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, obliterated huts and killed serveral people, the reports said.
The reports also said fierce fighting was in progress in Sylhet, in the north east corner of East Pakistan, where the Pakistan Army had called up tanks to confront the so-called “Bangla Desh Liberation Army.”
The “Liberation Army” captured Sylhet airstrip Monday after a day-long encounter in which about 50 West Pakistani troops were killed, the reports said.
Pakistan Air Force planes bombed Sylhet and nearby Bogra, the reports said.
Heavy fighting was also going on in Jessore town, where Pakistani troops were desparate to hold on to a portion of the town captured from Liberation forces Monday.
Two Pakistani Diplomats Granted Political Asylum
Two diplomats from the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi sought and were granted political asylum by India Tuesday night, Indian officials said early Wednesday.
The diplomats, named as 30-year-old second Secretary K.M. Shehabuddin and 53-year-old Assistant Press Attache Amjadul Huq, are both believed to be East Pakistanis. Shehabuddin’s wife and two daughters were also granted asylum.
Mujib’s Expert Surrenders
Form Karachi, it was reported Dr. Kamal Hossain, constitutional adviser of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s banned Awami League Party in East Pakistan, has surrendered to the martial law authorities, the National News Agency reported Tuesday, night.
The agency said in a report from Rawalpindi that other Awami League leaders who had gone underground were also beginning to surrender.
Dr. Hossain was believed to have wielded great influence in shapping Sheikh Mujib’s speeches and in drafting his policies.
Dr. Hossain was widely rumoured to have eluded arrest when Sheikh Mujib was reported by the martial law authorities to have been held at his Dacca house 12 days ago.
Dr. Hossain, who won a by-election seat to the National Assembly, was topped as a future foreign minister if Sheikh Mujib was become prime minister.
ref. Rtr DPA The Djakarta Times, 8.4.1971