East Pakistanis Flee Before Yahya’s Army
BY DENN’S NEELD
Goalundo Ghat, East Pakistan,
April 9 (AP)
EAST PAKISTANIS evacuated towns along the Padma River Friday, fearing an advance by Pakistan army units trying to crush the two-week-old independence war in this secessionist province.
Women and children on the ferry port of Goalundo Ghat and other towns along the 12-mile (19 km) broad river started fleeing their homes as soon as word was received that Preshient Yahya Khan’s troops had occupied the town of Aricha, just across the Padma river.
Local officials, who ordered residents to take refuge, said Pakistan naval gunboats were on their way up the Padma river to cover a crossing by the army.
The inland port Goalundo a logical place for a crossing, because it is at the head of the railway leading from the Padma towards the Indian border 80 miles (129 km) West of here.
An army advance along the railway line would stab deep into the heart of East Pakistani-held territory that has been named independent Bangla Desh (Bengali nation).
The Padma is the local name for the Ganges river which divides East Pakistan almost in half geographically.
Since the civil war began it also has been the main dividing line politically.
The East Pakistanis hold most of the territory West of the Padma, while on the other side the army controls the main urban centers including Dacca, 40 miles (64 km) east of the river.
This little ferry port of fishermen’s bamboo huts is defended only by a handful of ill-armed homeguards who are unlikely to be able to put up much resistence to a fullscale attack.
Bangla Desh officials have been counting on a mobilization of ferryboats to stall any army crossing but their hopes will be tested only when fighting actually begins.
One group of homeguards was training with bows and arrows. The most lethal weapons possessed by others were World War Two rifles.
Local officials said they realized they could probably not stop an army advance, at least in Goalundo Ghat. They had been hopping the June monsoon would keep the army on the other side of the river.
Similarly, the Pakistan Army is believed anxious to break the independence movement by a major advance before the onset of the rainly weather, which makes normal movement almost possible. They also want to relieve beseiged Pakistan army garrisons west of the Padma river.
This corresondent and Associated Press photographer Michael Laurent arrived in Goalundo Ghat by train from Kushtia, 25 miles (40 km) away.
BANGLA DESH
For at least a third of East Pakistan’s 70 million people, Bangla Desh-the Bengali nation-has become a reality.
In numerous villages and cities on the Western side of the Ganges river, which cuts the Province almost in half, East Pakistanis are rulling themselves.
Red yellow and green Bangla Desh flags fly from municipal buildings, villagers shout ‘Jai Bangla’-victory to Bengal-at visitors.
It was two weeks ago that an ill equipped force of Bengali militiamen bolstered by civilians armed mainly with enthusiasm began their war for independence against an army from West Pakistan equipped with American automatic weapons, tanks and bombers.
The Pakistani Government claims its forces are making headway against the rebellion and appears to control Dacca, the provincial capital, and other major cities. But East Pakistani independence forces claim they have isolated the army in the cities and in rural fortresses. The-rebels appear to control almost half the province.
The success of the independence movement is evident in Kushtia, a district administrative center 30 miles (48 km) east of the Indian border and 105 miles (168 km) Northeast of Calcutta.
Bangla Desh administrators run the local railway, police, postal service and government.
Taxes are being collected and deposited in local banks to wait the time they can be paid into a central Bangla Desh treasury.
A district action committee of 15 men is running the city of 30,000 people. Similar committees have been established in other ‘liberated’ towns and cities, said Kushtia deputy commissioner Mohommed Shamsul Huq.
He said that according to reports received in Kushtia, the entire country west of thu Ganges is in the hands of the rebels.
As the fighting continues in the province, East Pakistan’s Bengalis are confident of eventual victory if they can hold out until the monsoon rains begin in June.
In reports reaching New Delhi, the East Pakistanis claimed there more successes Friday. The reports said rebel forces blasted a rail bridge between the army-held cities of Dacca and Chittagong, the major port, destroyed an airfield near Comilla and captured an army depot holding nine tons of arms and ammunition.
Information received by Indian intelligence agencies corroborated many of the rebel claims.
ref. Indonesian Observer, 10.4.1971