Government Forces Take Two
More Rebel Strongholds
New Delhi. April 13, Two towns in the north-west of East Pakistan fell today to the Pakistani army as battles with secessionist forces were fought in many parts of the province, the Press Trust of India reported, The agency, quoting reports reaching Krishnagar on the Indian border from East Pakistan, said that one of the towns. Dinajpur, had been overrun by an army column.
The reports said that the “Bangladesh liberation army” inflicted heavy casualties on the column but was forced to withdraw from the town under pressure of artillery fire. The second town, Lalmonirhat, five miles from the border with the Cooch Behar district of Indian State of West Bengal was reportedly recaptured by the Pakistan Army after a bitter fight. There was no confirmation of the reports.
The “liberation army” was reported to have captured Lalmonirhat on Sunday and official Indian Government sources confirmed this yesterday. The Press Trust reported earlier today that the annual monsoon rains had broken early in the eastern part of the province and were hampering the movement of Pakistani troops. It said that the rains, which had come about four weeks early, had hit the districts of Comilla, Chittagong and Sylhet. Other reports reaching Krishnagar said that a bloody battle was in progress for Comilla, a vital supply and communications center in the east of the province five miles from the Indian border. The reports said the Pakistan Army and the secessionists each held about half of the area of the town. Official Indian Government sources said today that the aim of the Pakistan Army appeared to be to entrench its troop units and open lines of communication.
In Calcutta, leading members of the banned Awarni League said today that the “Provisional Government announced by East Pakistan secessionists will take office tomorrow. They said that the head of the provisional regime would be Mr. Tajuddin Ahmed and that the regime will come into being somewhere in Eastern Pakistan with the first meeting of a cabinet of six.
The League members said they could not say at the moment whether Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who has been named President of the Bangladesh provisional Government, would attend the Cabinet meeting.
Though East Pakistani leaders have been saying that Mujib is free and not under arrest as claimed by the Pakistan Government, some of them admit in private conversation that he has been missing.
In London, Oxfam and War on Want, two of the Principal charities responsible for distributing the £1.5 millions of relief for East Pakistan given by British people after the cyclone, appealed to the Government to take an international initiative and help to establish supply channels into the province. They said that the country faced a famine “of immeasurable extent for three reasons. Import of food grain. vastly increased since the cyclone, had now been stopped. Secondly, available stocks concentrated in storage centers at Chittagong and other sites were unlikely to have been distributed and some loss must be assumed. Lastly the war would interrupt the harvesting of the present small rice crops, planted between main crops and hinder the full planting of the spring crop, because seed crop and fertilizers had not been distributed. Also there would be no fuel for the mechanized equipment made necessary by the destruction of animals in the cyclone. Transport had been commandeered for use in the fighting.
After a meeting with Mr. Anthony Kershaw. Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, yesterday afternoon, Mr. Donald Chesworth, chairman of the War on Want, said that representatives of the two charity organizations had gone to stress their sense of urgency. They had 38 tractors on the seas with no prospect of being able to land them. Meanwhile, 210 MPs signed an early day motion calling for a ceasefire in Pakistan.
Reference: The Guardian, 14 April, 1971