Call to hand over Malik
Dacca December 17 Mukti Bahini guerrillas have threatened to attack the Red Crossprotected Intercontinental Hotel unless the former Governor of East Pakistan, Dr A. M. Malik , who is sheltering there, is handed over to them as a war criminal.
For the moment, the Indian Army has talked the guerrillas out of attacking but the situation is highly charged. The Red Cross and the Mukti Bahini were in desperate conference late this afternoon.
The young Mukti Bahini leaders say they have no control over their followers now.
Yesterday, General Jack Jacob, the Indian commander told them : “I want their transfer of power to go bloodlessly and without incident.”
“We will try and do our best,” they answered. “Don’t just try-do it,” the general roared. “If not, I’ll start schooling you fellows.
But all last night Dacca rang out to bursts of submachine gun fire, the whine of bullets, and the screams of people being attacked. The prime target of the guerrillas is the razakars – collaborators blamed for the wholesale destruction of villagers and their inhabitants, under the Pakistani Administration.
Some Pakistani police captured by the Indians were released with “a 50 yard start on the mob after them,” an Indian officer said “Only a few “older men ” could not run fast enough to escape, he explained.
All India radio reported that sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s wife and two daughters were rescued in Dacca today by a squad of Indian soldiers.
Reference: The Guardian, 18.12.1971