INDO-PAKISTAN CONFLICT
Islamabad is, of course, largely responsible for the present serious situation on The Indian sub-continent. Admittedly, President Yahya Khan invited Mrs. Indira Gandhi to the conference table to discuss and reconcile their differences and also proposed mutual withdrawal of armed forces from the border areas.
But he took no concrete steps or initiated any move to eliminate the root cause of the developments in East Pakistan which led to the mass flight of ruthlessly oppressed East Pakistanis to seek sanctuary in India.
Mrs. Indira Gandhi had tried for months to persuade President Yahya Khan and the world to help restore conditions that would encourage the more than nine million East Pakistani refugees to return to their homes.
India’s own stability is gravely threatened by the continuing influx of these refugees requiring food, shelter and medical care among other necessitites.
The world, however, looked away and president Yahya Khan continued to disregard appeals to resolve the East Pakistan crisis through a political solutionallowing the people of East Pakistan to determine their own future, a right which they won at last year’s general election.
With the prospects of easing the extremely heavy burden of caring for nearly 10 million refugees growing dimmer and dimmer, India found herslef in a position would rise to the occasion, before it is too late, by practising restraint and demonstrtating statemnaship of the highest calibre….
Reference : The rising Nepal, Kathmandu—December 5, 1971 Source : Bangladesh Document, Vol II, P. 229-30