Bangladesh Newsletter
No. 12
November 10, 1971
Editorial
“THE SMELL OF WAR”
For the last two weeks the air is filled with war cries. “Hate India” campaign has reached its peak in Pakistan. Screaming “Crush India” bumper stickers sprouted all over Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. It looks like this crushing game of the Pakistani warlords has got throughly into their blood. Their ‘disappointing’ performance in crushing the people of Bangladesh, despite the ultimate degree of ferocity and brutality, may be now forcing them to look for something else to go crushing about. They need to vent their frustrations somehow.
Nobody else knows better than the military junta of Pakistan what outcome awaits them in an armed confrontation with India. Even then they would not mind rushing to a sure disaster fighting against the professional army of India rather than to through the humiliation of a defeat at the hands of the student-peasant freedom fighters of the Mukti Bahini.
Besides the ego of professionalism there arehard political calculations underlying the sudden outburst of war dances in Islamabad. Stream of dead bodies of the Pakistan Army officers flowing into Karachi and Lahore from Bangladesh has created a consternation in Pakistan. Already it has been reported, a protest march was taken out in Lahore by the widows of some of the killed officers. Parents and relatives of the soldiers killed in Bangladesh are getting restive about the nature of the war there. “Police action against miscreants” as an explanation does not find easy credibility. Some new explanation had to be invented. What can be better catch-all explanation than “a war with India?” The warlords of Pakistan are presently engaged in establishing the new line of explantion with full authenticity. All it needed is to replace the word ‘miscreant’ by Indian’ and attribute the credit to India for every shell fired by the Mukti Bahini. Massing of troops on the borders and making appropriate noise complete the picture.
There is smell war alright, but, at least at this stage, it is a synthetic smell. Pakistani generals want to make this ‘war’ 99 per cent authentic both for domestic reasons and diplomatic. But, at their frame of mind, we don’t think they will be too upset if it tills over to become hundred pec cent genuine.
HOPING FOR THE BEST….
(The following is a summary of a report published in the daily Guardian on October 14, 1971)
If major food shortages develop in East Bengal during the next two months the United Nations relief organization here in Dacca will be able to do little to relieve them. The U.N. East Pakistan Relief Organization, known as UNEPRO, has been aptly described by one critic as a “head without a body”. If serious food shortages do show before the middle of D.C. and nobody is convenced that they will not, then “we are all in trouble”, one senior U.N. official said.
Had the forcecasts made this summer about food shortages and local famines come true the U.N. would indeed be “in trouble”. Both Government and private stocks of rice and wheat are dangerously low in a wide belt of territory running from Dinajpur through Rajshahi, Pabna, Kushtia, Faridpur, to Northern Barisal. Many of these areas, to make matters worse, are more militarily active than other parts of the province.
Families are now flooding back into the urban areas, which are now less disturbed than the countryside. Their presence creates extra urban feeding problems.
An Oxfam survey of two normally rice surplus areas south of Noakhali twon earlier this year showed that the estimated yield from the winter rice crop would be only 35% of the normal yield. The survey does not augur well for the rice yield in other southern delta districts.
Of the province’s 5,000 trucks, 3,000 have “disappeared”, some across the border to India, some commandeered by the army. Basic decision taken by UNEPRO has been to replace the lost rail capasity by a combination of increased movement by water and by road, UNEPRO has made plans to bring in a fleet of medium-sized coaster and bulk cargo vessels plus some tugs and a fleet of 1000 trucks.
Even if by a variety of expedients a food disaster in some areas is avoided in the period until December when the winter rice crop begins to be harvested, that is by no means the end of the problem. The winter crop is not going to be a good one, although forecasts are now more sanguine than they were. In some areas like Jessore the winter crop may be 70 per cent down on normal yield due to flooding.
APPEAL FOR WINTER CLOTHINGS
With winter just round the corner the urgency for providing the freedom fighters and the suffering uprooted millions of Bangladesh with woollen and other winter garments needs no emphasis. Bangladesh
Mukti Bahini is fighting the West Pakistani invaders to liberate Bangladesh against odds unparallel in the annals of history. To help the Mukti Bahini will be a sevice not only to the cause of Bangladesh but also to that of humanity and freedom in general.
To help protect against cold and for use during the onsuing winter season by the Mukti Bahini, Mr. M. Hossain Ali, High Commissioner for Bangladesh in India appeals to the philanthropic organizations, voluntary institutions, manufacturers and dealers of cardigan, pull-over, woollen blankets, wrappers and scarfs etc., to come forward to donate these articles for the above mentioned purposes.
The donation of winter clothings may be sent to the office of the High Commissioner for Bangladesh in India at 9, Circus Avenue, Calcutta-17.
RECOGNIZE BANGLADESH
New York, October, 14 : Paul O’Dwyer, former Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in New York, today called for U.S. diplomatic recognition of Bangladesh, formerly East Pakistan, and for stopping U.S. military and economic aid to West Pakistan.
Speaking at the opening of the storefront headquarters of Americans for Bangladesh at 187 Lexington Avenue, O’Dwyer declared that Bangladesh is “a clearly separate geographical, linguistic and economic entity, it has at present a duly elected government supported by the massive majority of its 75 million people.
“Senventy-five million people deserve their own country”, O’Dwyer stated.
Also present at the ceremony were State Assemblyman Andrew Stein (D-62nd District) ; Robert F. Wagner, Jr., Chairman of the Youth Commission of the New York City Democratic Committee ; and Justice Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, former justice of the Dacca high court who is leading a delegation from Bangladesh to present the issue before the United Nations General Assembly.
Demanding a complete halt to economic and military aid to West Pakistan, O’Dwyer said, “our support is now helping the Pakistani army to crush democratic forces in Bangladesh. It has helped to create the greatest refugee problem in modern history and caused untold misery to millions of innocent people”.
“Every bullet which has caused the death of a resident of Bangladesh has our name written on it”, O’Dwyer declared.
Stein stated that “American policy in Bangladesh has shown the same kind of irreverance for life as our policy in Vietnam…It is certainly not one we can be proud of as a people”.
Paul O’Dwyer and Justice Chowdhury later presented the case for recognition of Bangladesh in an hour long radio program over WMCA Radio.
MONSTROUS PUNISHMENT
Two workers of the Operation Omega, an international relief mission with headquarters in England, have recently been arrested by the occupation army of West Pakistan for “illegally” disrtibuting relief supplies inside the occupied Bangladesh. They were charged with “smuggling” and sentenced by a military court to two years in prison.
Ellon Langle Connett, 27, of Dumot, New Jersey and another volunteer, Gordon Slaven, a British citizen, were distributing clothes and medicine about 10 miles inside the occupied Bangladesh when they were arrested on October 4.
Mrs. Connett was the second U.S. relief volunteer to be tried for illegally distributing relief supplies in Bangladesh, but the fisrt to be given a prison sentence. Daniol due, of San Fransco, also of Operation Omega, was tried last September and deported.
According to the officials of Operation Omega, the two volunteers are being treated as “class C” prisoners, the status given to common criminals, and denied an American lawyer.
In an editorial under the caption “Monstreous Punishment” British daily Observer (October 17.) wrote :
“Two young relief workers have been sentenced to two years” imprisonment by the Pakistan courts. The aim of their exercise was to demonstrate that the claims of charity should have priority over political reasons of state. They therefore illegally entered East Pakistan to try to help those suffering there from hunger and disease.
“The Pakistan authorities used a big stick and imprisoned them. This has secured publicity and support for their aims from people all over the world…A two year sentence in monstrously excessive and must bring discredit on the regime”.
MISS WORLD AIRWAYS MARRIES SPECTRE OF DEATH
Friends of East Bengal, Chicago, continue their campaign against the World Airways which leased two Bowing 707 airplanes to the military junta of Pakistan to facilitate their transport of men and arms to the occupied Bangladesh. On October 21 the Friends organized a “Wedding Ceremony” joining” Miss World Airways” with the SPECTRE OF DEATH. The wedding took place in front of the Equitable Building which houses the office of the World Airways. The wedding was attended by a large number of Chicago citizens.
The Friends organized a public meeting at the Equitable Plaza on October 28. Speakers included Dr. Eqbal Ahmed, a West Pakistani scholar associated with the Adlai Stevenson Institute.
JOAN BAEZ SINGS FOR BANGLADESH
Ann Arbor, October 24 : Twenty thousand listeners listened Joan Baez as she sang for two hours at Crisler Arena. Joan punctuated her singing with acerbic remarks thrust at the Nixon administration and establishment politics in general. Some of last night’s most moving moments resulted from original political works such as Bangladesh.
“When the sun sinks in the West
Die a million people of Bangladesh”
She appealed to the audience to help the Bangladesh refugees in every way they can and support the Bangladesh cause.
Ravi Shankar Gives
Benefit Performance
Iowa Bengal Relief Committee of Iowa City organized a benefit performance by Ustad Ravi Shankar, the well-known sitarist, on October 21, 1971. Prior to the performence a massive publicity campaign was undertaken by the committee to acquaint the citizens of Iowa City the magnitude of human disaster that has befallen oin the people of Bangladesh and the events leading to this disaster.
BANGLADESH ACTIVITIES AROUND THE STATES
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friends of Bangladesh, an organization comprised mostly of the faculty members of the University of Michigan, has sponsored a day of fast in all the dormitories of the university to be observed on November 6, 1971. Prof. Rodrick Huber and Miss Deborah Bernhardt are organizing the program to raise funds for the Bangladesh relief.
On October 28, during the Homecoming celebrations Friends of Bangladesh sponsored a Bangladesh Float depicting the death, destruction and brutality brought over to Bangladesh by the Pakistan occuption army. Prof. Peter Hook and Miss Snehalata Deksheet designed the float which dramatized the man-made disaster and the role the U.S. is playing in it.
Dr. A.R. Malick, President of the Chittagong University and Dr. Ashabul Huq, member of the provincial assembly (both are members of the Bangladesh delegatiion to the United Nations) addressed a public meeting in East Lansing and appeared on the lacal TV program on October 26, 1971.
They addressed a meeting of the faculty members and concerned public in Ann Arbor the following day.
Grand Rapids, Michigan
International League for peace and Freedom and the YWCA. Peace Task Force jointly sponsored a Teach-In on Bangladesh on October 11, 1971 at the Central YWCA. Mr. Muzammel Huq, president of the Bangladesh Association of the University of Michigan was invited to speak in the Teach-in. At the conclusion of the Teach-in a Bangladesh Committee under the Presidentship of Mrs. Jenet Mair was formed to organize activities to educate the local citizens on the situation in Bangladesh and sponsor relief drive. Mr. Huq also addressed the students at the Grand Valley State College.
Bangladesh Association of Mid-West
Bangladesh Association of Mid-West informs that representatives of the organization are keeping a continuous vigil on the Capital Hill, Washington D.C. They, along with the representatives from the Friends of East Bengal, Columbus, Ohio, also participated in the Bangladesh Rally in Washington.
The Association in touch with Bangladesh campaigns now underway in various campus communities including Purdue, Ohio State, Miami-Western, Akron, Case-Western and Florida State. Campaign includes teach-in, distribution of literature, display in the University Center and fund raising.
The Association has sent a large consignment of winter clothes to the Bangladesh refugees.
Bangladesh Defense League
Bangladesh representatives to the United Nations, Dr. A.R. Mallick and Dr. Ashabul Huq attended the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Bangladesh Defense League on Oct. 23, 1971 and briefed the meeting oin the current political and military situation in Bangladesh.
FAST A DAY TO SAVE A PEOPLE
On Wednesday, November 3, students in many high schools and colleges throughout the USA will go hungry. Their lunch money, snack change whatever they might normally spend to feed themeslves, will go instead to feed the hungry millions in the refugee camps of West Bengal. The project called “November 3 Fast to Save a People” is co-sponsored by a variety of organizations. All funds collected will be channeled through Oxfam-America, Inc.
Three thousand colleges and 30,000 high schools may participate in this project. Governors of Rhode Island and Arkansas have proclaimed November 3 as ‘East Pakistan Refugee Day’ in their states.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Dr. Sajjad Hossain, vice-chancellor of Dacca University and an active collaborator of the Pakistani occupation army, has been shot and, according to an unconfirmed report, killed.
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Saudi Arabia has recently supplied 75 American made fighter planes to Pakistan.
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According to the daily DAWN of Karachi, whatever Construction is passed by the recontituted National Assembly it cannot claim to be democratic, because it will not be backed by the will of the people. According to the DAWN most of the members of the Assembly from East Bengal will not attend the session when the Assembly convenes in December.
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The helicopter carrying Dr. Malik, Yahya’s ‘Governor’ for the occupied Bangladesh, was shot at by a youth while the helicopter was flying over the village Baorakhola of Comilla district. The shot missed the target. The following day Pakistan Air Force strafed the village.
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After two days of fierce fighting Mukti Bahini has liberated the Kasba area of Comilla district. In this battle 60 enemy troops were killed.
Mukti Bahini have raised the Bangladesh flag over the Chhatak Cement Factory and Chhatak town after liberating them from the occupation army.
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Mukti Bahini killed 25 enemy troops in Sadekpur of Comilla Sector and captured 6,303 rifles and a large quantity of ammunitions.
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PLEASE NOTE
1. Mukti Bahini require large supplies of winter clothes, medicines, tents, and blankets. From your individual efforts in your local community you’ll be amazed how much of them you can collect.
If you have an organization, all the better. Initiate the drive today. For arrangements for FREE AIR TRANSPORTATION to the Mukti Bahini contact :
Dr. Muhammd Yunus
500 Paragon Mills Rd. Apt B-7
Nashville, TN 37211
Phone : (615) 833-3064
2. Dotors can easily collect medicines by writing to the pharmaceautical companies and also urgin their colleagues to donate the sample medicines. Doctors in Nasville already sent 90 cartons of medicines to the Mukti Bahini hopitals. YOU can do it too. For free air transportation note the above address.
3. We have received a number of letters from our readers expressing their desire to contribute to the Bangladesh Newsletter by way of subscription. We sincerely appreciate your support to the Newsletter. We are not accepting any contribution separately for the Newsletter. But we strongly urge readers to contribute generously to the Bangladesh Defense League to support its program and activities. Won’t you sent us a monthly/onetime contribution?
4. For bulk supplies of printed materials for campus distribution (list of items will be supplied on request) contact :
Friends of East Bengal
Box 41, Sta B
Vanderbilt Univ
Nashville, TN 37203
5. If you’ve prepared materials for distribution or published articles in the newspaper/magazine please send copies to the Newsletter.
BANGLADESH NEWS DIGEST
October 14 :
Daily Telegraph (Editorial :Yahya’s Blindness)
At monsoon’s end “refugees can move—either back from India to their homes, or in the other direction to increase the already terrifying total to nine million. Troops can move to bring food to tens of millions who have existed somehow, but are now at the end of their resources…Troops can move to chase independence fighters. Much depends on priorities in the allocation of men and transport…How much movement will return to East Pakistan, and whether it will be in the right direction, depends on the dispositions made by President Yahya…What is depressing is that President Yahya, instead of getting to the roots of East Pakistan’s troubles, blames them all on India in dangerously martial language. The only real solution is to come to terms with Sheikh Mujib, now on secret trial, and even for that time is running out”.
(New Delhi)
According to Indian newspaper reports crack Pakistani units had moved to forward positions all along India’s Western border. Significantly, much of the talk of a build up has been based on rumors, talk and other “information” emanating originally from Pakistan itself. In fact, the Pakistanis have been at pains to disseminate “disinformation” about their supposed military build-up. Pakistan is anxious to shift the blame for her crisis in East Bengal on India, and is therefore seeking to “internationalize” the issue.
London Times (Geneva)
In appealing for 215 million pounds in aid for East Bengal refugees in India, Prince Sadruddin Agha Khan, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said that if the new funds were not forthcoming “there could be a terrible Human drama triggering off an already explosive situation”.
C.S. Monitor (Rawalpindi)
While prepublication censorship has been officially lifted, Pakistan news agencies and newspapers remain under a martial law regulatioin which amounts to virtually the same thing.
October 15 :
Daily Telegraph (Karachi)
Master Khan Gul and Kazi Faiz Mohammed, two West Pakistani political leaders said at a public function in Karachi yesterday that wihout the release of Sheikh Mujib there could be no national unity or democracy in Pakistan.
London Times (Delhi)
Accodring to a preliminary survey by the Indian Finance Ministry, the direct and indirect cost of keeping the Bengal refugees alive will have amounted to about 350 million pounds by the end of the financial year in March. Serious side effects of the refugee problem are apparent. The movements of large stocks of supplies to refugee camps has placed a tremendous strain on the railroad and road systems and prices are spiralling up.
(Moscow)
The USSR has greatly increased its attacks on the Pakistan Government and its statements of concern about the problem of East Bengal refugees in India. It is strongly demanding the release of Sheikh Mujib and a political settlement of the East Bengal crisis.
The difference between the Indian and Soviet positions on support of the Bangladesh movement is that the Indian Government wants to avoid war, but fears it may be unavoidable whereas the Russians consider that war must be avoided.
(Geneva)
Prevention of famine in East Bengal during the next four months hinges on whether food shipped to the ports can be distributed effectively, M. Paul-Marc Henri, head of the U.N. relief operation, said here today. He blamed guerrillas for harassment in the border areas.
October 16 :
Daily Telegraph (New Delhi)
Concentrations of Pakistan troops all along India’s Western border were reported in Delhi yesterday, including and armored division that could cut the link between India and dispurted Kashmir. A second armored division is somewhere in the vicinity of Lahore. An armored brigade group appers to be poised between the Punjab-Sind area and India’s vulnerable Kutch district. The exact strength of the troops that have been moved during the last weeks in not known, but must exceed four Army Corps. Every Pakistani move during the last few weeks has been closely followed, mapped and then responded to by a counter-balancing move.
(Washington)
The Nixon Adm. hopes to reverse some of the proposed cuts in American’s foreign aid bill. The Government is concerned that the action against Pakistan could hamper its carefully-balanced efforts to achieve peace and stability in that country.
October 16 :
Economist (London)
“At first glance President Yahya Khan’s two announcements this week look like attempts to bring back civilian rule and constitutionally to Pakistan. But a closer look suggests some anxious window-dressing for external economic reasons and internal political cake ones…President Yahya seems not so much to be preparing for a restoration of civilian rule early next year as acting like a man desperately trying to hold the ring…the continued ban on the Awami League and the many qualifications in the president’s announcement makes the package look like an effort by President Yahya to have his political cake and eat it”.
N. Y. Times
Rev. Homer A. Jack, Secreatay General, World Conference of Religion for Peace, in a letter to the editor writes : “should not a human rights organ of the U.N. discuss these crimes (‘against humanity unequalled since Hitler’s time’), which incidentally are continuing, quite apart from other organs of the U.N. alleviating the hunger inside East Pakistan and the plight of refugees in India? It is not either/or, but both. With the massacre of, conservatively, 200,000 people in East Pakistan since March, there must be ‘recrimination over those it is too late to save’ or else why the continued world concern about the victims of Nazi Germany?”
October 17 :
Sunday Times :
A race between life and death has now begun in earnest in East Bengal ot save millions from what even the least alarmist experts, call the danger of “critical food shortages”. But Paul Marc-Henri, the newly appointed director of U.N. relief operations concedes that preventing “widespread famine” may be touch and go. The existing hazards are formidable : 1. Guerrilla activity is widespread throughout East Bengal, and is increasing 2. The Pakistan army adds to the confusion caused by the guerrillas. The army is continuing to shoot Bengalis in cold blood. It is still taking savage reprisals for guerrill actions. The Razakars have a special reputation for brutality. Officials of foreign relief organizations remain concerned about the danger that supplies will find their way to the army than to those who need them most. 3.The scale of need is staggering. Food shortage is between 2.5 to 3 million tons. In August the U.N. took delivery of 200 five-ton trucks from various sources, and according to one U.N. official 175 of these have already been “put out of action, lost or destroyed”. Christian Aid believes that there are substantial stores of Russian-bult tractors, lorries and machine tools around Dacca. It has asked for access to this equipement, if only to keep it greased and rust-free : no answer has been received.
Observer (London)
A petition signed by 20,000 people pressing for a political settlement in East Bengal was handed to Mr. John Stonehouse, MP, at an Oxfam and Omega rally in Birmingham yesterday. Mr. Stonehouse will give the petition to the Foreign Secretary, Sir Alec Douglas-Home.
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India and Pakistan are strengthening their military forces along the borders between them. Five Pakistani Army Divisions have been arrayed along the Indian border with West Pakistan on a war footing. The approaching end of the monsoon is likely to increase the fighting inside Pakistan between the Bangladesh guerrillas and the Pakistan Army. This could also lead to more incidents along the border where the main guerrilla training camps are situated.
Wash Post (U.N.)
According to U.N. sources, there has been some progress on humanitarian relief in the East Bengal crisis but none on the political and military sides. They characterize the present situation as “desperate”.
According to diplomats here and foreigners in Dacca, pre-requisites for the return of refugees are a representatives governmemt in Dacca, an end to police and military terror in East Pakistan, and more effective efforts by the Pakistan government to repair the damage of the crisis. The same sources say these pro-requisites have not been met despite promises of amnesty and the revival of political life by Yahya Khan.
Both civil military Pakistan authorities refused permission to the U.N. relief operation to bring in portable radios for communication with field agents and to keep track of relief supplies. Grounds of refusal were fears that the Mukti Bahini would capture the radios.
Only 14 of the 90 U.N. personnel permanently in East Bengal have been put in the field. Despite U.N. claims to the contrary, a report from Dacca suggests that only part of the relief vessels have reached East Bengal.
Wash Post
A Pakistan official announcement in Dacca claimed Indian artillery shelling on the East Bengal border. Indian officials reported 3 shooting incidents along the U.N. ceasefire line in Kasmir. According to Western sources there was a heavy Pakistan troop concentration at Sialkot facing the main Indian supply route to Kasmir.
N.Y. Times (Delhi)
From a disorganized, confused band of freedom fighters that moved into action when the pakistan Army struct in late March to try to crush the Bengali autonomy movement, the Mukti Bahini has become, if not a well-oiled fighting machine, at least a reasonably co-ordinated and more than reasonably effective guerrilla force.
A growing number of the Bengali troops have been operating from “liberated areas” just inside East Bengal. Those areas, though not large, have been expanding. Some of the new recruits are being trained as regular troops and others as guerrillas. The latter adopt village dress and mix into the local population. There are many more volunteers however, than the Mukti Bahini can absorb, primarily because of a shortage of weapons.
The Mukti Bahini has effectively harassed the Pakistan army, pinned it down in some areas and stretched its lines thin all over East Bengal. Reliable reports indicate that Pakistan casualties are increasing.
October 18 :
Guardian (Dacca)
New guerrilla groups infiltrated into the Dacca area in the past three weeks have begun a vigorous offensive. The new groups tried to shell Dacca airport. At Dacca’s satellite port they exploded bulk gas pipes and burnt a huge quantity of jute awaiting shipment. The most worrying incident for the military authorities, was the attempted attack on the airport. Outside the immediate Dacca area, other groups in the past few days have attacked road and rail links to Mymensingh. Four days ago guerrillas blew up a railway bridge between Tungi and Narshingdi. The engine and some carriages tumbled into a river. Sources here say the new groups are made up largely of students. They are assigned to areas where they used to live. Some, indeed, have never left the city since March except for two weeks of training. Money to support them is collected from sympathizers by political groups. Reports about continnuing army brutality reinforces public sympathy for the Mukti Bahini effort. Elsewhere in the province, the Pakistan Army seems to have made little progress in eliminating areas of Mukti Bahini strength.
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Unemployment is becoming a graver problem in West Pakistan, trade union sources say. In Karachi, largest industrial center in the country, about 35 per cent of a work force of 400,000 is reported out of work. Police arrested 67 workers under martial law regulations earlier thie month in Karachi for portesting against the dismissals of their follow-workers.
London Times (Teheran)
According to well-informed sources, the USSR may be attempting to mediate between India and Pakistan. President Podgorny is know to have met both General Yahya Khan and President Girl of India at the celebrations here. His visit with Yahyalasted? hours.
(Delhi)
India’s Defense Minister. Mr, Jagjivan Ram, announced that if a war was thrust on India she will not withdraw from captured Pakistan territory. He also declared that Indian troops will not be withdrawn from the borders until issue of East Bengal was resolved.
October 19 :
Daily Telegraph (Editorial) : “Indo-Pak. Tensions”…
It is tompting fortune to assume that war by accident or design can be staved off indefinitely. Nor is it likely, if it came, that it could be localized in one of the world’s most crucial strategic areas…In 1966 Mr. Kosygin ended that Indo-Pak. war., and vastly boosted Russian prestige, by his mediation at Tashkont.This time Russia, backed by immensely expanded military power, seemed at first inclined to exploit the situation. She has, however, been brought up sharply by her Arab friends, who support Pakistan. Attempts to placate them led to difficulties with India…All must show the greatest restraint, and President Yahya, instead of blaming India for the mess in East Pakistan, should clear it up speedily and thus remove the cause of the tension”.
Guardian (Bombay)
On her own, Pakistan cannot logically be anxious to resort to arms because Chinese intervention in an Indo-Pak. conflict can no longer be taken for granted, and India has a defence treaty with the Soviet Union. Unless the hawks in the Pakistan Army are pushing Pres. Yahya on a suicidal course—and Indians think some generals in Islamabad are spoiling for a fight as the only way out of their difficulties with Bangladesh and with Mr. Bhutto—the President’s brinkmanship may have limited diplomatic-objectives. As all manueuveres, in the U.N. and elsewhere, to inject an international presence into West Bengal have failed, Pakistanis may feel that the bringing of both nations to the verge of war could lead to niternational intervention. Pakistani generals are obviously at the end of their together over the guerrillas. The Soviet commitment to peace in the subcontinent, and the prevention of war there, borders on obsession. Moscow rules out war, even if the refugees are unable to go home. Moscow has left I India and Pakistan in no doubt that they have no conditions for a political settlement. This means that anything rigged by Pres. Yahya might be acceptable to Moscow. In a these circumstances nothing would suit Pakistan more than a second Tashkont. Pakistan might try to achieve this by brinkmanship short of war. But, as India sees it, the tension that has erupted along the borders can degenerate into war because of a minor accident, or the foolishness of any local commander.
Daily Telegraph (Silchar, Assam)
New Delhi fears that the military regime in Islamabad, unable to mount an offensive to quell East Bengal guerrillas, will launch an attack on kasmir in an effort to re-unite the nation. The Indians have redeployed their armor and much of their fighter force in readiness for an attempt by Pakistan to repeat their tactics of 1965 and attack the disputed province.
(Karachi)
Highly placed Goverment sources in Karachi believe there is a growing likelihood that India will provoke a war with Pakistan before the end of the year. There is a mounting conviction that the Government of Mrs. Gandhi has manoeuvered itself into a dilemma from which war is the only escape.
London Times (London)
An additional 8.5 million pounds is being given by the British Government for relief in India and East Bengal. Of this 7.5 M pounds will to to help refugees in India. This brings the total contribution of Britain to about 14,75 million pounds for relief in India and 2 million pounds for relief in East Bengal. Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Foreign Minister, said that distribution of supplies in East Bengal was the main bottleneck. He said that river transport was being supplied by Britain to help. Speaking in Parliament, he said : “The President of Pakistan slowly begun the process of civilization of the government and the administration of East Pakistan but we cannot judge whether this is going to be acceptable to the people of East Pakistanvfrom here. The proof must be on the ground”.
T Globe & Mail (Delhi)
A news agency in India reported that Pakistan asboteurs blew up four empty cars of a freight train in the northeast Indian State of Assam. It was the third report of rail sabotage in the past 2 months in Assam.
Wash Post (Paris)
In an interview with Le Monde, President Yahya Khan said that Soviet President Podgorny had assured him that the Soviet Union was not aligned with India against Pakistan and did not want to see a war on the subcontinent Yahya said he “was ready to discuss with no matter whom, no matter where, no matter when and to accept no matter what mediation” in order to solve the whole background of grievances with India. He said the trial of Sheikh Mujib was “continuing” and that once concluded and “as soon as circumstances allowed, I will publish all the details, but not in the immediate future”. On possible talks with Sheikh Mujib he said “I cannot talk with a rebel unless the military court judging him declares him not guilty”.
N.Y. Times (Washington)
According to the official Associated Press of Pakistan, President Yahya Khan proposed to Soviet President Podgorny that both Pakistan and India withdraw their forces from the borders if India was willing to cease what he termed infiltration and other hostile acts.
Charles Bray, State Dept. spokesman, said that the U.S. was urging restraint on both India and Pakistan, and was holding consultations with the USSR, France and Britain. He indicated that the U.S. had no specific peace plan for the area and “would support any measures that would have the effect of reducing tensions”.
October 20 :
Daily Telegraph (Gauhati)
The opening of a Bangladesh guerrilla offensive against the Pakistan Army is imminent, and Col. M. Osmani, the guerrilla leader, has alerted the 30,000 men under his commad. He forecasts that “the campaign will be over” and “Bangladesh a free country by March, 1972”. Major “softening up” operations are already in progress at key points along the frontier. Near Comilla, Pakistan Army posts were so hard pressed by the guerrillas that air strike were called up in an effort to disperse the guerrillas. But despite many local successes it will be virtually impossible for the guerrillas to “liberate” their country by next spring, although there is increasing evidence that President Yahya’s allies in Peking are giving material as well as moral support to the guerrillas. Indian officers are concerned, with reason, about the extreme Leftist tendency the guerrillas are developing, but Chinese help is only one of the factors which is causing it.
London Times
Officials and villagers said no general evacuation had been ordered and there was no sign of panic on this
border town. But about 25% of the population of 40,000 have left.
T Globe & Mail (Editorial)
“…The consequences of war would be devastating beyond description. Can nothing be done to stop this tragedy?…The flow of refugees continues, and virtually none of them will contemplate returning to Pakistan under present conditions. India grows desperate and moves steadily closer—formore general foreign policy reasons as well—to action aimed at dismenbering Pakistan and establishing in independent Bangladesh in the East. President Yahya Khan of Pakistan has plainly got his Government into an impossible position with his misguided attempt to use military force to suppress the auonomist movement in the country’s eastern province…It remains doubtful whether the solution can be found that will both restore peace and security in East Pakistan, and preserve some semblance of integrity of the country as a whole…”
London, Special (Editorial)
“What U.N. Secretary General U Thant called a ‘potential’ threat to peace last August has become too imminent a peril to be ignored by the world organization. The source of the brouble is clearly the continuing military repression in East Pakistan which has already sent more than nine million refugees into India…
Sources inside East Pakistan indicate that mass political arrests continue and the the army is pressing its policy of harsh reprisals against “miscreants”, especially the Hindu minority in East Bengal. The imprisonment and secret trial of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Bengali leader, and the suppression of his Awami League, which swept the election in East Pakistan last December, make a farce of the new elections President Yahya has called.
So far, U.N. intervention has been confined to inadequately financed humanitarian efforts to alleviate the sufferings…But it is increasingly apparent that on real relief can come without an end to the repression and to Pakistna’s political crisis.
To prevent his man-made catastrophe from becoming compounded in a wider Indo-Pak war, it is essential that the U.N. come to grips with the central problem—the suppression of human rights in East Pakistan.
Lewis Simons Column
“The real winners of an all—out war between India and Pakistan would be those who stand at the heart of the hospitality, the Bengali rebels…While the guerrillas have achieved some notable success, particularly in sabotagin ships, bridges and roads, and claim to have killed 20,000 Pakistan soldiers, it is clear that the Bengali leaders recognize that an Indo-Pak war would work to their advantage, at least in the long-run. The Bengalis deny this. “This is impossible”, a senior Bangladesh representative said this week. “If this were even remotely possible we would not be fighting as we are now. We would not exchange one set of masters for another. We will be independent…”
October 21 :
Daily Telegraph (New Delhi)
President Tito and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in a joint commnique warned the Pakistan military junta to cease “their attempts to by pass the so-clearly expressed whishes of the people” of Bangladesh. President Tito’s recent meeting with Yahya in Parsia has apparently given him some slight hope that the Pakistan government will release Mujib. This view si not shared by observers. But here is no doubt President Yahya is increasingly worried by the help and encouragement Communist China is giving the Bangladesh guerrillas who grow more efficient in their attacks on the Pakistan Army supply lines between Karachi and the ports of Chittagong and Dacca.
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India and China are to exchance ambassadors. They reached agreement on the improved diplomatic ties this week, and only a formal announcement is awaited.
London Times (Ottawa)
Appearing before a joint meeting of Canadian MPs and Senators, Soviet Prime Minister Kosygin warned that the situation between India and Pakistan “is becoming more and more aggravated and more and more acute”. He disclosed that President Podgorny had demande401d of President Yahya Khan—when they met last week at the Iranian celebration—the restoration of democracy in East Bengal, the freeing of Sheikh Mujib, and arrangements for the return of refugees from India.
C.S. Monitor (Karachi)
Mr. M.A. Ali Khan, a West Pakistani immigrant to Canada, recently visited Pakistan. He writes :
“The revolt of the police in East Pakistan left the province without a police force, and policemen have had to be imported from West Pakistan or recruited from the Urdu-speaking people of East Pakistan. The desertion of the civil servants has meant that civil servants at all levels had to be imported from West Pakistan to keep East Pakistan administration going. And the desertion of East Pakistan labourers from their mills and other jobs has meant that even labourers have had to be imported from West Pakistan. The near unanimity displayed by the East Pakistan in the last election has meant that almost all East Pakistan are under suspicion. Where they have stayed in their federal jobs, they have been transterred to posts where they can do little damage. All Pakistan. International Airlines crew members from East Pakistan, for example, have been grounded…Many West Pakistan openly agreed that ‘now it is an occupation’ and no one is certain how long it can last…”
N.Y. Times (Karachi)
There is a feeling here that Pakistan and India are shadow-boxing, partly to impress each other with their respective fighting spirit, and partly to alarm the outer world into providing more material assistace in heading off war.
Popular enthusiasm for war with India seems both widespread and genuine. Some political figures here have openly called for a “Jihad” a Moslem holy war against India and have urged, without effect, that political factions unite in the face of the Indian enemy. But, in private, few people seem to believe war will actually come, or, if it does, that the great powers will permit it to continue for long.
Foreign and Pakistan military observers agree that if war comes it will be “because one side or the other has made a very deliberate decision to start it, and I cannot conceive of that happening”, as one said.
October 22 :
C.S. Monitor (Islamabad)
Mr. Ali Khan reports, “As tensions mount along the India-Pak. border, so does the possibility of war. It is a grim situation indeed…But with the spectre of Russia and Communist China hovering over the subcontinent, the picture becomes grimmer still. Any Indo-Pak war could conceivably suck in these two Communist superpowers…It is a situation fraught with as much irony as tragedy. Six years ago the East Pakistan Rifles and the East Bengal Regiment fought on the Lahore front, and fought creditably. And an East Pakistan pilot, M.M. Alam, was credited with downing more than a dozen Indian planes. But now the EPR and the EBR are in India, having revolted against Pakistan and sought sancturay in Indin. Mr. Alam is probably grounded—all East Pakistan pilots and crew members are…”
N.Y. Times (Putkhali)
In late March Pakistan troops moved into the village of Putkhali, terrorizing and torturing and forcing the people to cut down their rice and jute and their banana and mango trees so insurgent Bengali guerrillas would be denied ambushes. Three months later, in early July, Mukti Bahini pushed back into the area and forced the thinly stretched Pakistan troops to withdraw to safer areas. Putkhali is one part of several “liberated areas”. The Bangladesh forces sany that this piece of liberated ground, in Jessore district, encompasses about 100 sq. miles and that it is attached to another stretch in Khulna district of about 200 sq. miles, with a total population of perhaps 150,000. An educated guess is that all the liberated areas together comprise perhaps 1000 sq. miles. The combat commander of the 158-men company that defends the immediate area is 2nd Lt. Akhtar Uzzaman, a 25-year-old college graduate who is a recent graduate to the military academy at Kakul, West Pakistan. His troops and their wapons looked ragtag but morale was high even though most of the men are non-professionals. “We have no discipline or morale problems” he said. “All are have for sacrifice. All are motivated”.
October 23 :
Guardian (Bombay)
Two days before Mrs. Gandhi’s departure for a number of Western countries, New Delhi was the scene today of intense diplomatic activity. The Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Mr. Nikolai Firyubin, flew into the Indian capital this afternoon with a team of high ranking adivsers. The Soviet Union is as interested as the USA in avoiding war on the Indian subcontinent, but the tactics the two countries have been following in the Indian capital make a remarkble study in contrast. Russian line of argument usually is that both they and the Indians have common objective and that this can be best be achieved by avoiding war.
M. Guardian (Analysis)
John Grigg recently returned from India. He writes : “To suggest that India enticed the refugees across the border, or is now preventing their return, is the most preposter ous calumny imaginable. It is also false to accuse India of working for the breakup of Pakistan….India has not yet recognized Bangladesh and would prefer a solution, at this stage, within the framework of the status quo. Whereasmany believe that India is arming the Mukti Bahini to the teeth, in the hope of forcing a solution of the refugee problem that way, in reality the Bangladesh partisans are recieveing extremely limited support from India and know very well that India’s aim is quite different from theirs. They want to win their own independence struggle…But even the most optimistic of them do not suppose that a guerrilla war could be won in less than two years.
N.Y, Times (Delhi)
Foreign relief officials have concluded that although there will be pockets of food shortage, these will be no awesome starvation and hunger in East Bengal, whatever happens among the Bengali refugees in India.
A number of foreign officials are concerned that surplus food could be used by the Pakistan goverment to feed its occupation troops and local collaborators. The officials also fear that boats and trucks purchased with foreign relief funds for the distribution of food may be used for military purposes. Much of the relief equipment donated after the devastating cyclone last November has been taken over by the Pakistasn army.
Amongst the reasons for revising fears of mass starvation it is mentioned that the flight of refugees has reduced food needs correspondingly. Shortages are admitted in the cyclone-struck areas : Another reason given is the historical ability of Bengalis to be able to survive on very little in hard times and by eating, in the worst times almost anything that grows except grass.
Some relief officials feel that the money being voted for food aid in East Bengal should be going to refugees in India.
October 24 :
Sunday Times
In Faridpur district alone there are at least 3,000 armed guerrillas fighting Yahya’s army, reports Freer Spreckley, a British relief worker who spent 17 days with the guerrillas. On October 1, he crossed the border with 120 Mukti Bahini and 70 porters from Taki camp. He reports that 60 per cent of all the freedom fighters are students, the rest mostly ex-servicemen of East Bengal Rifles or former police-men, because the Mukti Bahini will recruit men over 25 only if they have already had some military training. Spreckley claims that the group with which he crossed had remarkably little difficulty in reaching their destination. At border, be says, only the metalled roads are controlled by the Army. He also says that, in each village of the interior, there are at least 10 Mukti Bahini or Awami League supporters. The group walked 50 miles through the paddy fields and rest of the journey was made across flood waters in 40 ft. boats to arrive at Goparang. Two days after their arrival all the local Mukti Bahini commanders came to Captain Mohammad who told them that in future they were not to kill the Razakars they captured, but instead try to indoctrinate them. The Awami League has forbidden the planning or harvesting of jute : all efforts must be given over to the rice crop. Soon after his arrival, Dr. Mullik (political commissar) increased the penalties for breaking this decree in his area. Spreckley expresses the view that the flow of recruits to the Mukti Bahini is practically inenxhaustible.
B Globe (Boston)
Returning from a lengthy visit to the refugee camps in India, Bishop James K. Matthews, of the United Methodist Church, warned that unless new, massive international relief action is implemented, millions of East Bengalis—inside Indian refugee camps and still in their native land—may die of starvation and disease this winter. He asked : “Just imagine if 10 million Mexicans flooded over the border into our country. How long would it take us to gear up to house, clothe, feed and doctor that many people?”
A major concern for Bishop Matthews and his colleagues in the World Council of Churches is whether distribution of relief supplies will be allowed in East Bengal, if a saflicent amount were moved to the border. Most church agencies shy away from working directly with the U.N. becomes of control by West Pakistan officials but the Bishop feels they may have to accept thisw control to get relief to the starving millions.
October 25 :
London Times (Delhi)
Denzil Peisis writes that Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Nikolai Firyibin is today meeting the Awami League leaders to persuade them to accept autonomy for Bangladesh within a single Pakistan. The main object of his visit to the leaders is seen to be to get the Bangladesh government in exilt to scale down its dmand for independance.
Peter Hazelhurst analyses the current crisis and writes that if war between India and Pakistan comes it will be because “the East Bengali guerrillas, operating and assisted from Indian bases, begin to harass the Pakistan effectively. President Yahya Khan might be forced to initiate a military action—most likely in Kashmir a with two objectives in mind. First, to focus the world’s attention on Kashmir and secondly, action in Kashmir would certainly force the U.N. Security Council to meet and, at the ensuing ceasefire negotiations, President Yahya would demand a package deal : peace in Kashmir provided that India assures the world she will no longer assist the Bengali guerrillas”.
(Karachi)
Pakistan claimed that 53 people had been killed by Indian shelling. it added that Pakistan troops had repulsed two big attacks by “Indian agents” in the Comilla area.
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FORTY MILLION PEOPLE FACE STARVATION
Large number of refugee children are dying every day from malnutrition and the diseases that accompany it. As many as 500,000 children in camps will die before December.
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