CHINA SUPPLYING MILITARY.
EQUIPMENT TO PAKISTAN
TO SUPPRESS CIVIL WAR
Rawalpindi, Pakistan, April 28 (AP)
– WESTERN DIPLOMATS said Wednesday they believe Communist China is supplying military equipment to Pakistan and has agreed to outfit new units in the Western province to replace troops sent to suppress the Awami League in East Pakistan.
The diplomats said they did not, however, have details on the amount or type of military equipment.
They said the agreement followed an unannounced visit to Peking earlier this month by Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary. Sultan Khan, former ambassador to China.
The Foreign Secretary has refused to confirm the visit.
“I have heard I have been in Dacca. As for the rest some things are better left in suspense.”
Dacca, the Eastern provincial capital, is Pakistan International Airlines’ gatweay to China.
According to diplomatic sources, Khan visited China after the Chinese protested demonstration April 6 outside their embassy in New Delhi and accused India of interfering in Pakistan’s internal affairs.
After the reported visit, Chinese Premier Chou En-Lai made a statement April 12 attacking India’s “gross interfererce” in Pakistan’s internal affairs and promising that China would “as always firmly support Pakistan” if the Indians launched aggression.
Diplomatic sources said Pakistan has increased its army in East Pakistan to about 50,000 men. The figure compares with estimates of 28,000 to 40,000 in the East before march 25, when the army cracked down against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League.
The sources said China had been regularly supplying military help to Pakistan since the 1965 war with India when it provided equipment for two divisions and MIG 19 jet fighters.
According to the sources Pakistan has recently enlarged its air force mission in Peking. Pakistan also flies American F-104 and F-86 Sabre jets and French Mirage fighter bombers.
Pakistan and China have maintained close relation ever since China’s 1962 border clashes with India, their mutual antagonism toward India overcoming the vast ideological differences between Chinese revolutionary Communism and Pakistan’s rightwing army dominate regime.
Reference : The Indonesian Observer, 29.04.1971