Yahya’s “invitation” mischievous”
From our Special Correspondent. NEW DELHI, MAY 22 President Yahya Kahn’s broadcast of yesterday inviting Bangladesh refugees back home is a most mischievous piece, competent Pakistan watchers here believe.
The Indian Foreign Office as usual, seems to be of divided opinion. A few officials think it may signify a change in the thinking of the military dictator. As a matter of fact, however, it does not.
The so-called “ invitation” by Yahya Khan, considered the most ruthless military dictator, has come in the background of he appeal by the United Nations General Secretary, U. Thant, to the assistance to Bangladesh refugees in India and in the wake of a favorable response to this appeal from the US UK, USSR, Japan and other countries.
This leads Pak watcher to hold that Yahya’s only desire is to prevent any massive assistance to India by the international community for looking after the refugees who already number more than 3 millions.
The interpretation is that Yahya Khan’s intention is to see that India buckles under the economic pressure of the refugees coming from Bangladesh, who are deliberately being pushed into Indian territories by the Pak military machine in Bangladesh.
That this is has yield intention is borne out by his ridiculous stand that most of the refugees consisted of the unemployed and he homeless of West Bengal.
If he thinks he is on the way to changing world public opinion, he is mistaken. The officials of the U. N. High commission for Refugees, who had already visited refuges camps in India and reported back to the Secretary General hold the contrary views.
Yahya Khan’s broadcast even if read superficially, will be found replete not with any sympathy with the victims of military oppression but a crude anti-India “idee fixe”.
Observers also point out that Pakistan’s military regime is seeking to build grounds before the visit to Pakistan by officials of the World Bank and other international institutions who are to adjudge Pakistan’s real need for foreign exchange and her ability to spend it equitable and reasonably without causing human suffering in Bangladesh.
Reference: Hindustan Standard 23.5.71