US Consul fails to secure release of Omega team
By A Staff Reporter, An attempt by the US Consul in Dacca to secure release of the Operation Omega volunteers imprisoned in Jessore appears to have failed.
Information reaching Calcutta indicate that the Consul who had gone to Jessore to negotiate their release on Tuesday returned to Dacca without any success.
Four volunteers-Mrs. Christine Pratt, Miss Joyce Kenniwell, Mr. Ben Crow and Mr. Dan Due are langushing in a prison cell in Jessore awaiting trial in a Pakistani court. Military authorities have charged them with “illegal entry* to Pak territory.
An Omega spokesman told newsmen in Calcutta on Friday that the Pakistani authorities were yet to announce a date for their trial.
Meanwhile, reports reaching through diplomatic sources indicate that the volunteers had refused legal assistance offered by the Pakistani authorities. They have stuck to their contention that Pakistan has no right to try them.
Reports also say that they are on a hunger strike to persuade the Pakistani Government to see to their reasons. The volunteers do not recognise geographical barriers so far as distribution of relief material is concerned.
The volunteers carrying supplies for the starving people of Bangladesh had crossed over to Benapole in Jessore on September 5. They were stopped and arrested by Pakistani soldiers soon after they had set foot on Bangladesh soil.
Eighteen days earlier, on August 17, they had tried to reach relief to the people of Bangladesh. But their attempt was frustrated when the Pakistani soldiers nabbed them and physically pushed them over the Indian border. They were warned at that time against any further attempt to cross over to Bangladesh.
Reference: Hindustan Standard 10.09.1971