TIME Magazine January 17, 1972
To some Western observers, the scene stirred thoughts of Pontius Pilate deciding the fates of Jesus and Barabbas. “Do you want Mujib freed ?” cried Pakistan President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, at a rally of more than 100,000 supporters in Karachi. The crowd roared its assent, as audiences often do when subjected to Bhutto’s powerful oratory. Bowing his head, the President answered: “You have relieved me of a great burden.”
Thus last week Bhutto publicly announced what he had previously told TIME Correspondent Dan Coggin: his decision to release his celebrated prisoner, Sheikh Mujibur (“Mujib”) Rahman, the undisputed political leader of what was once East Pakistan, and President of what is now the independent country of Bangladesh.

NEWSWEEK January 17, 1972
All last week, Pakistan’s new President, the fiery Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, acted as if he were a one-man information bureau on the welfare and whereabouts of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Yes, Bhutto allowed, Mujib had been treated severely during his imprisonment! by the previous Pakistani regime. “He could do with a rest,” Bhutto said solicitously of the Bengali leader, “but I doubt that he will find much time for one.” Late in the week, after a series of private talks with Mujib, Bhutto at last made good his earlier pledge to release Mujib “unconditionally.” Amidst tight secrecy, the Pakistani President escorted Mujib to Rawalpindi Airport in the middle of the night and put him aboard a chartered plane. “The bird has flown,” reported the Pakistani President in a final, cryptic ^bulletin of a week of mysterious doings.

THE ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY OF INDIA January 16, 1972
The Pakistan Eastern Command agree to surrender all Pakistan Armed Forces in Bangla Desh to Lieutenant-General Jagjit Singh Aurora, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Indian and Bangla Desh forces in the Eastern Theatre. This surrender includes all Pakistan land, air and naval forces as also all para-military forces and civil armed forces. These forces will lay down their arms and surrender at the places where they are currently located to the nearest regular troops under the command of Lieutenant-General    Jagit Singh.Aurora.

The Nixon Administration drew a fusillade of. criticism last week for its policy on India and Pakistan. Two weeks ago, when war broke out between the two traditional enemies, a State Department spokesman issued an unusually blunt statement, placing the burden of blame on India. Soon after that, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, George Bush, branded the Indian action as “aggression”—a word that Washington subsequently but lamely explained had not been “authorised”.
Senator Edward Kennedy declared that the Administration had turned a deaf ear for eight months to “the brutal and systematic repression of East Bengal by the Pakistani army,” and now was condemning “the response of India toward an increasingly desperate situation on its eastern borders”. Senators Edmund Muskie and Hubert Humphrey echoed Kennedy’s charges.

TIME Magazine December 20, 1971

“Jai Bangla; Jai Bangla:” From the banks of the great Ganges and the broad Brahmaputra, from the emerald fields, and mustard-coloured hills of the countryside, from the count¬less squares of countless villages came the cry: “Victory to Bengal, Victory to Bengal”. They danced on the roofs of buses and marched down city streets singing their anthem Golden Bengal. They brought the green, red and gold banner of Bengal out of secret hiding places to flutter freely from buildings, while huge pictures of their imprisoned leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, sprang up overnight on trucks,, houses and signposts. As Indian troops advanced first to Jessore, then to Comilla, then to the outskirts of the capital of Dacca, small children clambered over their trucks and! Bengalis everywhere cheered and greeted the soldiers as liberators.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
By Nicholas Carroll

IN THE FIRST exclusive interview she has given since the Indo-Pakistan war began, Mrs. Gandhi told me yesterday that she has no doubt that India and Pakistan will establish a friendly relationship. She is convinced that there can be stability in the Indian sub-continent “if outsiders didn’t interfere.”
These were my questions and her replies:—
CARROLL :You have carried out your declared objectives regarding Bangladesh. You have made it clear that India has no territorial ambitions. How long will it be before the last Indian Army unit will be withdrawn from Bangladesh ?
Mrs. Gandhi: It is very difficult to say at this stage. It depends largely on the Bangladesh Government. We certainly hope it will be very soon.
You are thinking in terms of weeks or months ?

NEWSWEEK December 6, 1971

When nations go to war, they almost invariably claim to be acting out of the purest motives. Last week, as India’s leaders met in the high-domed central hall of the New Delhi Parliament, there was much pious table-thumping and  jingoistic rhetoric to justify an attack against Pakistan. “If we have to silence the Pak guns,” vowed Defence Minister Jagjivan Ram' “we are not going to stop at the border but go inside Pakistan. We do not care how far inside we have to go if it becomes a matter of our self defense.” With that moral mandate thousands of Indian troops swarmed across the border into East Pakistan and the stage was set for a third round in the seemingly endless strife between the sub-continent’s two arch-enemies.

TIME Magazine November 29, 1971
When Prime Minister Indira Gandhi returned home from her three-week tour of Western nations last week, one of , the first things she did was to go before her hawkish Parliament and plead for patience toward her handling of the crisis with Pakistan. The urgent need for a solution was all too apparent. Officials in New Delhi said that the biggest frontier battle yet between Indians and Pakistanis occurred when 1,800 Pakistani regulars crossed the border into West Bengal. Defense Minister Jagjivan Ram rose in Parliament to say that if India was attacked, it would “carry the war into Pakistan.” Indians across the , country, meanwhile, were placing bets on when not if war with Pakistan would take place.

U.S. NEWS AND WORLD PRESS THE 25th NOVEMBER, 1971
Washington Post’s Carroll Kilpatrick, reporting from San Clemente said that the White House is considering the possibility of taking the India-Pakistan issue to the Security Council, the issue is a delicate one for President Nixon. He wrote that if the issue is taken to the Council it could result .acrimonious debate among the great powers without having any practical impact on India and Pakistan. Kilpatrick continued: “If allowed to. .however, there is an adverse effect on great-power relationships, since all are deeply interested in the shifting power balance in South Asia, with China supporting Pakistan and the Soviet Union supporting India. An all- out war in the area could even force the President to cancel 'his plans to visit Peking and Moscow next year.”