NESA-2 SOUTH ASIA REPORTING IN U.S. PRESS (330)
U.S. DIPLOMATIC MESSAGE, R.T.T. File October 13,1971
New York Times’ Malcolm M. Browne in Karachi comments on President Yahya Khan’s Tuesday night Broadcast announcing that a national assembly will be convened on December 27,1971, followed by elections to fill the seats vacated after the army moved to crush the East Pakistan autonomy movement. In fact, says Browne, only a handful of the remaining assemblymen not disqualified from their seats are expected to come forward. Many have fled to India.
Baltimore Sun’s Pran Sabharwal in New Delhi notes that President Yahya’s broadcast, which many observers expected would outline his plan for settlement of the crisis in East Pakistan, was silent on matters concerning reconciliation or political accommodation with the rebels.
Los Angeles Times’ William J. Drummond, in a dispatch in the Washington Post from New Delhi, says that about three- quarters of Yahya’s 35 minute address was devoted to accusations against India. He says Yahya’s claim that 200,000 refugees had returned to Pakistan after he declared a general amnesty is contrasted with a recent report by Rev. Peter B. Freling Huysen (Republican-New Jersey), who on his return from East Pakistan said he had not seen a single returnee in the camps the Pakistan government had set up to welcome back those who had fled.
An Associated Press dispatch from Rawalpindi in the Christian Science Monitor says that despite continuing resistance in Dacca, at major ports of Chittagong and Chalna, along the borders, and in the interior in Mymensingh and Munshiganj, the East Pakistani rebels have not claimed enough ground so that even their stoutest allies, the Indians, would recognize an independent Bangladesh. The ground is too soft now for vehicles or for troops on foot, the dispatch adds, but it will harden next month about the time relief agencies are making an immense effort to move food about to avert famine. “Virtually all parties,” it is reported, “fear that the scarcity of food will launch another large refugee exodus into India, intensifying the danger of open war between Pakistan and India.”
New York Times’ Sydney H. Schanberg In Calcutta Says:
‘‘The flow of heavily guarded freight trains into Calcutta indicates that India has agreed to give the Guerrillas more arms, but it does not necessarily mean she is prepared to give them what they really want. Logistic support and air cover for a frontal push into East Pakistan.
South Asia Reporting 3
Seize Control Of A Chunk Of Territory
“There are many rumors about the possibility of another Indian-Pakistani war. A brief but bloody one was fought in 1965. But there is no strong evidence that it is imminent, and the troop movements may be elaborate psychological warfare —Schanberg says.
New York Times’ Malcolm M. Browne in Karachi comments on President Yahya Khan’s Tuesday night Broadcast announcing that a national assembly will be convened on December 27,1971, followed by elections to fill the seats vacated after the army moved to crush the East Pakistan autonomy movement. In fact, says Browne, only a handful of the remaining assemblymen not disqualified from their seats are expected to come forward. Many have fled to India.
Baltimore Sun’s Pran Sabharwal in New Delhi notes that President Yahya’s broadcast, which many observers expected would outline his plan for settlement of the crisis in East Pakistan, was silent on matters concerning reconciliation or political accommodation with the rebels.
Los Angeles Times’ William J. Drummond, in a dispatch in the Washington Post from New Delhi, says that about three- quarters of Yahya’s 35 minute address was devoted to accusations against India. He says Yahya’s claim that 200,000 refugees had returned to Pakistan after he declared a general amnesty is contrasted with a recent report by Rev. Peter B. Freling Huysen (Republican-New Jersey), who on his return from East Pakistan said he had not seen a single returnee in the camps the Pakistan government had set up to welcome back those who had fled.
An Associated Press dispatch from Rawalpindi in the Christian Science Monitor says that despite continuing resistance in Dacca, at major ports of Chittagong and Chalna, along the borders, and in the interior in Mymensingh and Munshiganj, the East Pakistani rebels have not claimed enough ground so that even their stoutest allies, the Indians, would recognize an independent Bangladesh. The ground is too soft now for vehicles or for troops on foot, the dispatch adds, but it will harden next month about the time relief agencies are making an immense effort to move food about to avert famine. “Virtually all parties,” it is reported, “fear that the scarcity of food will launch another large refugee exodus into India, intensifying the danger of open war between Pakistan and India.”
New York Times’ Sydney H. Schanberg In Calcutta Says:
‘‘The flow of heavily guarded freight trains into Calcutta indicates that India has agreed to give the Guerrillas more arms, but it does not necessarily mean she is prepared to give them what they really want. Logistic support and air cover for a frontal push into East Pakistan.
South Asia Reporting 3
Seize Control Of A Chunk Of Territory
“There are many rumors about the possibility of another Indian-Pakistani war. A brief but bloody one was fought in 1965. But there is no strong evidence that it is imminent, and the troop movements may be elaborate psychological warfare —Schanberg says.
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