U.S. NEWS AND WORLD PRESS
U.S. NEWS AND WORLD PRESS THE 24th NOVEMBER, 1971
N.Y. Times M]alcolm M. Browne reports from, Karachi on a Pakistani charge Monday night that India had launched an all-out military offensive against her without declaration of war. A Pakistani radio report said there was heavy fighting all along East Pakistan’s borders with India and admitted that Indian forces had “made some dents in our territory,” Browne said.
Times’ Sydney H. Schanberg reports from Calcutta : “A major offensive by Bengali insurgents is apparently under way against the Pakistani army on the western side of East Pakistan, according to reports reaching Calcutta. Capture of the city of Jessore seems to be a key initial objective, and heavy fighting was reported not far from the city, which is about 20 miles inside East Pakistan and 85 miles southwest of. the regional capital, Dacca.
Baltimore Sun’s John E. Woodruff reports from Calcutta that “Indian-supported Bengali guerrillas” were moving slow-ing forward in what appeared to be their first large-unit drive against the Pak army since it ousted the guerrillas from East Pakistani cities last spring. Woodruff says, “only sketchy reports are available, due to India’s thorough control of the movements of foreign nationals in the affected border areas.”
A Times special from the United Nations quotes a Pakistani delegation spokesman charging that 12 Indian divisions were involved in a four-pronged attack on Pakistani forces Monday night. The spokesman was quoted saying that two of the Indian divisions involved were formerly deployed on the Indian-Chinese border and two others were comprised of mountain troops from Nagaland. Indian infantry was being supported by a tank regiment, and 38 battalions of Indian border -security forces were also involved in the operation, said the spokesman who reported his information came by telephone from Islamabad.
Washington Post’s Stanley Karnow predicts difficult times ahead for the United States, the Soviet Union and Communist China in the wake of the deteriorating situation in South Asia. Each of them, he says, “is anxious to avert a full-scale war in the region. Yet none appears to have the authority or influence to stem a trend that currently seems to be moving, through a momentum of its own.”
Washington Star’s Henry Bradsher finds evidence that political, diplomatic, and economic pressures are leading the Pakistani leaders to re-examine their position and think in terms of giving up East Pakistan. This is no easy problem Mr. Bradsher observes, but speed in solving it is essential because of the Indians impatience, as shown by their step-up of military pressure.
Says Bradsher: “President A.M. Yahya Khan has to move slowly in any change of policy in order to convince his army of the need for change.
“Yahya Khan is aware of the economic and diplomatic pressures. But his army officers see only the military situation, and it is more likely to make them defiant than compressing. Any potential compromise worked out by Yahya Khan could be endangered by their defiance, with his own position at risk”.
Columnist Max Lerner whose views appear in a number of newspaper does not consider President Yahya’s position hopeless.
Lerner says: “If he were to free the Awami leader, Sheikh Mujibur, and if Mujibur were to recall the refugees from India under a promise of safety from the Government, there- might be a new start. Even that may be too late, since the leadership may, by now, have moved beyond Mujibur, and may be more bitter and extremist, but the effort would be worth making. (Nothing short of it can work, because the Indian Government is compelled by the religious-political in-tensity of its own people to support the refugee and their cause).
Richard Egan of the National Observer (Washington) points out that Russia and China are urging caution to their- allies, but he envisions one dread possibility: “Both currently are pursuing international policies that could be damaged by the involvement in a conflict between India and Pakistan. The Russians are waging a diplomatic “peace offensive.” And the Chinese are expanding their diplomatic contacts with the United States and other nations they have been quarreling with.
“Nevertheless. the possibility of Chinese -intervention
might arise if Pakistan’s existence as an independent state is threatened and any such move by China raises the likelihood of Russia stepping in on India’s side.
N.Y. Times M]alcolm M. Browne reports from, Karachi on a Pakistani charge Monday night that India had launched an all-out military offensive against her without declaration of war. A Pakistani radio report said there was heavy fighting all along East Pakistan’s borders with India and admitted that Indian forces had “made some dents in our territory,” Browne said.
Times’ Sydney H. Schanberg reports from Calcutta : “A major offensive by Bengali insurgents is apparently under way against the Pakistani army on the western side of East Pakistan, according to reports reaching Calcutta. Capture of the city of Jessore seems to be a key initial objective, and heavy fighting was reported not far from the city, which is about 20 miles inside East Pakistan and 85 miles southwest of. the regional capital, Dacca.
Baltimore Sun’s John E. Woodruff reports from Calcutta that “Indian-supported Bengali guerrillas” were moving slow-ing forward in what appeared to be their first large-unit drive against the Pak army since it ousted the guerrillas from East Pakistani cities last spring. Woodruff says, “only sketchy reports are available, due to India’s thorough control of the movements of foreign nationals in the affected border areas.”
A Times special from the United Nations quotes a Pakistani delegation spokesman charging that 12 Indian divisions were involved in a four-pronged attack on Pakistani forces Monday night. The spokesman was quoted saying that two of the Indian divisions involved were formerly deployed on the Indian-Chinese border and two others were comprised of mountain troops from Nagaland. Indian infantry was being supported by a tank regiment, and 38 battalions of Indian border -security forces were also involved in the operation, said the spokesman who reported his information came by telephone from Islamabad.
Washington Post’s Stanley Karnow predicts difficult times ahead for the United States, the Soviet Union and Communist China in the wake of the deteriorating situation in South Asia. Each of them, he says, “is anxious to avert a full-scale war in the region. Yet none appears to have the authority or influence to stem a trend that currently seems to be moving, through a momentum of its own.”
Washington Star’s Henry Bradsher finds evidence that political, diplomatic, and economic pressures are leading the Pakistani leaders to re-examine their position and think in terms of giving up East Pakistan. This is no easy problem Mr. Bradsher observes, but speed in solving it is essential because of the Indians impatience, as shown by their step-up of military pressure.
Says Bradsher: “President A.M. Yahya Khan has to move slowly in any change of policy in order to convince his army of the need for change.
“Yahya Khan is aware of the economic and diplomatic pressures. But his army officers see only the military situation, and it is more likely to make them defiant than compressing. Any potential compromise worked out by Yahya Khan could be endangered by their defiance, with his own position at risk”.
Columnist Max Lerner whose views appear in a number of newspaper does not consider President Yahya’s position hopeless.
Lerner says: “If he were to free the Awami leader, Sheikh Mujibur, and if Mujibur were to recall the refugees from India under a promise of safety from the Government, there- might be a new start. Even that may be too late, since the leadership may, by now, have moved beyond Mujibur, and may be more bitter and extremist, but the effort would be worth making. (Nothing short of it can work, because the Indian Government is compelled by the religious-political in-tensity of its own people to support the refugee and their cause).
Richard Egan of the National Observer (Washington) points out that Russia and China are urging caution to their- allies, but he envisions one dread possibility: “Both currently are pursuing international policies that could be damaged by the involvement in a conflict between India and Pakistan. The Russians are waging a diplomatic “peace offensive.” And the Chinese are expanding their diplomatic contacts with the United States and other nations they have been quarreling with.
“Nevertheless. the possibility of Chinese -intervention
might arise if Pakistan’s existence as an independent state is threatened and any such move by China raises the likelihood of Russia stepping in on India’s side.
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