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Indian'Pincers’ Close In On Dacca; Pakistan LeaderIs Determined to Fight On5y THK ASSOCIATED PRESS Indian troops were reported vithin 15 miles of the East 3akistani capital of Dacca Sun-lay night and advancing from hree directions.Senior Pakistani officers in Dacca predicted the assault on he city would begin by Tuesday they said their defenses lt;vere disorganized and crumbling, Rut Pakistan’s military :hief in the East, Lt. Gen. A.\, K. Niazi, was said to be determined not to surrender.A battalion of Indian para-[roopers was dropped somewhere north of Dacca on Saturday night. An Indian military spokesman said they advanced on the city Sunday night after beating off a counterattack during which they killed 23 Pakistani soldiers and took 12 prisoners.The spokesman was unable to say whether the paratroopers had linked up with another Indian column advancing from the Meghna River to the northeast. These troops were reported to have taken Narsingdi, 25 miles from the capital, and to be “now advancing fast towards Dacca.”The main drive on Dacca is from the southeast, and some reports placed it near Daud-kandi, 20 miles away.East Pakistani guerrillas in Dacca and its suburbs were said to be awaiting the signal for a general uprising, but so far no fighting was reported in the city itself.All 16 Pakistani F86 Sabre jets in the East have been destroyed, and there is little artillery and less than a brigade of 30,000 to defend the city.Elsewhere in East Pakistan, heavy fighting was reported around the army base at the southern river port of Khulna, about 125 miles southwest of Dacca; in the northern Dinaj-pur sector, and in the Hilli area in the northwest.Indian military spokesmen reported hundreds of Pakistanis were surrendering in the Com-illa sector, about 50 miles east of Dacca, but Pakistan denied this.A map in India’s Eastern military headquarters in Calcutta indicated about two thirds of East Pakistan is in Indian hands.As the Indians drew close to Dacca, three British planes on Sunday evacuated more than 400 foreigners from the- city in a tense four-hour airlift. They were flown to Calcutta, and among them were about 125 Americans.Some of the refugees arriving in Calcutta said some foreigners who wanted to leave were left behind for lack of space. They reported that one man clung to the door of the last plane and fell to the ground as the plane taxied slowly along the runway.Newsmen said among those who stayed in the city were 17 American officials, a few U.N. and Red Cross workers and missionaries and about 50newsmen, a third of them American.Indian planes resumed bombing the airport 15 minutes after a six-hour cease-fire for the evacuation.Indian authorities said unruly crowds in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, in West Pakistan, cut short an evacuation of foreigners during a 34-hour cease-fire there. The foreign ministry in New Delhi said seven planes managed to leave with an undisclosed number of foreigners, but seven others were stranded at the airport and one was forced to turn back without landing because of the mob.No major fighting was reported along the border between India and West Pakistan, but the Indians claimed capturing some Pakistani outposts in the Rajasthan desert and in Kashmir near Kargil. The mountain-top outposts near Kargil overlook India’s road link between the Kashmiri capital of Srinagar and Leh, in the northern part of the state.A Pakistani military spokesman said Pakistani planes bombed Indian air bases and army concentrations in the Punjab, Kashmir and Rajasthan areas Saturday night but gave no assessment of damage.Newsmen have been barred from most of the war fronts and have been unable to verify or disprove the conflicting claims. Rut correspondents who made unauthorized trips toward the Western front last week did not find signs of the heavy fighting claimed by the Pakistanis.A U.N. observer near the border in Kashmir said the frontwas “the quietest I have ever seen.” He also said he’d received the same report from a colleague farther up the line at Punch, where (he Pakistanis have claimed a major offensive is under way.In New York, the U.N. Security Council met Sunday night to consider an urgent proposal by the United States for a ceasefire appeal but recessed until today without taking any action. The Soviet Unio threatened to veto the U.S. resolution if the United States insisted on a vote Sunday.India said there could be a cease-fire and withdrawal of Indian forces only if Pakistan withdrew its forces from the East and reached a political settlement with (he Bengali rebels. Pakistan has accepted the cease-fire appeal made the General Assembly last Tuesday night, but India rejected it.President Nixon issued a statement accusing India of defying world opinion by rejecting the General Assembly cease-fire appeal.Prime Minister Indira Gandhi said efforts are being made to invoke Westdrn military pacts against India. Addressing a mass rally in New Delhi, she indicated she was referring to the Central Treaty Organization, the Southeast Treaty Organization or both. The United States and Pakistan are members of both alliances.Mrs. Gandhi accused “rich allies” of encouraging Pakistan to go to war and declared that India was fighting in East Pakistan to uphold freedom in the world.Cease-Fire EffortFacing Veto Again ?UNITED NATIONS, N.Y. lt;AP) — The Security Council heads for a vote today on a U.S. resolution for a cease-fire and troop withdrawal between India and Pakistan that is basically a copy of one the Soviet Union vetoed Dec. 5.Some diplomats predicted that if the measure was not amended, it would be vetoed again.“Everybody’s trying his hand at a compromise, said one delegate. Ambassador Abdulra-him Abby Farah of Somalia urged that the five permanent members of the council “show the world some leadership” and lead a search for unanimous agreement.The council met Sunday night at the request of U.S. Ambassador George Bush, who said the war continued “to rage unabated” despite the cease-fire resolution passed Tuesday by the General Assembly.“One of the parties, Pakistan, has accepted the resolution,” Bush wrote. “The other party, India, has not yet done so.”However, Secretary-GeneralU Thant sent the council a letter from Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of India saying, “There can be a cease-fire and withdrawal of India’s forces” on condition that Pakistan withdraw its forces from East Pakistan and reach a peaceful settlement with Bangla Desh, the independent state proclaimed by the Bengali rebels.Bush read a White House announcement that the United States was returning the issue to the council “in view of India’s defiance of world opinion.On the first round in the council, the Soviet Union vetoed two resolutions calling for cease-fire and withdrawal. The council then shifted the matter to the veto-free General Assembly, where the resolution passed with an overwhelming majority.
Newspaper Details
Wellsville Daily Reporter
Wellsville, New York, US
Mon, Dec 13, 1971
Page 5
Full Page
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NA, 16 Aug 2019
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