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Artillery Opens Fire Upon Dacca As Indian Army Continues AdvanceBy TIUC ASSOCIATED PRESSIndian artillery opened fire today on military targets in Dacca, the East Pakistan capital and the last redoOt of the Pakistan army, an India# military spokesman said. Defense Minister Jagjivan Ram told India’s Parliament, “It is our hope that the process of liberating Bangla Desh will be completed soon.” Bangla Desh is the name given East Pakistan by the secessionists.Lt. Gen. A. K. Niazi, Pakistan's commander in East Pakistan, vowed to fight to the last man. Foreign correspondents in Dacca reported, however, that his staff was in a state of “total depression.”The army spokesman in Calcutta refused to give any details about how far Indian troops are from Dacca.The military briefing mapshowed no advances in the past 24 hours in the arrows designating Indian troop positions—last reported to be only six miles from the capital.The spokesman said, however, that a three-pronged in-fantry-armor-artillery attack on Dacca “is progressing well.”“All three advances are within artillery range of Dacca,” added the spokesman. He said that the heaviest artillery being used by the Indians are 130mm guns with a range of a little more than 15 miles.An Indian government spokesman in New Delhi reported the advances were on Dacca are coming from the north, northwest and east.Radio Pakistan continued to claim that the Pakistani troops were putting up stiff resistance. But the political advser to East Pakistani’s military government and others in Dacca reportedly tried to arrange a cease-fire with the Indians. There were indications that President Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan of Pakistan atfirst agreed to the proposal, then changed his mind and ordered Niazi to carry on the battle. 'Ram said Indian forces on the western front are “well entrenched in their defensive positions and there is now no. threat to our security in that region.”Repeated Pakistani offensive thrusts in the states of Rajasthan and Punjab have been repulsed with heavy losses, he declared.The defense minister said Indian forces have suffered more than 8,500 casualties in 10 days of fighting, including 1,078 killed, 5,025 wounded and 1,662 missing.“I have no figures for Pakistani losses, but I know they are much higher than ours,” Ram said, adding that Indian forces have captured more than 4,000 Pakistani troops and more than 4,000 para-military forces, most of them in East Pakistan.He claimed 83 Pakistani planes shot down and admitted the loss of 41 Indian warplanes, along with nirte pilots and three navigators.Ram also reported that 18 officers and 173 sailors were missing in the sinking two days ago of the Indian frigate Khukri, which was hit by Pakistani fire in the Arabian sea.Gen. Sam Manekshaw, the Indian chief of staff, sent his third surrender appeal in a week to Niazi on Monday, and Niazi rejected it,“My forces are closing in around Dacca and your garrison is within range of our artillery,” Manekshaw’s message said. “It should be the duty of all to prevent useless shedding of innocent blood.”The city was unusually calm. There were no air raids, no guerrilla bombings and practically no small arms fire.The East Pakistani rebels, (he Mukti Bahini, apparentlywere lying low on orders. The rebels’ Bangla Desh radio broadcast appeals to maintain law and order and not take revenge on Pakistani troops.The banks of the Little Ganges River south of Dacca were jammed with refugees trying to flee. Ferrymen raised prices and many were left behind, either because they couldn’t afford tickets or because there wasn’t enough space.Indian military spokesmen said the Pakistanis were putting up • stiff resistance at Khulna, an important river port in the southwestern delta region.On the western front, Pakistani spokesmen claimed intense fighting in the Chhamb district of southern Kashmir. But India said there was a lull in the fighting there and that Indian positions established in bloody fighting last week were still solid.Newsmen were barred from most of the war fronts and were unable to verify or disprove the conflicting claims.In other developments:Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Kuznetsov of the Soviet Union, India’s chief supporter in the conflict, flew back to Moscow after talks with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and other officials in New Delhi. An Indian spokesman said they exchanged “views and ideas on the war.The British government announced it will continue to ship India arms contracted for before the war.The Soviet Union vetoed for the third time in nine days a cease-fire and troop withdrawal resolution introduced in the U.N. Security Council. Italy and Japan submitted a new resolution calling for a ceasefire, a disengagement of Indian and Pakistani forces instead of a withdrawal, and negotiations for a comprehensive political settlement in East Pakistan.
Newspaper Details
Wellsville Daily Reporter
Wellsville, New York, US
Tue, Dec 14, 1971
Page 10
Full Page
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NA, 16 Aug 2019
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