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Fighting Follows Military Crackdown In East PakistanBy MYRON RELKINl) Associated Press WriterNEW DELHI lt;AP) - Pakistan's military government cracked down on rebellious East Pakistan today, and an Indian news agency reported fierce fighting.in Dacca, the provincialcapital, with heavy casualties.Radio Pakistan said the army had taken control again, all political activity was banned and an indefinite curfew imposed throughout the eastern province of 70 million people.The troops were ordered to shoot any curfew violators.The Indian government read-io said reports from East Pakistan indicated “civil war rapidly developing.Radio Pakistan said the army ction was taken because “the law and order situation had reached alamring proportions.A United News of India dispatch from Assam said fierce street fighting had broken out in Dacca and the port city of Chittagong. The report saidcasualties were believed heavy.Another report said Pakistani army troops had crossed into Indian territory in the remote northeastern State of Tripjura. But Indian army sources in Calcutta said the report was “incorrect.They said it probably originated from a misunderstanding.Monitors in Calcutta said they picked up an appeal from Sheik Mujibur Rahman, leader of the East Pakistani rebellion,“to resist the enemy forces at all costs. The monitors said they believed the message came from Chittagong or Khulna,Sheik Mujib’s message charged that the army had attacked two bases of the East Pakistan Rifles, the provincial militaia., at midnight, “killing a lot of unarmed people.Stern fighting is going on with the EPR in Dacca and the police force, the message continued, The people are fighting the enemy gallantly for the cause of the freedom of Bangladesh, the Bengali nationalist name for East Pakistan.Earlier today Pakistan’s military president, Gen. Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan, flew back to Karachi from Daccaafter a breakdown in negotiations with Sheik Mujibur Rahman.The president and the sheik had been talking for 11 days, seeking some arrangement that would satisfy Mujib’s insistence on autonomy for East Pakistan and still keep the geographically divided country from breaking apart politically.Although East Pakistan is the more populous sector, the West Pakistanis have always dominated the central government,the army and the country. When the military government finally held elections last December as a preliminary to civilian rule, Mujib’s Awami League won a majority in the National Assembly and at once began to press its demand forautonomy for East Pakistan.When Mujib and West Pakistani political leader Zulfiker Ali Bhutto could not come to terms, Yahya postponed the opening of the assembly. This touched off riots in East Pakistan, and Yahya ordered martial law in the province.After several days of riot suppression in which severalhundred persons were killed,Sheik Mujib launched a civil disobedience campaign with a successful general strike, the army adopted a passive stance the provincial government started taking orders from the sheik.Yahya flew around India to Dacca on March 15 to begin negotiating with Mujib. Bhutto followed. Recently there wereeonflictingreportsthatagree-ment was close, that it had been reached and that Mujib and Bhutto were still far apart.But as the talks continued without agreement, the situation in the East Pakistani cities deteriorated. There was firing two days ago when a mob tried to stop the deployment of troops brought in by ship from West Pakistan. On Thursday troops in the port of Chittagong opened fire on mobs, and unofficial reports said 35 persons were killed and 75 were wounded. Sheik Mujib called a general strike for Saturday and demanded that the president “order immediate cessation of such military operations. - ...... ......
Newspaper Details
Wellsville Daily Reporter
Wellsville, New York, US
Fri, Mar 26, 1971
Page 5
Full Page
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NA, 16 Aug 2019
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