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Army Controls DaccaBut East PakastanlHolding OutJoe Schlesinger, a CanadianBy MYRON BI^LKIND Associated Press WriterNEW DELHI lt;AP) - East Pakistani rebels were reported holding put at various points today, but the West Pakistani army appeared to be in control of Dacca, the provincial capital.The rebel radio claimed that fighting was continuing in Dacca, in the port city of Chittagong and in the towns of Rang-pur and Khulna. But the government’s Radio Pakistan said the situation in the eastern province was returning to normal, with all government employes returning to work today, banks reopening and the curfew in Dacca lifted from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.The rebel and government radios were the only remaining sources of news from the Bengali half of Pakistan since all foreign correspondents were expelled from Dacca over theweekend. But Associated Pressm *correspondent Arnold Zeitlin reported on his arrival in Ceylon Sunday from Dacca that the government troops were in full control of the provincial capital.Zeitlin said between 5,000 and 7,000 persons were believed killed in fighting Friday and Saturday. Sheik Mujibur Rahman, the Bengali political leader who had been campaigning to end West Pakistan’s control of the eastern province, was reported in army custody. Thousands fled the city, Zeitlin said.Broadcasting Corp. correspondent, also reported that “the army was clearly in control” when he left Dacca early Saturday.“If there is Shy challenge to the army’s rule,” Schlesinger said in Vancouver, “it’s probably coming from the small towns in the countryside and it may take years before the Bengali army can even hope to challenge the Pakistani army successfully.”would die out, but “I don’t think they have enough arms at the moment to do anything about the army’s power.”phically divided from the 50government and the army and thus controlled the country.cember, the Bengali nationalists headed by Sheik Mujib vowed to write a new constitution providing provincial autonomy.The sheik launched a successful campaign of civil disobedience in Dacca early this month and in effect took over the provincial government. Although martial law had been proclaimed, the army held back while President Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan negotiated in Dacca with Mujib and West Pakistan’s chief politicalRadio Pakistan announced a martial law order formally banning the league, which President Yahya had outlawedWhen the Awami League won a majority in the new NationalAssembly in elections in De-'”in a broadcast Friday night.He said East Pakistani support of Sheik Mujib’s Awami League, the province’s political party, “is absoltely unbelie-veable.”He said he did not think the “thirst for Bengali independence or Bengali autonomy”leader, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. But the president flew back to Karachi Friday, and military command moved its troops1 from West Pakistan out of their barracks to smash the nationalist rebellion.The 70 million Bengalis of East Pakistan are geogra- way into the city.million Punjabis and other peoples of West Pakistan by more than 1,000 miles of Indian territory; the chief link between Desh—the Bengali nation—“un-them is their common Moslem der the leadership of Sheikreligion. Although the East Pa- Mujibur Rahman.” The broad-kistanis outnumber the West cast said Maj. Zia was head of Pakistanis, the latter have al- the Liberation Army of the Aw-ways dominated the central ami League.Sheik Mujib’s Free Bengali Radio said that the Pakistani ,navy shelled Chittagong Sunday night, and troops who had arrived by ship from Karachi three days ago finally disembarked but had to fight theirAnother rebel broadcast said Maj. Zia Khan had been named temporary yead of a provisional government of Bangla
Newspaper Details
Wellsville Daily Reporter
Wellsville, New York, US
Mon, Mar 29, 1971
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NA, 16 Aug 2019
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