April 1971

 

April 1:

• New York Times reports heavy killing in Dhaka.

• Muslim League President Mumtaz Daultana:

Mujib’s demands were much as President Yahya had spelled out in his address to the nation, except that Yahya had not detailed Mujib’s views on an interim central government. Mujib had wanted Yahya to remain as President with no political government at the Center. Mujib was not “particularly concerned” about the Six Points and was willing to accept an interim arrangement based on the 1962 Constitution. However, he envisaged that the President would allow the Awami League to exercise full control over the affairs of East Pakistan, while the President would perform a coordinating role for inter-provincial affairs of the West Wing.

• On the “two-Assembly” proposal, Daultana said Mujib had been rather vague as to whether he really envisaged two separate assemblies or two subcommittees of the National Assembly.

• Mujib replied, and Daultana accepted his response as sincere, that while he was under great pressure to declare an independent Bangla Desh, he wanted to maintain Pakistan. Mujib was convinced the West Pakistan establishment as represented by Yahya and Bhutto would never permit Bengalis to rule Pakistan.

April 3:

• Background to the Thinning Out of the U.S. Presence in East Pakistan

April 4:

• The Pakistani ambassador to USA Agha Hilaly tells Assistant Secretary (USA) Sisco:

The army had to kill people in order to keep the country together.

• “The Slaughter in East Pakistan“, Editorial, The Times, London

“From the evidence available one must conclude that the aim was so to wipeout the Awami League leadership that it could no longer provide an effec­tive leadership for any resistance movement.”

April 6:

• Archer Blood, the US Consul General, officers of USAID and USIS sents the famous blood telegram to the Department of State condemning the failure of the US to denounce the suppression of democracy and the widespread attrocities.
• Converstaion between Nixon and Kissinger

April 7:

• “Foreign evacuees from East Pakistan tell of grim fight“, Sydney H. Schanberg, in New York Times.

April 8:

• Telegram From the Embassy in Pakistan to the Department of State:

“Two weeks after Yahya sent army into action, Pak military has control major cities in east, but Bengalis still hold major areas, especially in countryside. Bengali grievances now etched in blood. For present, Awami Leaguers leading resistance forces. If AL movement crumbles before it able consolidate position on ground, resistance movement likely to pass to more radical and left extremist groups such as Naxalites.
Bhutto is eager for power and he may be prepared make deal with military to play key, if not leading role, in new central government.”

April 10:

• The proclamation of independence order from Mujib Nagar (which was issued on April 10 shall be deemed to have come into effect from March 26, 1971).
• US Consul General Archer Blood’s telegram from Dhaka:

“It is, in our opinion, a minor miracle that no American was killed or injured by trigger-happy Pak troops fresh from killing and looting during the delay caused by our accetance of Govt. of Pakistan arrangements.”

April 11:

• Radio adress by Mr. Tajuddin Ahmed, Prime Minister, on behalf of the Government of Bangla Desh headed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, broadcast by Swadhin Bangla Desh Betar Kendra to the people of Bangladesh.

“Today a mighty army is being formed around the nucleus of professional soldiers, from the Bengal Regiment and E.P.R. who have rallied to the cause of the liberation struggle. These have been joined by the Police, Ansars and Mujahids and now by thou­sands of Awami League and other volunteers and are being trained into a fighting force ready to use the captured weapons from the defeated West Pakistani mercenaries and fresh arms being purchased from funds collected by our Bengali Brothers overseas.
In Chittagong and Noakhali we have commissioned Major Zia Rahman of the Bengal Regiment to take full command of operations. His heroic defence of Chittagong City against overwhelming odds, which included attacks from the air and sea, will take its place with the defence of Stalingrad in the annals of warfare.”

• Mujib is the Head of War Cabinet for Bangladesh.

April 12:

• CIA’s assessment about the present and prospective state of Pakistani civil war and role of India and other powers.

April 13:

“Chinese government holds that what is happening in Pakistan at present is purely internal affair of Pakistan, which can only be settled by Pakistan people themselves and which brooks no foreign interference whatsoever.” -Chou En Lai

April 14:

• “Rhetoric and Reality”, Editorial, Guardian, London

“Nobody can tell precisely what Yahya’s strategists whispered in his ear three weeks ago. They appear to have thought that cutting off the head would kill Bengali nationalism: precisely the reverse. They appear to have forgotten about world opinion. They appear, most insanely of all, to have ruled India out of the military calculations, so that the uncontrolled border and aid seeping in has them as much by the throat as proliferatin- diplomatic complications.”

• Liberation forces organized, General MAG Osmani made Chief in command

April 16:

• "Blood of Bangla Desh", New Statesman, London:

“If blood is the price of a people’s right to independence, Bangla Desh has overpaid. The Bengalis’ case for statehood may be hard to refute, but it is inconvenient to every one else. And yet, by an unusual combination of circum­stances, Bangla Desh has managed to obey all the rules. So, this may be the moment to consider what we, and other countries, mean by those splendid words which recur like a chorus in the United Nations charter: `the right to self-deter­mination of peoples’. Objectively or subjectively, in Chinese or English, in capi­talist or socialist jargon, it is hard to fault the East Bengalis, or justify their abandonment by all the major powers.”

• Memorandum from Senior Review Group meeting regarding Pakistan – American relations

April 17:

• The formation of Bangladesh Government: The First Bangladesh Government is Formed in exile. Awami League leaders convene in the district of Meherpur near the Indian border in Jessore, in the village of Baidyanathtala later renamed Mujibnagar, and affirm Sheikh Mujib’s March 26 proclamation for an independent Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is declared the President of the newly formed Republic, and Syed Nazrul Islam the Vice-President. Nazrul Islam assumes the reponsibilities of the Interim President, and appoints Tajuddin Ahmed as the Prime Minsiter to lead the provisional government.
• * Tajuddin Ahmed’s April 10, 1971 Proclamation
• * Members of The Mujibnagar Government
• More here: “Mujibnagar Day: A milestone in our liberation war”
• BANGLA DESH BECOMES A REPUBLIC - THE SUNDAY STATESMAN, New Delhi-April 18, 1971

April 18:

• Telegram from the Department of State to the embassy in Pakistan on the Provisional Government of Bangla Desh.

April 19:

• Minutes of Senior Review Group meeting regarding Pakistan.

“I agree I used to think that 30,000 men couldn’t possibly subdue 75 million, which I suppose is the Western way of looking at it. But if the 75 million don’t organize and don’t fight, the situation is different.” - Kissinger

April 20:

• Press Statement issued by Professor Muzaffar Ahamed, President of National Awami Party (NAP), Bangla Desh concerning full support to Bangla Desh Government:

“We declare in unequivocal terms that the government headed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is the only legally constituted government of Bangla Desh. And urge upon all the democratic and progressive nations of the world ‘to recognise the newly-born state and its government and to render all material help and moral support.”

April 21:

• Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani’s appeal to world leaders:

“I appeal to you. Mr. Secretary-General (UN), in the name of humanity to issue an immediate appeal to stop these brutal massacres of innocent people and to extend all possible help for the relief of the victims of dictator General Yahya Khan against military rule in Bangla Desh. I would welcome sending your observers inside Bangla Desh to see the nature and volume of looting, arson, mass killings and molestation of women by West Pakistani Army so that they can reveal the true picture of the sordid tale of Bangla Desh to the people of the world through the United Nations.”

• Justice Abu Sayeed Chowdhury made special representative of Bangladesh Government.

April 22:

• Press statement of Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani, President of National Awami Party, Bangladesh:

“The question is whether the people of the world and nation of the world will support the struggle of the 71 crore people of Bengal for independence or support the abominable conspiracy of the dictatorial exploiting ruling clique which is indulg­ing in mass murder.
Yahya, who is a Muslim himself, in the name of religion is mercilessly killing lakhs of Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Buddhists. His soldiers who say that they are Muslims are raping women, including Muslim women. Though Muslims themselves, they are destroying mosques. They kill Muslims who are offering prayers. What will the Muslim world do about this? Will they support the un-Islamic antihumanity abominable policy of Yahya? Or will they support the cause of truth, justice and love as preached by Islam ?”

April 27:

• Maulana Abdul Mannan, General Secretary of Muslim League issued a statement saying that “patriotic” (by which he meant Islamic minded) people imbued with the zeal of crusading (Jihad) had come forward to welcome the (maurauding) army of West Pakistan.

April 28:

• Tajuddin pleas for arms aid and thus help a new-born country to free itself from the clutches of a murderous army. (The Times of India- New Delhi-April 29, 1971)
• Henry Kissinger wrote in a secret memo to President Nixon:

The Pakistani army was poised to “retake” physical control of the major towns and that the ressistance was too poorly organised. He also said that the West Pakistanis were afraid that their economy would crash without emergency foreign aid. Till this day the country survives on foreign aid, like Bangladesh. Kissinger feared that Yahya might be forced to let East Pakistan (Bangladesh) go if this news leaked out.

• Kissinger recommended Give serious assistance to Yahya Khan to end the war and bring about an arrangement which would be transitional to autonomy in Bangladesh. He suggested sending aid to Pakistan so that later the US would be in a position to pressurize Pakistan into adhering to the arangement.
• The feedback from Nixon was an instruction not to squeeze Yahya Khan at the moment.

April 29:

• Memorandum from Haig to President Nixon on relief assistance for East Pakistani refugees in India:

According to the Indians, there are now over 500,000 East Pakistani refugees and they expect their numbers could eventually total one to two million. The magnitude of this problem-coming suddenly as it does-is beyond India’s limited resources.
It is recommended that you approve this $2.5 million modest program of assistance to East Pakistani refugees to be administered through appropriate international and voluntary agencies.*
* President Nixon initialed his approval of the recommendation on April 29. The Embassy in India was informed of the President’s decision in telegram 75479 to New Delhi, May 1.”

Press Quotes: April 1971

* International hearald tribune, April 2, 1971

DHAKA SAID TO BE BOMBED: ALL-OUT PAKISTAN OFFENSIVE REPORTED

New Delhi, April 1 (Reuters):- Indian press and radio reports said tonight that the Pakistan Army, Navy and Air Force had launched an all-out offensive to quell Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s resistance in East Pakistan.

All India radio and the Press Trust of India News agency, quoting reports reaching Calcutta said the drive followed the arrival of troops reinforcements from West Pakistan.

The radio said the Pakistan Air Force had bombed Dhaka and several other towns and that heavy fighting was going on for control of the capital.

* The Libyan Times, April 2, 1971

PAK. GOVT. SAYS INDIANS ARE NOW INFILTRATING TO HELP REBELS

London, (UPI)- The Pakistan government said yesterday that armed Indians were “inflitrating the border areas of East Pakistan.”

Radio Pakistan quoted a Foreign Office Spokesman as saying the Pakistan government was fully alive to the needs of the situation.

* The Daily Telegraph, April 3, 1971

MASS KILLINGS IN TERROR CAMPAIGN BY PAKISTAN ARMY

Killing on a mass scale are reported to be continuing in East Pakistan, indicating that the Army has shown no let-up in the terror campaign begun after President Yahya Khan gave it his “full authority’ to restore central Government control.

* Daily American, April 3, 1971

E. PAKISTAN FORCES STILL FIGHTING OVER WIDESPREAD AREAS

New Delhi, April 2 (AP)- Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s independence forces apparently were active in vast sections of the East Pakistan countryside today as the Pakistan government officially acknowledged that the province was not as normal as originally claimed.

For the first time since the civil war broke out between the West Pakistan dominated army and the Sheikh’s followers in the eastern wing, the government-controlled Radio Pakistan did not report normalcy throughout the province.

* The Observer, April 4, 1971

THE EXPLOSION OF A NATION

Whatever its military outcome, there will be no winners in the brutal conflict now going on East Pakistan. Nor will the war, which was so shortsighted started, damage only the interests of the two parties most immediately engaged in the conflict–Punjabi-dominated Pakistan and the Muslim Bengalis. It will almost certainly promote the risks of revolutionary warfare in a particularly explosive part of Asia, threatening India, Pakistan and Burma. And it will possibly draw both the Russians and the Chinese into this arena.

* Newsweek, April 5, 1971

PAKISTAN PLUNGES INTO CIVIL WAR

Until the very last moment, it looked as if the two proud men entrusted with Pakistan’s density might still be able to avert a head-on clash. From the East Pakistani capital of Dacca came optimistic reports that President Mohammed Yahya Khan and Mujib–as the leader of secessionist-minded East Pakistan is known-were about to reach a compromise. But then, with stunning suddenness, the pieces of Pakistan’s complicated political puzzle flew apart. In the East Pakistan cities of Rangpur and Chittagong, federal troops poured machine gun fire into mobs of demonstrating Bengali nationalists. Swiftly, Yahya issued orders to his army to “crush the movement and restore the full authority of the government”. In his turn, Mujib proclaimed East Pakistan the “Sovereign, independent People’s Republic of Bangladesh (Bengali Nation)”. And with that, Pakistan was plunge into civil war.

* Time April 5, 1971

PAKISTAN: TOPPLING OVER THE BRINK

With the awesome fury of a cyclone off the Bay of Bengal, civil war swept across East Pakistan last week. In city after crowded, dusty city the army turned its guns on mobs of rioting civilians, Casualties mounted into the thousands. Through the full toll remained uncertain because of censorship and disorganization in the world’s most densely populated corner (1,400 people per sq. mi.) at week’s end some estimates had 2,000 dead. Even if President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan is prepared to accept casualties of geometrically greater magnitude, the outcome is likely to be the final breakup of East Pakistan and the painful birth of a new nation named Bangladesh (Bengal State).

* The daily telegraph, April 5, 1971

INDIA CANNOT STAND SILENT ON BENGAL, SAYS MRS.GANDHI

India could not remain a silent spectator of events in East Pakistan, Mrs. Gandhi, Prime Minister, said yesterday, But she called on Indians to keep emotions in check.

* International herald tribune, April 5, 1971

PAKISTAN CHARGES INDIANS ARE GIVING ARMS TO REBEL

New Delhi, April 4 (NYT)- Radio Pakistan has charged that nine Indian “vehicles’ loaded with arms and ammunition crossed the East Pakistan border and were stopped by West Pakistani troops.

* International herald tribune, April 6, 1971

PAKISTANI ARMY IN BIG CITIES : REBELS HOLD MUCH OF EAST PAKISTAN

Chuadanga, East Pakistan, April 5 (AP)- Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman’s independence forces held on today to stretches of East Pakistani territory along the border with India, vowing to fight until they defeat the Pakistan Army.

* The daily telegraph, April 8, 1971

USE OF U.S. JETS AND TANKS IN BENGAL WORRIES NIXON

The American Government, as chief supplier of arms to Pakistan, has made it’s first move to express concern over reports that American military equipment is being used against civilians in East Pakistan.

The Assistant Secretary of State, Mr. Joseph Sisco, is reported to have voiced this feeling in a meeting with the Pakistan Ambassador, Mr. Agha Hilaly.

* Daily American, April 9, 1971

PAKISTAN SAYS INDIA MASSES FOR POSSIBLE INTERVENTION

New Delhi, April 8 (AP)- The Pakistan government said yesterday that the Indian armed forces were preparing ‘for possible operations’ in East Pakistan.

* Daily American, April 9, 1971

REBELS CONTUNUE TO GAIN IN EAST PAKISTAN

New Delhi, April 9 (UPI)- The Bengali secessionist forces have claimed almost complete control of the western part of East Pakistan, reports in the Indian Press said today.

* International herald tribune, April 12, 1971

CONCERN GROWS IN CONGRESS OVER ARMS AID TO PAKISTAN

Washington, April 11 (NYT)- The United States is continuing to ship to Pakistan ammunition and spare for weapons under a program begun in 1967.

There is growing evidence that the Pakistani Army has been using American tanks, jet aircraft and other equipment in its attempt to crush the movement for autonomy by the predominantly Bengali citizens in the eastern half of the country.

* Time, April 12, 1971

PAKISTAN: ROUND 1 TO THE WEST

“There is no doubt” said a foreign diplomat in East Pakistan last week, “that the word massacre applies to the situation.” Said another Western official: “It’s a veritable bloodbath. The troops have been utterly merciless.”

As Round I of Pakistan’s bitter civil war ended last week, the winner– predictably was the tough West Pakistan army, which has a powerful force of 80,000 Punjabi and Pathan soldiers on duty in rebellious East Pakistan. Reports coming out of the East via diplomats, frightened refugees and clandestine broadcasts varied widely. Estimates of the total dead ran as high as 300,000. A figure of 10,000 to 15,000 is accepted by several Western governments, but no one can be sure of anything except that untold thousands perished.

Mass Graves

Opposed only by bands of Bengali peasants armed with stones and bamboo sticks, tanks rolled through Dacca, the East’s capital, blowing houses to bits. At the University, soldiers slaughtered students inside the British Council building. “It was like Chengis Khan,” said a shocked Western official who witnessed the scene. Near Dacca’s marketplace, Urdu-speaking government soldiers ordered Bengali-speaking townspeople to surrender, then gunned them down when they failed to comply. Bodies lay in mass graves at the University, in the old city, and near the municipal dump.

* The Time, April 13, 1971

WITNESS TO A MASSACRE IN EAST PAKISTAN

An Account of Three Days of Carnage at Dacca University:

A student who survived the three days of carnage at Dacca University last month has given an eyewitness account of how the West Pakistani Army systematically shot down students and lecturers who were trapped in the encircled dormitories.

“I jumped out of the dormitory window and hid in the top of the tree for the night”, he told a science lecturer at Notre Dame College, Dacca, who has now sought asylum in Calcutta.

“The firing continued. In the morning there was a lull and I saw some Pakistani soldiers giving orders to the terrified bearers. After a while I saw the bearer dragging the bodies of students and lecturers towards the football ground.

“They were ordered to dig a huge grave. The Pakistani soldiers told the eight or nine bearers to sit down. After a while they were ordered to stand and line up near the grave. The guns fired again and they fell next to the bodies of my friends.”

* International Herald Tribune, April 13, 1971

EAST PAKISTAN PROCLAIMS ITS INDEPENDENCE

New Delhi, April 12 (AP)- An independent republic of Bangladesh (Bengali Nation) was formed tonight, with Sheikh Mujibur Rhaman as president of the secessionist province of East Pakistan, Indian radio monitors reported.

They said that announcement of the government’s formation was heard on a newly set-up Free Bangladesh Radio, which had gone off the air two weeks ago, a few days after the civil war in the province broke out between the Sheikh’s followers and the West Pakistan-dominated army.

Both of Indian’s national news agencies carried the announcement.

The Free Bangladesh Radio also was quoted as announcing that Tajuddin ahmed, a close associate of Sheikh Mujib, would be the prime minister and foreign minister.

Syed Nazrul Islam, Vice-President of the Sheikh’s outlawed Awami League, was named vice-president Bangladesh, the radio added.

* The Times, April 14, 1971

EAST BENGAL RESISTANCE CRUMBLES AS TROOPS ADVANCE

Chuadanga, East Pakistan, April 13, Armed resistance in much of East Bengal was crumbling fast today before the advancing columns of President Yahya Khan’s Pakistan Army.

* International Herald Tribune, April 15, 1971

REBELS ASK INTERNATIONAL AID: PAKISTAN ARMY PUSHES DRIVE AS THOUSANDS FLEE TO INDIA

New Delhi, April 14 (AP)- East Pakistan independence forces appealed today to other countries for arms and ammunition as the Pakistan Army intensified a two-pronged offensive to crush the three-week old rebellion in the secessionist province.

Meanwhile, refugees from East Pakistan poured into India today, fleeing from the advancing Pakistan Army troops. ‘What was a trickle has become a stream’, said a high Indian official, describing the influx of refugees.

* The Daily Telegraph, April 17, 1971

PAKISTAN ARMY TAKES BANGLADESH CAPITAL

Pakistan Government forces last night took the town of Chuadanga, proclaimed two weeks ago as the provisional capital of Bangladesh, the breakaway eastern province.

The Observer, April 18, 1971

THE FADING DREAM OF BANGLADESH

Calcutta, 17 April- Troops from West Pakistan loyal to General Yahya Khan, the country’s military ruler are now rolling up the map of Bangladesh. They have ended, for the time being, Bengali dreams of secession and freedom in East Pakistan.

In spite of their passionate hopes, the unwar like Bengalis have been no match for the Frontier soldiers from the West- traditionally the best and most ruthless warriors on the Indian subcontinent.

But after a 200-mile journey through the tragic landscape of Bangladesh. I am sure that from now on President Yahya will hold his eastern province only by force and that his rule will be harassed by continual resistance, however, ill-organised and futile it may be. The Bengalis will never forget or forgive the happening of the past few weeks.

* Wall Street Journal, April 21, 1971

A FLICKERING CAUSE

East Pakistanis pledge to fight to the death but mostly they don’t…. They lack Arms, Leadership to Prolong their Revolt; No Aid by other Nations.

* International Herald Tribune, April 24-25, 1971

BANGLADESH ISSUES APPEAL FOR RECOGNITION AS A NATION

New Delhi, April 23 (Reuters)- The so-called Bangladesh (Bengali Nation) government in East Pakistan tonight sent an appeal to world governments for recognition as the Pakistan Army gained more ground in its push against the secessionist regime’s forces.

* The Sunday Times, April 25, 1971

SPECTER OF FAMINE OVER EAST BENGAL

An appalling picture of widespread devastation throughout the country is given by the latest reports reaching The Sunday Times from East Bengal. The vast, stricken area will take many weeks to make even a partial recovery from its wounds, and ‘normality’ in any pre-March, 1971, sense can probably never be restored.

* Newsweek, April 26, 1971

PAKISTAN: VULTURES AND WILD DOGS

For more than two weeks, the Pakistani Army of President Mohammad Yahya Khan had played curious waiting game. Siting tight in their well-fortified cantonments in the rebellious eastern wing of their divided country, the federal troops virtually ignored the taunts of the secessionist ‘liberation forces’. But then early last week, the lull came to a sudden end. Springing from their strong-holds the Punjabi regulars simultaneously staged more than a dozen devastating attacks from one end of beleaguered East Pakistan to the other. And when the blitzkrieg was over, it was clear that the less-than-one-month-old Republic of Bangladesh (Bengali Nation) had been delivered a stunning blow.

* The Libyan Times, April 27, 1971

INDO-PAKISTAN RELATIONS KEEP MOVING TO THE WORST BY THE HOUR

Moscow, (AP, UPI) – M. Arshad Hussein, special envoy of Pakistani President Mohamed Yahya Khan met yesterday with Soviet Preminer Alexei Kosygin for a private conference on undisclosed subjects.

An official announcement said Pakistani Ambassador to Moscow also took part in the meeting.

Arshad Hussein arrived in Moscow about five days ago, apparently to serve as Yahya Khan’s spokesman with Soviet Officials about the trouble in East Pakistan and the explosive India-Pakistani climate.

April 1971
4/1/1971	New York Times	Appaling tragedy in East Pakistan
4/3/1971	New York Times	A resistance fighter tells his story
4/4/1971	The Sunday Times	Nicholas Tomalin witnesses a massacre
4/4/1971	New York Times	Britons tell of killings
4/4/1971	New York Times	EDITORIAL: ‘All part of a game’ – a grim and deadly one
4/4/1971	Sunday Telegraph	Starvation threat to E. Pakistan
4/5/1971	Newsweek	Pakistan plunges into civil war
4/7/1971	New York Times	EDITORIAL: Bloodbath in Bengal
4/9/1971	New York Times	Families flee town
4/13/1971	The Guardian	PICTURE: Refugees flee Kushtia
4/14/1971	The Guardian	EDITORIAL: Rhetoric and reality
4/14/1971	New York Times	Bengalis form a cabinet as the bloodshed goes on
4/16/1971	CBS Evening News	East Pakistani Refugees Fleeing to India
4/17/1971	New York Times	Hours of terror for a trapped Bengali officer
4/18/1971	New York Times	In this case, war is hell for one side only
4/18/1971	New York Times	Keating report stirs Pakistanis
4/19/1971	Newsweek	Pakistan: Reign of Terror
4/25/1971	New York Times	Refugees worry Indian officials
4/26/1971	Newsweek	Pakistan: Vultures and Wild Dogs