In the Name of Pakistan

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjv3sj6A6qnx1UOoDTbEtyj5IasGQp5pXyoSbb0079I8UF0KfJiiXkPAqWfqPikHZi5D7BYxutgKrMy5J39THywiRb9bqp03Kyx-cBj1Ivuy4cxYOqAYfku7gCEX9GPN9sFHjZCFw7mc/s1600/vo71w1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjv3sj6A6qnx1UOoDTbEtyj5IasGQp5pXyoSbb0079I8UF0KfJiiXkPAqWfqPikHZi5D7BYxutgKrMy5J39THywiRb9bqp03Kyx-cBj1Ivuy4cxYOqAYfku7gCEX9GPN9sFHjZCFw7mc/s640/vo71w1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr> </tbody></table> <div style="text-align: justify;"> New York Times, USA, March 31, 1971<br /> <br /> Acting "in the name of God and a united Pakistan," forces of the West Pakistan-dominated military government of President Yahya Khan have dishonored both by their ruthless crackdown on the Bengali majority seeking a large measure of autonomy for their homeland in the<br /> country's eastern region.<br /> <br /> Any appearance of "unity" achieved by vicious military attacks on unarmed civilians of the kind described by correspondents and diplomats who were in the East Pakistani capital of Dacca when the crackdown began cannot possibly have real meaning or enduring effect. The brutality of the Western troops toward their "Moslem brothers" in the East tends only to confirm the argument of the outright secessionists in Bengal who argue that differences between East and West Pakistan are irreconcilable.<br /> <br /> Although this is a domestic dispute, the struggle in Pakistan could have dangerous international consequences, especially if a prolonged period· of guerrilla warfare ensues. The least the world community can do<br /> at this stage is to call on President Yahya, in the name of humanity and common sense, to stop the bloodshed and restore Sheik Mujibur Rahman to his rightful role as elected leader of his people.<br /> <br /> The United States, having played a major role in training and equipping Pakistan's armed forces, has a special obligation now to withhold any military aid to the Yahya Government. Economic assistance should be continued only on condition that a. major portion be used to help bind up East Pakistan's grievous wounds.</div> </div>

In the Name of Pakistan

New York Times, USA, March 31, 1971 Acting "in the name of God and a united Pakistan," forces of the West Pakistan-dominat...

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TOLL CALLED HIGH: Deaths Put at 10,000 - Radio Says Army is in Control

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjv3sj6A6qnx1UOoDTbEtyj5IasGQp5pXyoSbb0079I8UF0KfJiiXkPAqWfqPikHZi5D7BYxutgKrMy5J39THywiRb9bqp03Kyx-cBj1Ivuy4cxYOqAYfku7gCEX9GPN9sFHjZCFw7mc/s1600/vo71w1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjv3sj6A6qnx1UOoDTbEtyj5IasGQp5pXyoSbb0079I8UF0KfJiiXkPAqWfqPikHZi5D7BYxutgKrMy5J39THywiRb9bqp03Kyx-cBj1Ivuy4cxYOqAYfku7gCEX9GPN9sFHjZCFw7mc/s640/vo71w1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td></tr> </tbody></table> Special to The New York Times<br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> NEW DELHI, March 27<br /><br />Pakistani Governn1ont troops supported by artillery and air force jets were reported battling on many fronts today with the forces of Sheik Mujibur Rahman, the nationalist leader of East Pakistan.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />According to one Indian press report, the Pakistani Army has killed more than 10,000 people, most of them by artillery and tank fire. The air force was reported to have bombed Comilla, A town of 50,000 people, which is said to be under the control of Sheik Mujib's forces.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />Another Indian press report quoted Sheik Mujib's clandestine radio as having said that Lieut. Gen. Tikka Khan, the martial-law administrator of East Pakistan, had been assassinated. Other reports said that the general had been seriously injured, but not killed by a shot.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <h3> Attacked at House</h3> <br />He was reportedly attacked at his house in Dacca this afternoon by members of Sheik Mujib's Awami League.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />[The official Pakistan radio was reported by United Press International to have said that the army was in full control in East Pakistan and that reports of fighting by some foreign news agencies were without foundation.]</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />The Awami League volunteers were reported to have been joined in the over-all fighting by the East Pakistan Rifles, the provincial militia, and East Pakistani policemen. They were reported to be battling central Government troops in many towns and cities, including area and the barracks of the East Pakistan Rifles, a paramilitary force made up of Bengalis, the predominant people of East Pakistan.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />Some fires were still burning and sporadic shooting was continuing early this morning when the 35 foreign newsmen were expelled from Dacca. "My God, my God," said a Pakistani student watching from a hotel window, trying to keep back tears, "they're killing them. They're slaughtering them."</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /><h3> Homes Set Afire</h3> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />On the ride to the airport in a guarded convoy of military trucks, the newsmen saw troops setting fire to the thatched roof houses of poor Bengalis who Jive along the road and who are same of the stanchest supporters of the self-rule movement.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />"Bangla Desh is finished, many people are killed," a West Pakistani soldier at the airport said in a matter-of-fact tone. Bangla Desh, or Bengal Nation, was the name adopted by leaders of the autonomy movement in East Pakistan.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />When the military action began on Thursday night, soldiers, shouting victory slogans, set ablaze large areas in many parts of Dacca after first shooting into the buildings with automatic rifles, machine guns and recoilless rifles.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />The firing started at about -11 P.M., but at first it was intermittent and it was not clear that a full-scale military operation had started.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />When the foreign newsmen, all of whom were staying at the Intercontinental Hotel, tried to go outside to find out what was happening, they were forced back in by a heavily reinforced army guard and told they would be shot if they tried to step out of the building.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />Telephone calls to friends and news sources in the city, brought reports of scattered shooting and civilians' putting up barricades in the streets. At 12:20 A.M., a call to the home of Sheik Mujibur Rahman, leader of the independent movement, was answered by a man who said he was an official of the Awami League, Sheik Mujib's political party.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />"The situation is very bad," he said, and he added that Sheik Mujib was in his bedroom. The Pakistan radio reported later that Sheik Mujib was arrested at 1:30 A.M. The report said that five of his colleagues were also arrested.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;">  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The firing began to increase in the vicinity of the hotel and at 1 A.M. at seemed to become very heavy all over the city. Artillery opened up, but it was difficult to tell where the shells were landing. Some, however, seemed to be falling in the areas of the university and the East Pakistan Rifles headquarters.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />At 1:25 A.M. the phones at the hotel went dead, shut down by order of the military guard outside. The lights on the telegraph office tower went our at about the same time. Heavy automatic-weapons fire could be heard in the university area and other districts.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;">  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Occasionally there would be an answering report, perhaps from one of the old rifles that some of the militant students were reported to have been collecting. But at no time was there any significant answering fire.<br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <h3> Attack at Shopping Bazaar</h3>  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> At about 2:15 A.M. a jeep with a mounted machine gun drove by the front of the hotel, turned left on Mymensingh Road and stopped in front of a shopping bazaar, with its gun trained on the second floor windows. A dozen soldiers on foot joined those on the jeep, one group carrying some kind of rocket piece.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />From the second floor suddenly came cries of "Bengalis, unite!" and the soldiers opened fire with the machine gun, spraying the building indiscriminately. The soldiers then started moving down an alley adjacent to the bazaar, firing into, and then overturning cars that were blocking the alley. The scene was lit by the soldiers' flashlights, and to the newsmen watching from the 10th floor of the Intercontinental, it was an incredible drama.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />As the soldiers were firing down the alley, a group of about 15 or 20 young Bengalis started along the road toward them, from a bout 200 yards off. They were shouting in defiance at the soldiers, but they seamed unarmed and their hands appeared empty.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />The machine gun on the jeep swung around toward them and opened fire. Soldiers with automatic rifles joined in. The Bengali youths scattered into the shadows on both sides of the road. It was impossible to tell whether any had been wounded or killed.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />The soldiers then turned their attention back to the alley. They set a spare-parts garage on fire and then moved on to what was apparently their main objective, the office and press of The People; an English language daily paper that had strongly supported Sheik Mujib and ridiculed the army.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />Shouting in Urdu, the language of West Pakistan, the soldiers warned any persons inside ·that unless they surrendered they would be shot. There was no answer and no one emerged. The troops then fired a rocket into the building and followed this with small arms fire and machine-gun bursts. Then they set fire to the building and began smashing the press and other equipment.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />Moving farther along, they set ablaze all the shops and shacks behind the bazaar and soon the flames were climbing high above the two-story building. Then they came back down the alley toward the street, waving their hands in the air and shouting war cries.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />They were shouting "Narai' Takbir," a Moslem cry meaning "victory for God,'' and "Pakistan Zindabad!" - "Long Live Pakistan!"</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <h3> Fire Lights Sky</h3> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />In the distance, fire that looked as though it extended over at least an acre lighted the sky. Pakistani journalists in the hotel said two dormitories at the university appeared to be on fire.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />Shortly after 4 A.M. the shouting eased somewhat, but artillery rounds and machine gun bursts could be heard occasionally. Tracer bullets from a long way off flew by the hotel.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />At 4:45 A.M., another big fire blazed, in the direction of the East Pakistan Rifles headquarters.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />At 5:45, in the hazy light of dawn, six Chinese-made T-54 light tanks with soldiers riding on them rumbled into the city and began patrolling main thoroughfares.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The intermittent firing and occasional artillery bursts continued through yesterday and early today, right up to the time the newsmen were expelled.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />Helicopter flew overhead yesterday morning, apparently on reconnaissance. Four helicopters given to Pakistan by Saudi Arabia for relief work after last November's cyclone and tidal wave in East Pakistan were reported being used for the military operation in the province.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />At 7 A.M. the Dacca radio, which had been taken over by the army, announced that President Agha Mahammad Yahya Khan had arrived back in West Pakistan and would address the nation at 8.P.M.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />A West Pakistan brigadier who came into the hotel was asked by newsmen what the military operation was all about. "We've taken over, it's as simple as that," he said.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />A military vehicle with a loudspeaker went through the streets issuing a warning. People immediately went to their roofs to remove the black flags that had been one of the symbols of the noncooperation movement.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />Shortly after 8 A.M., a black 1959 Chevrolet with an armed escort of troops in jeeps and trucks pulled up in front of the hotel. This convoy was to take Zuifikar Ali Bhutto and his party to the airport to f)y bnck<br />to West Pakistan.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Mr. Bhutto, the dominant political leader of West Pakistan, opposed Sheik Mujib's demands for East Pakistan autonomy.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> It is generally accepted that his opposition, supported or engineered by the army and business establishment in West Pakistan, was what forced the crisis. Mr. Bhutto, who is aware that the Bengalis largely blame him for their present troubles, came into the lobby flanked by civilian and army bodyguards with automatic weapons. He looked frightened and brushed off all news-men's questions with, "I have no comment to make."</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /><h3> Hotel Clerk Sobs</h3> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />Just before he left the hotel, the Dacca radio said that any one who violated the curfew would be shot. It then went off the air for an hour and a half, signing off with the Pakistan national anthem sung in Urdu. One of the clerks at the hotel desk leaned on the counter, his hands clasped and shaking in front of him, his eyes brimming with tears.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />At 10 A.M. the radio announced the new martial orders that were said to be necessary because "unbridled political activity had assumed an alarming proportion beyond the normal control of the civil administration."<br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Every time newsmen in the hotel asked officers for information, they were rebuffed. All attempts to reach diplomatic missions failed. In one confrontation, a captain grew enraged at a group of newsmen<br />who had walked out the front door to talk to him. He ordered them back into the building and, to their retreating backs, he shouted, "I can handle you. If I can kill my own people, I can kill you."<br /><br />No information was available on what role was played by the East Pakistan Rifles, the Bengali paramilitary force, and the East Bengal Regiment, a heavily Bengali army unit stationed 25 miles north of Dacca.<br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The Bengali population considered these units potentially sympathetic but the army insisted that they were loyal to the Government.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <h3> Crisis reported controlled</h3> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Shoftly after noon as artillery bursts and automatic fire could be heard in the city; the Dacca radio announced: "The general situation in the province has been brought under control."</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The British Broadcasting Corporation reported at 5 P.M. Friday that Calcutta had monitored a clandestine broadcast saying that Sheik Mujib was calling on his people to carry on the fight against the "enemy forces.''</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />Shortly afterward the military Government sent word to the hotel that foreign newsmen must be ready to leave by 6:15 P.M. The newsmen packed and paid their bills, but it was 8:20, just after President Yahya's speech, before their convoy of five trucks with soldiers in front and in back, left for the airport.<br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Just before leaving, the lieutenant colonel in charge was asked by a newsmen why the foreign press had to leave. ''We want you to leave because it would be too dangerous for you," he said. "It will be too bloody." All the hotel employers and other foreigners in the hotel believed that once the newsmen left, carnage would begin.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />''This isn't going to be a hotel," said a hotel official, "It's going to be a bloody hospital."</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />At the airport, with firing going on in the distance, the newsmen's luggage was rigidly checked and some television film, particularly that of the British Broadcasting Corporation, was confiscated. </div> </div>

TOLL CALLED HIGH: Deaths Put at 10,000 - Radio Says Army is in Control

  Special to The New York Times NEW DELHI, March 27 Pakistani Governn1ont troops supported by artillery and air force jets were repor...

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ARTILLERY USED: Civilians Fired On Sections of Dacca Are Set Ablaze

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjv3sj6A6qnx1UOoDTbEtyj5IasGQp5pXyoSbb0079I8UF0KfJiiXkPAqWfqPikHZi5D7BYxutgKrMy5J39THywiRb9bqp03Kyx-cBj1Ivuy4cxYOqAYfku7gCEX9GPN9sFHjZCFw7mc/s1600/vo71w1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjv3sj6A6qnx1UOoDTbEtyj5IasGQp5pXyoSbb0079I8UF0KfJiiXkPAqWfqPikHZi5D7BYxutgKrMy5J39THywiRb9bqp03Kyx-cBj1Ivuy4cxYOqAYfku7gCEX9GPN9sFHjZCFw7mc/s640/vo71w1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td></tr> </tbody></table> <div style="text-align: justify;"> By SYDNEY R. SCHANBERG<br />special to The New York Times<br />DACCA, Pakistan, March 27 <br /><br /><b>Mr. Schanbcrg was one of 35 foreign newsmen expelled Saturday morning from East Pakistan. He cabled this dispatch from Bombay, India.</b><br /><br />The Pakistani Army is using artillery and heavy machine guns against unarmed East Pakistani civilians to crush the movement for autonomy in this province of 75 million people.<br /><br />The attack began late Thursday night without warning. West Pakistani soldiers, who predominate in the army, moved into the streets of Dacca, the provincial capital, to besiege the strongholds of the independence movement, such as the university.<br /><br />There was no way of knowing how many civilians had been killed or wounded. Neither was any information available on what was happening in the rest of the province, although there had been reports before the Dacca attack of clashes between civilians and West Pakistani soldiers in the interior.<br /><br />The firing here was at first sporadic, but by 1 A.M. yesterday it had become heavy and nearly continuous, and it remained that way for three hours. Scores of artillery bursts were seen and heard by foreign newsmen confined to the Intercontinental Hotel on threat of death.<br /><br />From the hotel, which is in North Dacca, huge fires could be seen in various parts of the city, including the university, Dacca, Khulna, Daulatpur, Chittagong and Rangpur.<br /><br />In a broadcast, Sheik Mujib was said to have denied a West Pakistani radio report that he had been arrested. "I'm free and all right," he was quoted as having said. "Comrades, go ahead with your program to achieve the goal of freedom. Do not be misguided by enemy propaganda."<br /><br />The fighting between the troops of the central Government in West Pakistan and the East Pakistanis was reported to have erupted yesterday. A proclamation of the East's independence, attributed to Sheik Mujib, was also reported then.<br /><br />Sheik Mujib has been campaigning for autonomy for East Pakistan, which his followers now call Bangla Desh - Bengali for Bengal Nation. The autonomy movement in the eastern wing of Pakistan, which is separated from the western wing by 1,000 miles of India, is based on the two sections' completely different cultures, languages and physical features as well as on the fact that the western wing has dominated the eastern since the Moslem country was carved from the Indian subcontinent in 1947.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /><h3> Assembly Postponed</h3> <br />Pakistan's President, Agha Mohanunad Yahya Khan, in a nationwide radio broadcast last night, charged Sheik Mujib and his followers with treason and outlawed the Awami League. In three weeks of strikes and other protests against the central Government, it had in effect gained control of the region from the martial-law authorities.<br /><br />The Awami League's protest had been directed against President Yahya's decision to postpone the March 3 opening of the National Assembly, which the league would have dominated to start drafting a constitution to return Pakistan to civilian rule.<br /><br />President Yahya said in his speech that he was ordering the army to restore the Government's authority to save Pakistan's integrity, President Yahya had been in Dacca for 10 days, discussing the political crisis with Sheik Mujib and political leaders from West Pakistan. He slipped out of Dacca unannounced on Thursday and flew back to West Pakistan.<br /><br />The negotiations over East Pakistan's demands for self-rule had broken down Thursday afternoon, although this was not known until the Army went into action.<br /><br />The President said that it had been his ''keenness to arrive at a peaceful solution" that kept him from taking action against Sheik Mujib "weeks<br />ago."<br /><br />For 17 days, ever since the Army killed scores of demonstrators, the Bengali population had supported Sheik Mujib in refusing to cooperate with the martial-law regime.<br /><br />In his speech, President Yahya said the Army bad been "subjected to taunts and insults of all kinds."<br /><br />"I compliment them on their great restraint and sense of discipline," he continued. "I am proud of them."<br /><br />Indian news agencies remained the major source or news from East Pakistan. After the martial-law administration imposed strict censorship on reporters in Dacca, news began to come out from many Indian towns bordering East Pakistan.<br /><br />Sheik Mujib's forces were said to have effectively obstructed the movement of Pakistani troops by blowing up bridges and railroads; even in normal times, East Pakistan; crisscrossed by many rivers. is difficult terrain in which to move fast. Central Pakistani forces were also said to be handicapped by inadequate stocks of gasoline. The supplies must be brought in by air from West Pakistan.<br /><br /><h3> Reports of More Troops</h3> <br />News reports quoting East Pakistani sources said that West Pakistan was flying more troops into Dacca's airport to reinforce the 70,000 men already in the East. Meanwhile new martial-law regulations were broadcast to warn people against putting up barricades on roads and on airport runways.<br /><br />According to one report of the fighting, Pakistani Government troops were forced to withdraw with heavy casualties after attacking a center of the East Pakistan Rifles in Khulna.<br /><br />In Daulatpur, near Khulna, west Pakistani troops were reported to have fired into a crowd, killing 90 civilians. Reports also said that West Pakistani soldiers were shelling and burning houses and factories as Awami League volunteers poured into towns from their villages and attacked the troops.</div> </div>

ARTILLERY USED: Civilians Fired On Sections of Dacca Are Set Ablaze

  By SYDNEY R. SCHANBERG special to The New York Times DACCA, Pakistan, March 27 Mr. Schanbcrg was one of 35 foreign newsmen expelled ...

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Army Expels 35 Foreign Newsmen From Pakistan

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjv3sj6A6qnx1UOoDTbEtyj5IasGQp5pXyoSbb0079I8UF0KfJiiXkPAqWfqPikHZi5D7BYxutgKrMy5J39THywiRb9bqp03Kyx-cBj1Ivuy4cxYOqAYfku7gCEX9GPN9sFHjZCFw7mc/s1600/vo71w1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjv3sj6A6qnx1UOoDTbEtyj5IasGQp5pXyoSbb0079I8UF0KfJiiXkPAqWfqPikHZi5D7BYxutgKrMy5J39THywiRb9bqp03Kyx-cBj1Ivuy4cxYOqAYfku7gCEX9GPN9sFHjZCFw7mc/s640/vo71w1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td></tr> </tbody></table> <div style="text-align: justify;"> From GRACE LICHTENSTEIN<br />The New York Times, March 27, 1971<br /><br />Military authorities expelled 35 foreign newsmen from East Pakistan yesterday after confining them to a hotel In Dacca for more than 48 hours.<br /><br />Soldiers of the Pakistani Army threatened to shoot the newsmen if they left the Intercontinental Hotel in North Dacca, from which they could<br />see troops firing on unarmed civilians who supported the East Pakistani rebels.<br /><br />Before they were put on a plane to Karachi, the newsmen, including The New York Times correspondent, Sydney H. Schanberg, were searched and their notes, films and files were confiscated.<br /><br />They represented newspapers and other news media in the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Japan and Russia.<br /><br />While in Dacca, the newsmen were prevented from filing any dispatches or contacting diplomatic missions.<br /><br />Correspondents for The Associated Press and Reuters apparently were not at the hotel when the other newsmen were rounded up. Offices or the two news services in New York said that they had not heard from<br />their men in Dacca.<br /><br />Mr. Schanberg reported that when the lieutenant colonel in charge of the area around the hotel was asked why the foreign press had to leave, he replied: ''We don't have to explain. This is our country."<br /><br />Then as he turned away, smiling contemptuously, he added: "we want you to leave because it would be too dangerous for you. It will be too<br />bloody.''<br /><br />A. M. Rosenthal, managing editor of The Times, protested the treatment of Mr. Schanberg and the others in a telegram to the Pakistani Government.<br /><br />The telegram said:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"> "Stunned by unwarranted and unprecedented expulsion of New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg and more than 30 other foreign correspondents from Dacca. Contrary to all principles of international press freedom, Mr. Schanberg and others were confined to the Intercontinental Hotel in Dacca under threat that they would be shot if they left the building in performance or their journalistic duties."</blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "They were subsequently expelled from the country after confiscation of their papers and film. Can only believe that this must have been error on part of military authorities. Trust that your Governn1cnt will rectify this situation immediately."</blockquote> The plane carrying the expelled newsmen from Dacca stopped to refuel at Colombo, Ceylon, where the correspondents for The Times, the Washington Star, Newsweek and The Baltimore Sun were able to telephone a pooled dispatch. With the expulsion of the foreign press, the main source of news on East Pakistan was the Press Trust of India, a<br />group of Indian news agencies. Pakistan, protesting what it charged was India's "interference" in her internal affairs, asserted that the Indian news reports were exaggerated and "designed to malign Pakistan."</div> </div>

Army Expels 35 Foreign Newsmen From Pakistan

  From GRACE LICHTENSTEIN The New York Times, March 27, 1971 Military authorities expelled 35 foreign newsmen from East Pakistan yeste...

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Dacca breaks with Pakistan

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjv3sj6A6qnx1UOoDTbEtyj5IasGQp5pXyoSbb0079I8UF0KfJiiXkPAqWfqPikHZi5D7BYxutgKrMy5J39THywiRb9bqp03Kyx-cBj1Ivuy4cxYOqAYfku7gCEX9GPN9sFHjZCFw7mc/s1600/vo71w1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLjv3sj6A6qnx1UOoDTbEtyj5IasGQp5pXyoSbb0079I8UF0KfJiiXkPAqWfqPikHZi5D7BYxutgKrMy5J39THywiRb9bqp03Kyx-cBj1Ivuy4cxYOqAYfku7gCEX9GPN9sFHjZCFw7mc/s640/vo71w1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr> </tbody></table> <div style="text-align: justify;"> From Australian Associated Press<br /> The Age (Australia), March 27, 1971<br /> <br /> <h3> DACCA, March 26: East Pakistan today declared itself independent of the central Government in Karachi.</h3> <br /> The declaration followed a broadcast by President Yahya Khan outlawing East Pakistan's dominant political party, the Awami League, and accusing its leader, Sheik Mujibur Rahman, of treason.<br /> <br /> Indian radio monitors reported that Sheik Mujib made the independence proclamation from a radio station believed captured by his supporters from army authorities.<br /> <br /> The radio station called itself "Swadhin Bangia Betar Kendra (Free Bengal Radio Station)".<br /> <br /> Earlier, the Pakistan army had taken control in the east and banned all political activity in the province.<br /> <br /> Political activity was also banned in West Pakistan.<br /> <br /> Within hours, fierce street fighting, with heavy casualties, was reported in Dacca, capital of the eastern wing.<br /> <br /> The big clamp down by the West Pakistan dominated army came less than 24 hours after. Dacca Radio had announced that President Yahya had agreed in principle to the four major demands of Sheik Mujibur Rahman's Awami League, the all-powerful eastern political party seeking autonomy for East Pakistan.<br /> <br /> These demands included the lifting of martia1 law, the return of all troops to barracks and the transfer of power to the elected representatives.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Central Government troops, led mainly by West Pakistani officers, clamped a curfew throughout the East this morning and were given orders to shoot violators on sight.<br /> <br /> Troop reinforcements were reported pouring into the eastern wing by air and sea following bitter clashes between the military and civilians yesterday.<br /> <br /> Pakistan Radio reported that workers who had been refusing to report for duty as part of a 24-day long paign had been ordered to return to their jobs within 24 hours or face court martial.<br /> <br /> According to the United News of India, quoting "authentic sources" across the India Pakistan border, heavy fighting broke out today in several places in East Pakistan, the worst in Dacca.<br /> <br /> <h3> Yahya's army clamps down on Dacca</h3> <br /> The army took over Dacca Radio and all press, radio and television were placed under censorship.<br /> <br /> Educational institutions and banks were ordered closed indefinitely and bank accounts were frozen.<br /> <br /> Wireless monitors in Calcutta said Sheik Mujib, in a special message, appealed to East Pakistanis "to resist the enemy forces at all costs." <br /> <br /> The monitors said the message was believed to have originated from a wireless transmission in either the port city of Chittagong or Chalna.<br /> <br /> The message quoted Sheik Mujib as saying:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "Pakistani armed forces suddenly attacked the East Pakistan Rifles base at Bilkhana and Rajarbagh, at zero hours today, March 26, killing a lot of unarmed people.</blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "Bitter fighting is going on with the EPR in Dacca and the police force. The people are fighting the enemy gallantly for the cause of the freedom of Bangla Desh (Bengali nation).</blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "Every section of the people of Bangla Desh must resist the enemy forces at all costs in every comer of Bangla Desh."</blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> "May Allah bless you and help you in the struggle for freedom from the enemy."</blockquote> The Press Trust of India, quoting a '"highly reliable source," said today that six shiploads of troops had landed at Chittagong and Chalna and were on their way to three major towns in East Pakistan.<br /> <br /> Troops were also landed at Dacca by air.<br /> <h3> </h3> <h3> Over China</h3> <br /> The report said the troops landing at Dacca appeared to have flown via China and Burma<br /> <br /> All Bengalis in the East Bengal Regiment, East Pakistan Rifles, the armed reserve Police and the civil police had pledged loyalty to Sheik Mujib, the report said.<br /> <br /> According to the press trust of India, fighting had started between West and East Pakistan forces in what amounted to civil war.<br /> <br /> Students have raided arms shops in Dacca and Chittagong and carried away weapons and ammunition.<br /> <br /> All citizens possessing arms have been asked to surrender them immediately, and the army has been authorised to enter and search all buildings.</div> </div>

Dacca breaks with Pakistan

From Australian Associated Press The Age (Australia), March 27, 1971 DACCA, March 26: East Pakistan today declared itself independ...

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