Shamsuddoza Sajen

The Soviet Union and India signed a treaty of peace, friendship and nonaggression today. The essence of the treaty was its provision that in the event of attack or the threat of attack there would be immediate mutual consultations.

Pakistan President Yahya Khan said that he would like British mediation between India and Pakistan. “But,” Yahya continued, “I do not want it if she [Britian] remains much less than neutral.”

India Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in a letter to US President Richard Nixon, expressed her dissatisfaction over the initiative of deploying UN observers in India and Pakistan.

About 500 Indian MPs from all parties, except the Muslim League, addressed a memorandum to UN Secretary General U Thant urging him to save the life of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

The Pakistan government today published a white paper containing explanation and description of the actions taken by the military government since the night of 25 March 1971.

Fourteen Pakistani diplomats -- all of Bengalee origin -- resigned today from their embassy in the US or from the mission to the United Nations in protest of what they called “crimes

Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra today declared that the government and the people of Bangladesh would treat UN observers as collaborators of the Pakistani junta.

Pakistan President Yahya Khan today admitted the growing strength of the freedom fighters of Bangladesh and said “their challenge should be met”.

Ravi Shankar and George Harrison organised an all-star concert in New York’s Madison Square Garden today to help Bengali refugees, who had fled violence and were in India.

The United States, working behind the scenes, won the agreement of both Pakistan and the United Nations to station an international group of 153 civilian relief and rehabilitation experts in East Pakistan under United Nations sponsorship, officials said today.

India reacted sharply against UN Secretary General U Thant’s proposal which suggested posting observers in both India and East Pakistan. The Indian government considered the proposal as a design to divert the world’s attention from the real issue and depicted it as one between India and Pakistan.

The New York Times reported today, “the Pakistan’s military Government was waiting for what it fears may be a protracted guerrilla war, in East Pakistan, and Government strategists are drawing from the writings of Mao Tse-tung and other experts in their plans.”

American President Richard Nixon, his security adviser Henry Kissinger and the US Ambassador to Pakistan Joseph Farland held a discussion today on issues surrounding Bangladesh War.

In a telephone conversion with American president Nixon, his security adviser Kissinger stated, “I will make it clear with the Indians that there isn’t going to be a war. …The problem—no military aid to Pakistan, they are not even getting economic aid. If anything will tempt the Indians to attack, it will be the complete helplessness of Pakistan.”

Handbills prepared by Bangalee guerrillas were distributed in Dhaka asking the population to begin evacuation of the city in preparation for a campaign against the Pakistan Army, reported The New York Times.

East Pakistan Governor Lt Gen Tikka Khan today admitted that a railway bridge in Cumilla had been blown up by the Mukti Fouj recently.

Foreigners in Dhaka were warned this week to avoid Chinese restaurants, which apparently became the latest targets for Bangladeshi guerillas.

KM Shehabuddin, diplomatic representative of Bangladesh, described Pakistan President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan’s threat of declaring war against India as a “desperate and heinous attempt to hide his shame and hoodwink the world opinion by implicating India”.

Pakistan President Yahya Khan in an interview published in The Financial Times today said Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman would be put on trial “very soon”.

All the members of the Bangladesh mission interviewed by the Swiss representative Dr Bonard in Calcutta today refused to be repatriated to Pakistan and reaffirmed their allegiance to the Bangladesh government.