wpb3f3b37f.gif
wp4b4a8408.png
wp4b4a8408.png

The Daily

Morning News

25 SEPTEMBER 1971

News headlines and details from the Daily Morning News.

News Headlines:

Other Headlines:

  • New investment schedule for fourth plan announced
  • Yahya may speak on constitution on Sept. 28 —Amin
  • Mujib was not discussed, says Nurul Amin
  • Top priority to flood control
  • Qayyum refutes Mufti Mahmud's allegations
  • Yahya thanked for appointment of Civil Governor
  • House hails Yahya's action
  • Red Cross sends relief materials to Bhola
  • Rs. 13.50 Cr. colleted as land revenue during last financial year
  • Minister's call to preserve Islamic ideology
  • E. Pak crisis a link in series of Indian plots

 

Gnat squadron in Calcutta airport. 5 Indian divisions deployed along East Pakistan borders.

London. Sept. 24: Travellers reaching London from Calcutta disclosed today that India has ordered "state of alert" in and around Calcutta airport and the town.

They said "military activities involving air and ground forces which can be seen at Calcutta Airport indicate that the alert has been ordered by Indian authorities."

They said that one Gnat fighter squadron of IAF could be seen stationed on one side of the air field at Calcutta where earlier this week a ring of radar controlled anti-aircraft guns were set-up.

The troop's movement in the border areas running up to the frontier with East Pakistan had been much in evidence and it was estimated that India had deployed five divisions on the East Pakistan border.

Because of these war preparations visits to these zones had been totally banned and journalists and foreign visitors, including diplomats, had been refused permits to visit the border areas in the past weeks.

It may be recalled in the past weeks India had moved some 15 divisions on western front and two air combat air-craft squadrons plus two army division had been moved on Kashmir front. On Sino-Indian front India had deployed ten divisions since the beginning of September.

Indian agents mine US ship at Chalna

An official spokesman disclosed in Dacca yesterday that acts of sabotage by Indian infiltrators assumed a new dimension when a foreign ship carrying foodgrains was  made a target, reports APP.

An American ship USS lightning which carrying foodgrains, was recently damaged at Chalna anchorage by a limpid-mine. The ship was carrying foodgrains for the relief of the affected people in East Pakistan.

9- Member PPP team to tour East Pakistan

Quetta, Sept. 24 (APP): The Central Committee of Pakistan Peoples Party which resumed its meeting this morning under the presidentship of its Chairman Mr. A.A. Bhutto has appointed nine member committee to undertake a tour of East Pakistan in connection with party's decision to contest the bye-elections to the National and Provincial Assemblies.

This was stated by Maulana Kausar Niazi, Information Secretary of PPP.

The committee is headed by the Vice President of the party, Mian Mahmood Ali Qasuri and has on it Dr. Mubbashir Hasan, Maulana Kausar Niazi, Mr. Miraj Halid, Mr. Miraj Mohammad Khan, Mr. Abdul Hafiz Kardar, Malik Mohammad Akhtar, Mr. Tariq Aziz and Mr. Kamal Afroz as its members.

The committee, will leave for Dacca on October 10 to tour East Pakistan for 15 days.

They will meet cross section of the people and study the situation to ascertain for how many vacant Assembly seats the Peoples Party should put up candidates.

It may be recalled here that the Central Committee had appointed in its yesterday's meeting a nine member Sub-Committee headed by party Secretary General Mr. J.A. Rahim to draw out a plan contesting bye-elections in East Pakistan.

The Sub-Committee, which met late last night had been asked to submit its report in today's session of the Central Committee. 

Mahmud Ali calls on Malik, hails statement on East Pak.

United Nations, Sept. 24 (APP): The leader of Pakistan delegation, Mr. Mahmud Ali yesterday said a courtesy call on the new President of UN General Assembly, Dr. Adam Malik.

Dr. Malik was elected to the post on Tuesday and at his first press conference as President of the General Assembly Wednesday he declared that East Pakistan question was Pakistan's internal matter.

Officials said the Pakistan delegation leader congratulated Dr. Malik on his election.

Mr. Mahmud Ali later told APP he had expressed gratitude for the strong statement Dr. Malik made about non-interference in Pakistan's domestic affairs.

The Pakistan delegation leader said he told Dr. Malik that the statement if accepted by India would "minimise the transgressions" in which that country otherwise might engage.

As far as Pakistan is concerned the situation is congenial to the return of displaced persons. It is the desire of both the Government and the people of Pakistan that the displaced persons should return to their homes the Government is prepared to provide all necessary facilities for that purpose.

He added, "It remains for all friendly countries to prevail and New Delhi to go likewise. Instead of creating obstructions India should facilitate the DPs' return."

Mr. Mahmud Ali said Pakistan was prepared to fully implement Secretary General U Thant's proposals for the United Nations observers on both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border which India had rejected.

Hundreds  of DP camps ; inundated in West Bengal

Calcutta, Sept. 24 (UPI): A small river gone berserk in Bengal is threatening hundreds of East Pakistani refugee camps and to bring a calamity worse than the recent Cholera epidemic. 

The swollen Incchmati (Wishing) River which flows along the border of East Pakistan and West Bengal has inundated vast areas in the Bongaon sub-division cohereing most of the refugees have converged.

According to Shanti Kumar Bhattacherjee, The Sub-divisional Officer, associated with rescue and relief operations, more than 700,000 refugees were still marooned and no exact figures on the loss of life in the current monsoon drenching were available because of disrupted communications, but district authorities estimates indicated at least 250 persons have so far died in the floods.

Bhattacherjee said he thinks that the current flood and not that recent outbreak of Cholera which killed several thousand refugees may be the worst calamity to refugees.

He expressed fears the floods could upset rehabilitation plans for the refugees.

We cannot rule out a fresh out break of epidemics, he said and added the rate of cholera victims was already showing a significant increase and the crucial phase would begin only when the spating river and its tributaries recede.

Bhattacharjee said one field hospital showed there was at least a 50 per cent increase in cholera cases.

Of the 3,370 villages and hundreds of camps in the district 283 villages and about an equal number of the camps were sub-merged.

He said food supplies to the affected areas have been completely disrupted since the main road, the only links between Calcutta and the Bongaon evacuees were under water.

Most of the straw thatched bamboo huts which until recently housed most of the refugees on both sides of the Bongaon road have either been washed away in the flood or deserts. Occasionally a refugee family or two can be seen clinging to frail bamboo structures where the water is not so deep.

The head of the one refugee family told UPI, "we have had no food for the last five days and my wife is nursing three sick children his half naked wife appeared sick, cooking the state potato peels a the same time doing soggy rags and consoling a whimping baby.

There was also lack of drinking water had to be brought on makeshift rafts of banana and the tree trunks to the marooned refugees in plastic buckets most of them containing muddy water from Bongaon.

Some of the residential localities appeared like Venice. Some had already collapsed. Many towns in the flooded districts were completely deserted. Army boats and motor launches have already evacuated large number of camps and villages but even the safer sites where the flood victims have been temporarily lodged do not appear safe enough.

Profile of Bengal