YAHYA CALLS ON U.N. TO SEND OBSERVERS

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32778, 1 December 1971, Page 17

YAHYA CALLS ON U.N. TO SEND OBSERVERS

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright; DACCA, Nov. 30. President Yahya Khan of Pakistan appealed tor United Nations observers along East Pakistan’s battle-scarred border with India and sought to reconcile warring political factions at home, the Associated Press reported today.

In East Pakistan, Bengali villagers said that the Pakistan Army had obliterated several villages on the outskirts of Dacca—the provincial capital—apparently to clear a deep defence perimeter against East Pakistani rebels. The villagers said that 300 people were killed.

‘New fronts’

The East Pakistan military command in Dacca said last night that India had expanded hostilities, opened new fronts and thrown “more and more troops” into action.

“The situation is not deteriorating,” a spokesman said, “but fighting is expanding gradually.” The Indian Army said that some of its units were fighting inside East Pakistan in a self-defence operation. But Pakistan said that Indian forces were engaged on four fronts in the province and had taken over a key town in the western sector.

India says that most of the fighting is being done by East Pakistani rebels who have tried to wrest control of the province from the central Government since President Yahya put down a secessionist movement early this year, sending millions of refugees fleeing to India. A statement from the military Government issued in Rawalpindi said that President Yahya asked in a message sent on Sunday to the United Nations Secre-tary-General (U Thant) that observers be stationed on the East Pakistan side of the

border in the area where both sides reported heavy fighting. Pakistan previously had sought observers on both sides of the frontier, similar to the arrangement for the last 22 years along the cease-fire line between West Pakistan and Indian-con-trolled Kashmir. Leaders meet President Yahya met on Sunday with Mr Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, aged 44, and yesterday with Mr Nurul Amin, aged 77. The two political rivals are the principal leaders in East Pakistan since the powerful Awami League was outlawed and its leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, imprisoned.

Informed sources said that President Yahya sought an agreement from them on a coalition government. But Mr Amin said that there was no move to form a civilian national government and added: “The people’s patience has reached the limit.” N.Z.P.A.-Reuter reported from New York that U Thant is expected to have consultations with members of the Security Council on President Yahya’s request. Diplomatic sources said that he would concentrate on

consulting the five Great Powers, but unless Pakistan or India asked formally for the convening of the council, it was unlikely it would be called into session.

If the Secretary-General were to attempt to send observers without a formal request by the council, the Soviet Union would be expected to object in deference to India’s expected opposition. The Western Powers and China are believed sympathetic to the Pakistan request.

An Associated Press photographer, Michel Laurent, visited three of the villages near Dacca and said that most of the flimsy thatch and bamboo houses had been burned. He said that the Army blocked attempts to visit other villages that were reported destroyed. A few villagers remaining told Laurent that troops razed the houses in the predominantly Hindu settlements with grenades. Pakistan is mostly Moslem. Villagers said that those not killed in the blasts were cut down by gunfire or trapped in burning houses. The Pakistan Army reported in Rawalpindi that Indian troops were pushed back with heavy casualties from a drive against the major airport town of Jessore. A spokesman said that the Indians shelled the centre of the town with Soviet-made long-range guns. Casualties in clashes along the border were given as 300 to 400 Indians killed and four Pakistani soldiers dead.

The version given out in New Delhi said that the Indian self-defence force was operating “two to three miles” inside East Pakistan, in the northern sector around Balurghat. An Indian spokesman said that the Pakistanis had fired

into India’s side of the border and that the troops were attempting to knock out a threat.